‘A Really Special Week’
Amateur Lauren Greenlief
tested her mettle against
the LPGA’s best at Kingsmill
L
auren Greenlief emerged from
the scoring tent between the
ninth green and the practice
putting green after signing
for a second-round 75 at the
Kingsmill Championship. Immediately,
she was greeted by a young girl, hair pulled
tight into a ponytail tucked through the
opening at the back of a ball cap. As she
gave the girl an autograph, she couldn’t
help from having flashbacks.
She was that girl at one point. Greenlief
grew up in Virginia, and she tagged along
with her parents to the Williamsburg resort
to watch her favorite pros play. Now, she was
on the other side of the ropes, happily signing
away for children eagerly seeking a chance to
collect as many signatures as possible.
“It was just a really special week,” Greenlief said. “There isn’t another event I’d rather make my debut in, given it’s my home
state, and all of the support I got out here.
It’s just really cool.”
Greenlief, an International Country Club
member, remains an amateur, so she won’t
be a regular in LPGA Tour events. Hours
after completing her second round, the
2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Champion
was on a plane to join partner Alex Austin
in Florida for the U.S. Women’s Four-Ball
Championship, which began the following
day. (The pair reached the semifinals before
losing to the eventual champions.) Her
amateur success helped land her a sponsor’s
exemption at Kingsmill, a win-win for both
the event and the player.
Greenlief got a chance to measure her
game against some of the world’s best professionals—Alison Lee, who played for the
U.S. in the 2015 Solheim Cup, was in Greenlief’s group, as was Cheyenne Woods, Tiger’s
niece. The club got a chance to showcase
one of the Commonwealth’s best amateur
players, who drew a nice gallery of family,
26
CHRIS LANG (2)
by CHRIS LANG
friends and well-wishers wearing the blue
and orange synonymous with the University
of Virginia, Greenlief’s alma mater.
The excitement began with a phone call.
“She was out looking at houses, and I was
driving us around over in Ashburn, and she
looked me and she goes, ‘We got it,’” said
Jeff Long, Greenlief’s boyfriend. “And then
it kind of registered, and I was like, ‘OK, nice.
Let’s go do it.’ That was real cool. I looked
at her and said, ‘Who should we call first?’”
Notice the use of the word “we.” Long and
Greenlief were definitely a team at Kingsmill. Long is a caddie at Robert Trent Jones
Golf Club in Gainesville, a former mini-tour
player who regained his amateur status in
2015. Greenlief didn’t have far to look to find
someone to work the bag in Williamsburg,
and she didn’t give a second thought to hiring an outside loop for the event.
“He’s played a lot of golf with me, but this
is the first time he’s been on my bag, and it
will be the first of many this summer coming
up,” Greenlief said. “He’s a great caddie and
a great player, and he’s a good green reader.
And with him being my boyfriend, it keeps
me calm. He really knows my game better
than anybody else. It was a great asset to
have him on the bag.”
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | J U LY /A U G U ST 2 0 1 6
Above, Lauren Greenlief acknowledges the
crowd in the grandstands after sinking a
birdie putt on No. 18 in the second round.
Fellow competitor Cheyenne Woods is in the
background. Right, Greenlief walks across 18
in the shadow of Kingsmill’s iconic logo.
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