CHRIS LANG liamsburg National . Walsh is the reigning VSGA Women ’ s Amateur champion .
VG : Was teaching something you wanted to do ? Phillips : I never really knew what I wanted to do . I was going to do a business major because that ’ s what my father did . I played on the golf team there and quickly found that my passion wasn ’ t necessarily the economics and accounting classes . It was the sports management classes , running my own facility or being in sports somehow . I did my internship to graduate from JMU , got a teaching job and I fell in love with it . I worked for a PGA professional ( in Maryland ) who taught me how to start and
Not everyone is going to play at a college level or a low amateur but if they can enjoy the game and learn to love the game , I think that ’ s the bottom line .
finish a lesson , and I had to do the studying on my own about learning the swing . I just took off from there .
VG : What ’ s your first memory of holding a club ? Phillips : I grew up at Stonehenge Country Club and my brothers went and my dad went and I wanted to do what they were doing . The junior golf program there , hitting out of bunkers , having fun making a mess in the sand . There were five girls who played and all the rest were guys . [ The girls ] became good friends . My best friend was Debbie Daniels ( family owns Mill Quarter ). We lived across the street from each other , and we would go play . It wasn ’ t that competitive really . I wasn ’ t a great junior golfer . I got better because I worked at it , but it was more about the social aspect and having fun being out there .
vsga . org J ULY / A UGUST 2021 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 23