Jennifer Kupcho of Westminster earned CWGA Player of the Year honors in 2014, and she gave the association no reason to unseat her this year.
Kupcho, now a freshman at Wake Forest, this fall became the fifth person to claim the CWGA Player of the Year award for two consecutive years, joining McKenzie Dyslin (2001-02), Kelly Schaub (2005-06), Kim Eaton (2009-10) and Somin Lee (2011-12).
The CWGA started selecting players of the year in 1995.
In choosing Kupcho (left), the CWGA is honoring not only its best, but one of the top women amateurs in the world. Kupcho is 71st in the most recent women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings. And only a couple of months into her freshman season, she’s also ranked among the top 100 women’s college golfers in the country.
Kupcho is one of three golfers who were recently selected for CWGA player of the year honors. Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Eaton was selected senior player of the year for the sixth time in the last seven years (she didn’t compete in CWGA championships in 2014). And Mary Weinstein, a Regis Jesuit High School senior who recently signed a letter of intent with Regis University, was chosen junior player of the year.
Kupcho, a graduate of Jefferson Academy, landed a CWGA player of the year honor for the fifth time, having earned the junior award in 2012, ’13 and ’14.
The 18-year-old had won tournaments by eye-opening margins in previous years, but outdid herself in 2015. She claimed the CWGA Stroke Play Championship by a remarkable 21 shots at Pinehurst Country Club, where she posted a 16-under-par 200 total for three rounds (68-65-67).
And a year after winning the 4A girls state high school title by 14 shots, she prevailed by 10 in 2015.
“It’s real exciting to be playing as well as I am,” Kupcho said at the CWGA Stroke Play. “To just be one of the best players in Colorado is cool.”
But Kupcho’s talents know no state boundaries. After qualifying for her second U.S. Women’s Amateur, she advanced to the final 16 in match play, losing to Hannah O’Sullivan, who went on to win the national championship.
Kupcho also made it to the round of 16 at the Women’s Western National Amateur Championship, the round of 32 at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball (with Gillian Vance), and finished third at the Big “I” National Championship after winning the state title.
In her first four college tournaments, Kupcho posted an impressive three top-10 finishes as a Wake Forest freshman. She leads the Demon Deacons in stroke average (73.25).
Elsewhere, Kupcho was a semifinalist in the 100th CWGA Match Play and finished third among the girls in the inaugural AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior. And she was the Sportswomen of Colorado’s golf honoree in 2015.
As for Eaton (left), soon she might need a separate trophy case for all the CWGA player of the year trophies she’s won. This not only makes her sixth senior player of the year honor since the Greeley native turned 50 in 2009, but she’s been the overall POY four times since 2004. That’s in addition to being the Arizona Women’s Golf Association senior player of the year four times.
This year, she “unretired” from CWGA championship play and finished runner-up to Jill Gaschler in the Senior Stroke Play. But Eaton, now a full-time resident of Arizona, won the AWGA State Amateur Seniors Championship in October, giving her 16 state senior titles when factoring in stroke-play and match-play events in Colorado (6), Arizona (9) and California (1).
Eaton, a three-time U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur quarterfinalist, made match play again in that event this year, but lost in the round of 64 to eventual national champion Karen Garcia of Cool, Calif., after placing 10th in the stroke-play portion of the tournament.
Weinstein (left) had a breakout year in 2015, mainly in the junior ranks, though she did finish a distant second to Kupcho in the CWGA Stroke Play. She won both the CWGA Junior Stroke Play and the CJGA Junior Series Championship, and was runner-up in the CJGA Tournament of Champions.
A new member of the Hale Irwin Elite Player Program at CommonGround Golf Course, Weinstein placed 15th in the prestigious IMG Academy Junior World Golf Championships, marking the best finish ever by a Coloradan in the girls 15-17 age group there. The Highlands Ranch resident also represented Colorado at the USGA Women’s State Team Championship and at the Girls Junior Americas Cup. Overall, she won four CJGA tournaments in 2015.
