Around The Commonwealth
Makayla Grubb , 16 , won the VSGA Women ' s Amateur in her debut in the championship .
participant , on a sweltering afternoon , clinching the match by rolling home a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole .
“ It ’ s really huge ,” Grubb said . “ It ’ s an exciting tournament to win . I ’ ve been working really hard on my game so it ’ s good to see it finally show itself . It ’ s really exciting , especially with the amount of competition and the great players I had to beat . … It ’ s kind of surreal .” behind champion Macie Rasmussen . Grubb also finished behind eight players who would join her at the 98th VSGA Women ’ s Amateur at Cedar Point Club a few weeks later . Not considering Grubb to be among the favorites at Cedar Point was certainly forgivable .
Match play by nature is unpredictable . Grubb , a junior at Colonial Forge High School , did enough during one round of stroke-play qualifying at Cedar Point to join the 16-player championship flight , shooting a 1-over 73 to tie for 11th . Then she simply started picking off strong player after strong player and found herself hoisting the Kohler Trophy at tournament ’ s end .
Consider the caliber of player Grubb had to beat in her four matches . She opened by taking out Roanoke ’ s Kathryn Ha , who has earned a spot on the 2023 Junior Solheim Cup team . Grubb defeated two-time VSGA Women ’ s Amateur
champion Lauren Greenlief in the quarterfinals . In the semifinals , she ousted 2019 finalist Mallory Kane , the women ’ s golf coach at Old Dominion . Then she outlasted Walker , a University of Missouri sophomore and U . S . Women ’ s Amateur
State Open of Virginia Winner : Connor Burgess ( 70-67-66 — 203 ) Low amateur : Rylan Shim ( 69-68-67 — 204 ) Fun fact : Burgess was the VSGA ’ s Junior Boys ’ Golfer of the Year in 2016 .
Connor Burgess had done all he could do . He roared up the leaderboard on championship Sunday , his birdie-birdie-birdie
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“ It ’ s an exciting tournament to win . I ’ ve been working really hard on my game so it ’ s good to see it finally show itself . It ’ s really exciting , especially with the amount of competition and the great players I had to beat . … It ’ s kind of surreal .”
— Makayla Grubb
vsga . org S EPTEMBER / O CTOBER 2023 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 9