The timing worked out quite nicely for Kelsey Webster.
The Boulder resident, who graduated from Fairview High School a couple of months ago, had long wanted to represent Colorado in the Girls Junior Americas Cup competition. And this year, she’s getting her chance.
The 2018 event will be held in Colorado for the first time in 18 years — at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen, starting Wednesday and continuing through Friday.
Not only that, but it will be Webster’s final tournament as a junior golfer, which makes it doubly special.
“Ever since I started junior golf, I looked at the Junior Americas Cup team as a goal of mine,” Webster (left) said this week. “It’s cool to be able to finally play on the team. It being my last junior event kind of signifies that I’ve been getting better and better each year. I started golf so late, so it’s a good way to (transition to) my college career. And it’s cool to have it in our home state. We have an awesome team that definitely can put up some good numbers. I think we’ll be able to represent Colorado well this year.”
Webster will be one of four players competing for the Colorado squad this week as 18 teams from the western U.S., Canada and Mexico vie for the GJAC title. The best three scores each day from each state/city/regional squad count toward the team total. Joining Webster on Team Colorado are Lauren Lehigh of Loveland (a high school senior-to-be), Hailey Schalk of Erie (junior) and Emma Bryant of Aurora (sophomore).
Though Webster is older than her teammates and they have plenty more junior golf ahead of them, she probably has less experience at high-level junior golf than any of them. After all, it was just 2 1/2 years ago that competitive golf became a top priority for Webster, who also played basketball in high school.
That will definitely make Webster a relative newcomer to elite junior golf compared to most of the other 71 competitors in the field for this week’s GJAC at Hiwan.
“I think it’s always different for me,” Webster said. “Every round that I go out and play, I’m still learning things about myself — not just about my golf game, but emotionally on the course and making decisions where to hit the ball. I’m still definitely learning that, where the other girls have gotten experience with that when they were 13 years old. Ever since I’ve gotten more experience, every tournament I feel like I gain something and I get better.
“That’s something cool about being such a newbie to the game is that I still have a lot of places to go with my game.”
And Webster has already made big strides, to the point that she’ll be playing NCAA Division I college golf for a team that finished 19th at the NCAA Championship finals last spring — her hometown University of Colorado. Just in the last few months, Webster has finished third in the CGA Women’s Stroke Play, third at the 5A girls state high school meet and tied for fourth in U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifying, falling short of advancing to the national championship only in a playoff. And she was the highest Colorado finisher in the girls 15-18 age group at the prestigious IMG Academy Junior World Championships.
Webster’s dramatic improvement over the last 2 1/2 years can be tracked to a trip she took as a sophomore.
“The winter of that year, I decided to go to Arizona for a week-long golf camp,” she said. “One of the coaches was John Means, who was coaching the men’s Idaho team at the time. He just convinced me that I had a ton of potential and he just lit a fire under me. I’m not exactly sure why, but I came back and got a swing coach and it just absolutely took off from there. It’s been really fun ever since. As soon as I started playing better and better, I wanted to practice more and more. It’s kind of like an addiction.”
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GIRLS JUNIOR AMERICAS CUP: THE ESSENTIALS
What: The 41st Girls Junior Americas Cup competition.
Where: Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen.ӬӬ
When: Championship rounds Wednesday through Friday (July 25-27). Tee-time range each day: 7-8:50 a.m. For tee times, CLICK HERE.
ҬӬFan Attendance: The public can attend the event free of charge.ӬӬ
Opening Ceremonies: Tuesday, 5 p.m.
Closing Ceremonies and Awards Presentation: Friday, approximately 1:30 p.m.
Format: 54-hole stroke play. Team and individual competition. The low three scores for each team each day count toward the team total.
ҬӬParticipating Teams: Colorado, Arizona, Alberta (Canada), British Columbia (Canada), Hawaii, Idaho, Mexico, Montana, Northern California, Northern Nevada, Oregon, San Diego, Southern California, Southern Nevada, Sun Country (New Mexico), Utah, Washington and Wyoming. For all the individual competitors, CLICK HERE.
Colorado Team Members: Hailey Schalk of Erie, Lauren Lehigh of Loveland, Kelsey Webster of Boulder, Emma Bryant of Aurora.
Defending Team Champion: Southern California, which also won in 2016. (Colorado tied for sixth in 2017.)ӬӬ
Previous Years Colorado Hosted GJAC: 1982 and 2000, both at Eisenhower Golf Club at Air Force Academy.ӬӬ
Best Finish by Colorado Team: Won in 1993 with a team of Jennifer Kern, Heather Stock, Ann Grooms and Jennifer McCormick. Kern claimed the individual title that year.
Other Notable Coloradans Who Have Played in GJAC: Jennifer Kupcho, Jill McGill, Paige Spiranac, Ashley Tait, Becca Huffer, Kelly Jacques, Hannah Wood, Somin Lee, Lindsay Kuhle.
“¨”¨Service Project: This year’s GJAC will include a service project, with the Special Olympics of Colorado Golf Clinic set for Wednesday afternoon. Competitors there will assist Special Olympians as they putt, chip and take full swings at the clinic.”¨”¨
Host Course: Hiwan was home of the Colorado Open from 1964 through 1991. Junior tournament-wise, the club has hosted the 1965 U.S. Girls’ Junior, the 1976 U.S. Junior Amateur, the 2006 AJGA Rolex Tournament of Champions, the 2007 AJGA Rolex Girls Junior and the 2011 boys Junior America’s Cup. Among those who have competed in tournaments at Hiwan in the last dozen years are Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler (in 2006); Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda, Cheyenne Woods and Kimberly Kim (in 2007); and Bryson DeChambeau (in 2011).
