Around the Green

Where Eagles Fly: 102nd Women’s Texas Amateur Preview

The state’s best women amateur golfers are heading back to East Texas.

The 102nd Women’s Texas Amateur will return to Eagle’s Bluff Country Club in Bullard from July 11-14, with an impressive field of 88 elite women amateurs dreaming of hoisting the Silver Lake Cup trophy.

This will be the third TGA women’s major conducted at Eagle’s Bluff. The club previously hosted the 81st Women’s Texas Amateur in 2002, won by Stephanie Godare, and, more recently, the inaugural Women’s Stroke Play Championship in 2015, won by Kaitlyn Papp.

“We are thrilled to be able to bring back our premier women’s championship to Eagle’s Bluff Country Club,” said Amy Worthington, the TGA’s Director of Women’s Operations. “Eagle’s Bluff has been a tremendous supporter of amateur golf through the years, and we are certain it will once again prove to an ideal setting for a fantastic championship experience.”

Opened in 1999, Eagle’s Bluff Country Club is a 462-acre master-planned community bordering the eastern shoreline of Lake Palestine. The golf course was designed by Carlton Gibson and is set on a rolling piece of property highlighted by stately pines, dogwoods, azaleas, and picturesque views of the lake. The strategic par-71 layout, which measures close to 6,400 yards from the middle set of tees, features holes that play in a variety of directions, with contoured fairways and greens, and numerous water hazards.

“Players will need to have their full skill sets ready to go at Eagle’s Bluff,” Worthington said. “The course offers the kind of risk-reward opportunities that require strategy and discipline off the tee, on approach shots, and around the greens. It’s a great venue and is sure to provide an excellent challenge for the players.”

The 102nd championship will start with an 18-hole stroke play qualifying round on July 11, with the lowest 32 scores advancing to the Championship Match Play Bracket. The remaining players are seeded into additional match play flights. First- and second-round Championship matches will be played Wednesday, July 12; quarterfinals and semifinals on Thursday, July 13; and the final on Friday, July 14. All matches are 18 holes.

The Women’s Texas Amateur is considered the state’s premier women’s golf championship and consistently attracts a strong field of players that includes a mix of accomplished juniors, talented collegians, successful mid-amateurs, and senior standouts.

But even among a gathering of the best of the best, there has been one player of late who has stood head and shoulders above the competition: Emma McMyler of San Antonio. McMyler, who recently transferred to Duke University after a three-year stint at Xavier, won the 100th Women’s Texas Amateur in 2021 at River Crest Country Club in Fort Worth and then defended her title last year by defeating Montgomery’s Remington Isaac, 3-and-2, on the Tournament Course at the Golf Club of Houston in Humble.

Until McMyler’s modern-day heroics, it had been more than 20 years since a player had won back-to-back titles. The last person to accomplish the feat was five-time champion and Texas Golf Hall of Famer Mina Hardin who pulled it off in 1999-2000. More than a half-century has passed since anyone has managed to string together more than two in a row. Mary Ann Morrison, another member of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame, won four consecutive championships from 1966-69 during an incredible run where she captured nine overall titles from 1961 through 1981.

One way or another, history will be made when the Women’s Texas Amateur returns to Eagle’s Bluff Country Club in 2023. The next chapter to be written might recount a legacy-defining three-peat or tell the tale of a new player entering the winner’s circle and joining the honor roll of champions that includes such legendary names as Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Betty Jameson, Betsy Rawls, and Sandra Haynie.

For more on the 102nd Women’s Texas Amateur, click here.