A PART OF GOLF

Representatives from our community supporters, First Tee Colorado chapters, Palmer Scholarship Foundation, and Evans Scholars will be on-site to provide more information about youth golf programs, jobs in golf, and scholarship opportunities for students working in golf-related jobs.

Experience will open daily

Sunday, August 20

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Golf is a game of integrity. The rules are particular and detailed, rules that Babe memorized. She said she would “go to bed with the golf rule book” and read it through “twenty-five times, line by line.” While knowing the rules was vital, following them was integral to Babe’s character. One story describes when she accidentally played the wrong ball from the rough during a tournament, told the marshall her mistake, and was disqualified from the game she was on track to win. Integrity is a quality that Babe lived out, and golf rewards this.

Golf is a sport of finesse and decorum. Treating the other players on the course with respect, win or lose, is vital to the game, one that Babe performed perfectly. For her, “Good sportsmanship is just as important as winning… If you win through bad sportsmanship, that’s no real victory in [her] book.”

To volunteer, purchase tickets or learn more about the upcoming U.S. Amateur, please scan the QR code with your smart phone.

RD U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

AUGUST 14-20, 2023

CHERRY HILLS COUNTRY CLUB | CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, COLO. www.chcc.com/ 123 rdusam

While Babe did almost anything to win, she never compromised her character or cheerful spirit for a victory. She was beloved by the gallery for her witty remarks and hilarious jokes and beloved by the golfing community for her relentless work ethic and power with the club. With these lessons in mind, Babe Didrikson Zaharias made Colorado golf history. After marrying wrestler George Zaharias in 1938, the couple moved to Denver. While living there, she won the Broadmoor Match Play Tournament ten-and-nine, stretching her tournament winning streak to seventeen wins. Babe was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1953. Three months post-surgery, she won the National Women’s Open by twelve strokes, the second-largest margin of victory in tournament history. She died on September 27, 1956, from a cancer relapse at age 45. Despite the struggles near the end of her life, Babe’s athleticism was unbeatable, and her spirit was unbreakable.

We can’t wait to see you there!

“As far as I was concerned, there was no doubt about my coming back again,” she wrote in her autobiography. “With the love and support of the many friends I have made, how could I miss?”

To volunteer, purchase tickets or learn more about the upcoming U.S. Amateur, please scan the QR code with your smart phone. We can’t wait to see you there!

123RD U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

AUGUST 14-20, 2023 the sport by making it fun. Still, she sometimes worries about the future of the sport and says investing in the next generation is important. “Those of us that play, we need to be responsible to try and find one more person to play younger than us,” she says.

CHERRY HILLS COUNTRY CLUB | CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, COLO.

COLORADO GOLF CLUB | PARKER, COLO.

To volunteer, purchase tickets or learn more about the upcoming U.S. Amateur, please scan the QR code with your smart phone.

We can’t wait to see you there!

The Next Generation

Young golfers are already making their mark across the state and Plain says girls today are growing up “in a very different environment.”

Sisters Elle and Brenna Higgins play together on the Valor Christian Girls Golf Team. The senior and sophomore, respectively, are top players on the team that took home the 2022 and 2023 state championships. Brenna, a sophomore, was the medalist in this year’s championship tournament.

“Golf is really a growing sport and there’s a lot more people competing at the higher level, so the competition is definitely becoming more select,” Brenna Higgins says.

Hadley Ashton, now 15 years old, became the youngest girls’ winner of the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado’s Tour Championship at age 14 and has been playing since she was 6 years old. She’s motivated to play because she says she wants to be the best in the state and compete on a national level. And as far as Ashton can tell, she said, the barriers for women in golf seem to exist across most sports.

“I think women just need to get the acknowledgement that we deserve,” Ashton says. “More talk about it, more people realizing how hard it is for women and how hard we work.”

Elle Higgins will golf on the University of Montana’s team next year and Brenna Higgins and Ashton both have their sights set on playing in college and beyond.

“There’s a lot of careers in golf which I feel like maybe that’s something I would want to do — maybe be an interviewer or go film golf tournaments or post round interviews or even working kids tournaments — I feel like that would be a lot of fun,” Brenna Higgins says.

A Lifetime Sport

For many women, the benefits of golf go far beyond the game itself.

“I love that you can do it with anyone,” Elle Higgins says. “It’s not something like soccer that you just kind of grow out of. It’s there your whole life.”

Golf can be a vehicle for networking and building businesses that many women might be missing out on, Kane says.

Ward — a former D1 basketball player who discovered her love for golf later in life after realizing she wouldn’t be able to play basketball forever — says she couldn’t imagine her life without golf or the friendships that leagues like City Chicks have provided.

“We all have these connections so that you will never be alone… Even when it’s raining, we all get together and have breakfast,” she says. “That’s what my hope is — that everyone would find a place for themselves where they have a growing group that will never limit themselves and exclude people and you’ll never feel alone.”

Nancy Syms of Colorado Springs, a member of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, learned the game as a girl. For her playing was easy: there were few other sports open to girls, and she had access to a course where she grew up in Indiana.

It was later, as she competed as a high-ranking amateur, when things became challenging. The cost of the sport was high, pros didn’t make that much money, and keeping her amateur status meant she couldn’t accept so much as a free golf ball.

“It certainly was a struggle, back when I was playing, but it was worth it. And it turned out to be very, very much worth it — what I’ve accomplished with it. But I had to spend my money in order to play and be able to get out there, pay an entry fee and travel time and all that was on me.”

But her journey has been amazing. She played on three Curtis Cup teams – the Curtis Cup is played every other year and pits the best amateurs from the U.S. against a team from Great Britain and Ireland. Her international playing career culminated in 1975 when she won the British Women’s Amateur Championship, played on the Old Course at St. Andrews, with her husband as her caddy.

Stepping into such a challenging sport can be daunting, Kane says.

“Nobody would go downhill skiing, strap on a pair of skis and hop on the lift and expect to try to figure out on the way down,” she says. “Same is true with golf. Take a lesson... find a clinic and start with a coach,” she says.

Elle Higgins encourages other girls to keep an open mind about whether the game is for them.

“Be patient, because golf is hard,” she says. “And you’re not gonna get it on the very first try. It takes a minute. And so I would say just be patient and stick with it.”