Stanford University sophomore Megha Ganne still employs the lessons she learned as a 7-year-old in the LPGA*USGA Girls Golf New Jersey chapter.
Wake Forest University graduate and 2023 NCAA National Championship team member Emilia Migliaccio will never forget being pushed by her fellow competitors on the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Golf Tour.
For competitive female golfers like these across the United States and around the world, experiences provided by LPGA*USGA Girls Golf and the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Golf Tour (PKBGT) have proved pivotal in their growth and development. Not only have these programs provided opportunities to experience competition at a young age, but they have empowered generations of girls to achieve their golf dreams.
Thousands of Girls Golf alumnae have gone on to play collegiate golf, and more than 100 have reached the pinnacle of the sport by competing on the Epson and LPGA Tours. As for this past weekend, 17 of the 72 players at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur were products of Girls Golf, including Ganne and Migliaccio.
For Ganne, Girls Golf provided the strong foundation she needed in her quest to earn a spot on the women’s golf team at Stanford. She still recalls Site Director Beverly Harrison encouraging the girls to speak up in their outside voices at all times and to always walk through life with their chin up and shoulders back.
Instilling this confidence at an early age paid off as Ganne has taken on life-changing opportunities like representing Team USA at the PING Junior Solheim Cup, playing golf at Stanford and teeing it up in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
“Having a program when I first started that reiterated what it’s like to be confident, have good posture, carry yourself in a way that makes yourself proud, and also have a lot of fun while doing it, that was crucial to my development,” Ganne explained. “When those are the first lessons you’re introduced to in the game, that’s really helpful because that’s the stuff that sticks with you and you remember the most. I still embody those core values to the best of my ability in tournament golf now.”
Migliaccio’s first PKBGT event was in 2011 at Pine Needles. Just 11 years old at the time, Migliaccio was excited to have the chance to play in a girls-only field, something she didn’t often get to do as a junior golfer.
“Back in middle school, golf was not cool,” recalled Migliaccio. “It was something our dads played. I remember practicing with local boys, but there weren’t any girls like me who took the game so seriously.”
That changed when she arrived at her first PKBGT event. Migliaccio remembers being in awe of the number of girls who were already on the range hitting balls and grinding on the putting green. Not only did these girls share her competitive drive, but they quickly bonded over being girls who golfed, an uncommon interest for others their age.
“The PKB Tour was really the first time I saw other girls with the same sock tan lines as me,” Migliaccio said. “I also quickly realized that it was normal to see girls start practicing at 8 a.m. for an 11 a.m. tee time. To see other girls do that really pushed you because you’re also competitive and want to win.”
This sentiment was echoed by Migliaccio’s fellow Demon Deacon Rachel Kuehn, who also competed on the PKBGT, albeit a couple of years behind Migliaccio because of their age difference. Since cutting their teeth on this all-girls tour, Kuehn and Migliaccio have both found individual and team success at the junior, amateur and collegiate levels. Most notably, the pair led Wake Forest to victory at the 2023 NCAA Championship.
“The PKB Tour was my first exposure to high-level competitive golf,” Kuehn explained. “It’s where I learned to manage tournament pressure and different situations like sleeping on a lead before the last day. All of those lessons I’ve carried with me through my golfing career, I learned first on the PKB Tour.”
Leaning on their strong foundation, all three players made the cut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur along with four other Girls Golf alumnae. Of those seven players to make the cut, it was University of Southern California freshman Bailey Shoemaker who ultimately stole the show at Augusta National Golf Club.
Trailing by four entering the final round, Shoemaker charged up the leaderboard with a sensational, bogey-free, 6-under 66 on Saturday. Even though she came up just short of eventual winner Lottie Woad, Shoemaker could hold her head high, knowing that she now stands alone in the record books as having the lowest final-round score in ANWA history.
Speaking of the record books, just one day after the conclusion of the ANWA, three active Girls Golf members claimed titles in the annual Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals. Of the 40 girls to reach the national stage, 20 belonged to Girls Golf.
Madison Pyatt of Missouri won the Girls 7-9 Division, Lily Wachter of Florida took home the Girls 10-11 title and McKenna Nelson of Wisconsin claimed victory in the 14-15 Division. The only division not won by a Girls Golf member was the 12-13 grouping, but Gayatri Arora from Charlotte did manage to finish in a tie for second after winning the putting portion of the competition.
“It means a lot to me to represent Girls Golf here,” Wachter said. “I just think it’s amazing how little girls get to look up to us, and I hope that helps them find more passion and drive to get here.”
Whether or not they win events like the Drive, Chip and Putt, these players know just how important Girls Golf is for their competitive golf development. For Georgia native Ariel Collins, who finished T4 in the Girls 14-15 Division, this program means the world.
“I really appreciate my coach at Girls Golf and the experience that program provides,” Collins said. “I’ve learned so much about golf and the different things I can do with the game. Girls Golf has done so much for me, and I want to continue to help show the world how it is changing the future of the women’s game.”
There is no doubt that LPGA*USGA Girls Golf and the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Golf Tour have helped shape the current state of girls’ and women’s golf both domestically and internationally. In fact, just last year, the Girls Golf program reached its one-millionth member, and in honor of that feat, the LPGA Foundation launched the #OneMillionMOREGirls campaign to reach the next million by 2030, an effort that hasn’t gone unnoticed by girls currently in the program. And they are just as invested in the organization’s growth.
“In my town, there’s really no girls in Girls Golf,” Pyatt explained. “So, I want to represent it and get more girls my age into it. I want to get more girls out there to try and do it because I love it, and I want other people to find it, and love it too.”
These girls and young women represent just a few of the endless success stories to come out of LPGA*USGA Girls Golf. But as Pyatt acknowledged, there is still so much work left to be done in growing this game for girls of all backgrounds, a cause that takes all of us.
For more information about donating to the #OneMillionMOREGirls campaign, please click here.
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