Shosted with her tee shot on 18 in the final round.
By: Shane René, USGA P.J. Boatwright Intern
Dominance, at times, can feel random and hard to source.
A fruitful warm-up can emerge abruptly from weeks of hemorrhaging confidence with every club in the bag. Putters are known to wake from a slumber without warning, like a moody toddler in the middle of the night demanding (the bottom of) a cup of apple juice. Sometimes trees really do feel like they are 90% air – a crop of divine and leafy shepherds keeping your ball on the short grass.
After a seven-birdie opening round of 66 on Monday to lift herself five shots clear of the field, Leighton Shosted pointed to a common set of factors for her dominant play. Powerful lashes with her driver found friendly pockets of the fairway. A good bounce here and there kept her momentum going. And her putter, of course, was feeling thirsty.
Shosted with the Jean Lane Smith Cup.
But as Shosted’s lead shrunk from 12 shots to 10 on Wednesday afternoon, and she wept her way off the 18th green at Hillcrest Country Club as the 2024 Women’s Amateur Champion, it was clear that a much more human inspiration fueled her stunning wire-to-wire performance.
“My freshman year of college my grandfather passed away,” she said, tears welling up again. “And I never really got to play in this event and have him watch... It’s just really cool to come back to Idaho and play good for him. I know that he’s looking down on me and is proud of me – so it’s really cool to have that.”
Shosted and her father walking up the 18th hole.
Under her name on the leaderboard, Mesa, Arizona is credited as Shosted’s hometown – but her roots are set deep in Idaho. Speaking to the crowd with the Jean Lane Smith Cup by her side, she reflected on the memory of the lapel pins the Idaho Junior Tour handed out to winners in the early days of her competitive golf career and distant memories of playing Hillcrest Country Club when she was 12 years old.
“From little eyes to big girl eyes – it's different,” she joked.
Shosted and her family left Idaho when she was 12 years old but returned to the Treasure Valley for middle school. Before moving back to Arizona for high school, Shosted represented Idaho in the Girls’ Junior Americas Cup and the North Pacific Junior Ladies team event in 2017 when she was just 14 years old.
With her father on the bag, the week unfolded like a homecoming celebration for Shosted. Reunited with old friends from her junior golf days as she gears up to transfer for her final year of college golf at the University of Tennessee, she’ll leave the Gem State with a blissful reminder of where her life in the game began.
“I’m excited; I’m happy,” she said. “It’s fun to play in this event. This is my first time playing in it and I’ve always wanted to play in it. To come out and play well was fun.
“And it was awesome to have my dad caddy for me – he did a good job.”
Paired with Shosted in the final round, 2020 champion Brooke Patterson and defending champion Maddie Montoya did what they could to chip away at Shosted’s lead, but neither of them were able to get within more than eight shots. They both finished in a tie for second with 2022 Champion Carly Carter at five-over par.
Gridley with the Vicki Mallea Cup.
MID-AMATEUR
The dominance theme continued on the Mid-Amateur side of the 2024 Amateur Championships, with newly minted Mid-Am Madison Gridley cruising home to a five-stroke victory over defending champion Bailey Henley.
“I’m feeling good – today was honestly a grind trying to keep it, ya know, below a certain score,” she said with a chuckle.
Gridley graduated from Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) this spring, qualifying her for Mid-Amateur competition in Idaho, and she made the most of that opportunity while competing in the Women’s Amateur and Mid- Amateur divisions. She finished T-6 in the Amateur.
Along for the wire-to-wire victory was her caddy and former teammate Grayson Giboney, who she credited with keeping her on track for much of the week.
“Me and my caddy Grayson just had fun the whole time – we played really smart,” she said. “That was honestly the key to this week, just golf management... I’m really glad he got to caddy for me because I don’t think I would have played as well without him.”
In one of her first events without a team behind her, she reflected on what she missed and some of the comforts she had out at Hillcrest this week.
“Golf is a very individual sport, so I do miss having the team aspect – just having those buddies to watch you coming in and support you,” she said. “So that felt really good today with Grayson and Christine (Cho) and my coach Fred was watching – so that felt kinda normal since being out of it.
“I really wish I could have gotten my fifth year, but it’s okay – I'm good.”
Bailey Henley finished in second place, 15 strokes clear of a small crop of former IGA champions including 1997 Women’s Amateur Champion Sheryl Scott, and former Mid-Am Champs Michelle Gooding-Badiola and Lori Harper.
Women’s Amateur Banquet and Celebration
Following the close of play on Tuesday afternoon, players and a cast of other women’s golf supporters in Idaho gathered for a banquet dinner to recognize the ever-richer community of women golfers in the Gem State.
The 2024 Amateur Championships and Celebration marked an inaugural effort to give the Women’s Amateur its own stage away from the Men’s Amateur. In doing so, the Amateur and Mid-Amateur fields competed concurrently at a single venue.
Joining Tuesday’s festivities was 2022 Mid-Amateur Champion Lori Harper to host a conversation with two-time Idaho Women’s Amateur Champion and former Stanford All-American Andrea Baxter-Bretz.
Baxter-Bretz grew up playing on the Idaho Junior Tour and went on to play for the Stanford Cardinal (overlapping with none other than Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods) and earned first and second team All-American honors to go along with many top-finishes in major amateur and college events.
Andrea Baxter-Bretz (w/ microphone) and Lori Harper.
Bretz turned professional after college and spent many years teaching at BanBury Golf Course in Eagle. In 2011, she was named Teacher of the Year by the Rocky Mountain Section PGA. As part of her discussion with Harper, she shared the following “isms” with the players in the room – many of whom are in or soon to be entering the college ranks.
Andrea Baxter-Bretz “ISMS”
Be fun to play with
When you’re not practicing, somebody else is
You are only as good as your last round
Let your golf do the talking
Work hard, play hard – have a non-golf outlet
Tee it up for yourself