... and Still Growing
—Kandi Kessler-Comer (1978, 1980)
ment set for Broad Bay Country Club in
Virginia Beach on July 29-30.
“It was a fun start. I set the entry fee
at $5, typed the entry form and mailed
it to every club, pro shop and ladies golf
association. Some of the girls had never
played nine holes,” Unger said.
Until the end of the 1970s, the VSGA’s
entire junior girls’ program was the one
two-day event in the middle of the summer.
“The Women’s Division created a board
position to oversee girls’ golf, and the
system was launched,” Unger said. “After
my involvement, Meg Gilmer, Virginia’s
best advocate for girls, expanded the
program. Virginia girls’ golf has exploded
in quantity and quality. It just needed to
get started.”
Even though the tournament is turn-
ing 50, VSGA Junior Golf Manager Kent
BY THE NUMBERS
2
NUMBER OF
PLAYERS TO WIN
VSGA JUNIOR
GIRLS’ AND
VSGA WOMEN’S
AMATEUR IN
THE SAME YEAR
Kandi Kessler Comer (1980);
Amanda Steinhagen (2010)
1
24
PAIR OF SISTERS WHO HAVE WON
MULTIPLE TITLES
Left: Amanda Hollandsworth (2)
Right: Jessica Hollandsworth Zimmerman (3)
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 9
3
Holubar thinks of it as a fairly young tour-
nament that has a lot of growth potential
for girls who are trying to figure out where
they are within their own games and those
girls ready to make the next step into more
competitive tournaments.
“I think it should be a staple on every
junior girl’s schedule,” Holubar says.
“Junior girls’ golf is definitely growing.
We have more girls playing and being
interested in the game each year (espe-
cially through the VSGA’s Junior Golf Cir-
cuit), but the number can always go up.”
Holubar looks at the Junior Girls’ Cham-
pionship as a stepping stone.
“Kandi (Kessler-Comer) won the
Junior Girls’ and Women’s Amateur in
the same year. There is no reason why one
of the top girls right now couldn’t hold
the Junior Girls’, Women’s Stroke Play
and Women’s Amateur at the same time.”
Kessler-Comer is one of four Virginia
females to win a VSGA Junior Girls’,
Women’s Stroke Play and Women’s Ama-
2
NUMBER OF
PLAYERS
TO WIN BY
POSTING TWO
ROUNDS IN
THE 60’S
Jessica Hollandsworth Zimmer-
man (66-68-134, 2007); Victoria
Tip-Aucha (69-67-136, 2017)
NUMBER OF PLAYERS TO WIN VSGA JUNIOR GIRLS’
THREE TIMES
Susan Slaughter-Rardin (1985-87, runner-up in 1984);
Lee Shirley Playford (1990-92, runner-up in 1993);
Jessica Hollandsworth Zimmerman (2005, 2007-08).
vsga.org
Her father’s Navy career took the fam-
ily to Norfolk when she was 16, and as she
describes it today, her golf life “came to a
screeching halt.”
“My summers were so full of golf at all
levels [living in Arlington]…I don’t think my
parents realized when we moved to Norfolk
that that would disappear. It didn’t dawn on
me that junior girls’ golf wasn’t everywhere
[in Virginia],” said King, now Unger, who
entered the Virginia Golf Hall of Fame in
the Class of 2018. “It was a motivator for
me. No competition for me as a 16-year-old.
It took me eight years to get into position
where I could help correct that.”
She set the wheels in motion as a mem-
ber of the Virginia State Golf Association
Women’s Division Board in 1969 and the
first VSGA Junior Girls’ Championship
was played in 1970 at Waynesboro Coun-
try Club with 18 girls in the field. Pame-
la Clark of Alexandria won the inau-
gural event and repeated as champion
in 1971.
This year, the VSGA Junior Girls’
Championship celebrates its 50th anni-
versary. “Golden Anniversary” will be the
theme leading up to the 36-hole tourna-
“Missing one tournament out of the huge list they have
today would not hurt a player in order to win their state
championship. For me, it was my state, and it had to
be a huge tournament for me to skip it. I always say
you never forget your roots, and that is why I am
so excited to grow the game in Virginia.”