PLAYERS OF THE YEAR

Phoenix Country Club’s Mikayla Fitzpatrick garnered the Kachina as the AGA Women’s Player of the Year for 2019. Kim Eaton (below) of Apache Wells Golf Club was selected as the 2019 AGA Women’s Senior Player of the Year.

AWARDS

Fitzpatrick earns AGA Women’s POY

Eaton claims Senior title for record 7th time

Mikayla Fitzpatrick of Phoenix Country Club is the 2019 Arizona Golf Association Women’s Player of the Year.

Fitzpatrick earned points during the 2019 season by winning the AGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship at Troon North, firing a 3-over 216 (71, 73, 72). She also was the qualifying medalist and semifinalist, recording a 5-under 67 in the Women’s Match Play Championship.

Fitzpatrick attended Xavier College Preparatory in Phoenix, the girls high school golf powerhouse that has captured 36 team championships since 1974. She played under legendary coaches Sister Lynn Winsor and Tui Selvaratnam as a fouryear varsity player. Fitzpatrick was part of the Gators team that set a record low team score during the 2014 Arizona State Championship, going 9 under. During her time at Xavier, the team never lost a single match and won every state championship.

In 2015, Fitzpatrick was named the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s No. 1-ranked high school golfer and MVP after taking medalist honors on six occasions. Fitzpatrick was named the Junior Golf Association of Arizona Player of the Year in the girls division in 2014, recording 13 top-10 finishes and three wins.

Following graduation from Xavier in 2016, Fitzpatrick attended Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she graduated summa cum laude in three years with a degree in business analytics. She is currently competing in her senior year for the Musketeers and working on her MBA with a concentration in business intelligence. Fitzpatrick will graduate with an MBA in May and plans to compete in the 2020 LPGA qualifying school in August. She was named the Big East Female Golfer of the Year in 2019.

AGA PHOTO

AGA Women’s Senior POY

Kim Eaton of Apache Wells Golf Club has been named the 2019 AGA Women’s Senior Player of the Year for a record seventh time.

Eaton earned points by winning the AGA Women’s Four-Ball Championship, finishing runner-up in the Senior Women’s Match Play Championship and finishing fourth in the Senior Women’s State Amateur Championship. Nationally, Eaton qualified for the 2019 U.S. Senior Women’s Open, the 2019 U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur and the 2019 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur (as medalist), reaching the round of 64 at both the Amateur and Mid-Amateur.

Eaton describes herself as a “country club brat” who grew up as the youngest of five children in Greeley, Colo. At the age of 12, she started play golf as an alternative to swimming. Eaton learned the game by watching talented family members.

Eaton was fortunate enough to learn from one of the best mentors in women’s golf, LPGA co-founder and tour professional Shirley Spork. As one of the 13 LPGA founders, Spork starred on the LPGA more than 70 years ago and helped create the LPGA Professional Division.

Eaton is a former golf professional and Futures Tour member who played in the 1981 and 1983 U.S. Women’s Open and claimed her first national championship in 2010 at the D. Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur. In her home state of Colorado, Eaton won at the junior, open and senior levels and was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2006. Eaton joins her uncle, Larry Eaton, in that Hall of Fame.

In March 2017, Eaton participated as an amateur in the Legends Tour Walgreens Charity Classic at Grandview Golf Course in Sun City West, alongside a field of LPGA Tour players and Hall of Famers. She’s been an Arizona Women’s Golf Association Champion more than a dozen times. n

WOMEN’S GOLF

AWGA seeks donations for 2020 programs

n By Mary Pomroy

Having retired three months ago after 21 years in golf administration, my daily life has certainly changed. I’m retired and living the life of an AWGA volunteer and I’m LOVING IT! Just like my schedule, the Arizona Women’s Golf Association has changed.

The AWGA integrated its members, programs, volunteers and staff into the Arizona Golf Association last year to consolidate USGA programs under a single structure. In 2020 and beyond, we will continue to collaborate with the AGA to establish and nurture an environment in Arizona where men and women, staff and volunteers together develop, administer and grow the game.

The AWGA still is a stand-alone 501(c)3 public charity with its own volunteer board of directors, and I am proud to serve as its president in 2020. The AWGA and its board now are singularly focused on fundraising and engagement activities to support the charitable and educational aspects of golf that enhance our communities.

In 2019, the AWGA funded 11 high school girls golf teams in Arizona. It also provided funding to the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf programs in Tucson and Phoenix, the Junior Golf Association of Arizona, and the First Tee programs in Tucson and Phoenix.

Also in 2019, the AWGA helped sponsor the Arizona team to the Junior Girls Americas Cup, two Arizona teams to the Mary Cave Cup Matches, the Arizona Silver Belle Championship and the PGA Junior League of Northern Arizona.

But we want to do more in 2020, including the support for nine additional high school golf teams, as well as continued support for our junior programs. We also want to able to help discover new and exciting ways to positively impact our community through golf.

You can help by buying your groceries at Fry’s Food Stores. Sign up on its website for the Community Rewards Program and choose the AWGA as your charity. Fry’s will donate a percentage of all your purchases to the AWGA.

Other ways you can help include participation in the Fairways & Dreams 5K Run/Walk on Sept. 19 at Longbow Golf Club; register at awga.org. Or make a tax-deductible donation online at awga.org, or mail your check to AWGA, PO Box 15055, Scottsdale, AZ 85267. One hundred percent of all donations directly support AWGA programs. n

DISCOVER

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