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Emma McMyler Repeats as Women’s Texas Amateur Champion

HUMBLE – Prior to this week, Xavier University junior Emma McMyler was already part of Texas golf history. On Friday at the Golf Club of Houston’s Tournament Course, she elevated herself to a new level entirely: two-time Women’s Texas Amateur champion.

With a 3&2 victory in the Final Match against Kansas State University sophomore Remington Isaac of Montgomery, McMyler won the 101st edition of the prestigious amateur championship. It was a successful title defense, as the San Antonio native also won the 100th Women’s Texas Amateur last summer at River Crest Country Club in Fort Worth.

“It means a lot. To be able to do it twice is a cool thing to do,” said McMyler, who also won the 2021 Women’s Stroke Play Championship. “Doing it at this course is pretty special with it being a PGA Tour course. The field was pretty strong this week, and I had a lot of tough matches. But I played really well and was able to pull out the win. It’s pretty special.”

McMyler is the first to win consecutive Women’s Texas Amateurs since Texas Golf Hall of Famer Mina Hardin did it 1999-2000. Hardin, the 2010 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion, was the Senior Medalist this week at the Tournament Course during the Qualifying Round and advanced the Championship Bracket. A veteran of more than 50 USGA national championships, Hardin also won back-to-back Women’s Texas Amateur titles in 1996-97.

The Final Match was tight throughout the front nine. Both players held leads at one point, but they were tied as they reached the 10th tee box. Over the next 40 minutes or so, McMyler ripped off three straight birdies to take a commanding 3-up lead. Long off the tee and precise with her irons, she put herself in position to capitalize again and again. McMyler poured in a 12-footer on the 10th, then made 25-foot bomb on the 11th, and capped off the string with a 6-foot birdie on No. 12.

With her father Brian on the bag as caddie, McMyler also birdied the par-3 14th to go 4 up.

“I was kind of feeling it with the putter,” she said.

For her part, Isaac never backed down and continued the fight until both players bogeyed the par-3 16th, which ended things. The former Montgomery High School standout made four birdies on the front nine, but McMyler’s birdies kept besting Isaac’s pars early on the inward loop.

“I have definitely gotten mentally stronger because of this week,” said Isaac, who won seven of her 10 events during her high school senior and led her team to a runner-up finish at the 2021 UIL state championships.

Isaac employed her good friend and mentor Hailee Cooper as her caddie in the Final Match. The two were high school teammates for a year – Isaac was a freshman during Cooper’s senior year – and Isaac defeated Cooper in the Thursday’s Semifinals at the Tournament Course. Despite the tension of the match and what was at stake, Isaac and Cooper smiled and joked with each other throughout the round. The good friends clearly enjoyed the experience, regardless of the final outcome.

McMyler, a two-time Big East Golfer of the Year who won twice for Xavier last season, earned 21st seed in the Championship Match Play Bracket after recording 3-over-par 75 in Tuesday’s Qualifying Round. In the Round of 32, she defeated No. 12 seed Lauren Nguyen of Katy, 3&2. McMyler then took down 28th-seed Ellie Rippee of McKinney, 2&1, in the Round of 16.

In the Quarterfinals, McMyler beat No. 29 seed Hunter Nugent of Irving, 3&2. The Xavier standout then toppled No. 1-seeded Camryn Carreon of San Antonio in the Semis, 1 up.

“The week being so long, it’s really challenging,” said McMyler, who recently finished T26 playing as an amateur at the Epson Tour’s Ann Arbor’s Road to the LPGA powered by the A2 Sports Commission. “It was super-hot out here, so staying hydrated and staying fresh for the entire week was important.”

In addition to the McMyler-Isaac showdown, six other flights in the tournament held their final matches Friday.

In the First Flight, Paige Wood of McKinney defeated Chelsea Romas of Coppell, 5&4. In the Second Flight, Elina Sinz of Katy beat Faith Kilgore of Wimberley, 3&2. In the Third Flight, Trinity King of Arlington took down Federica Tavelli-Westerlund of San Marcos in 19 holes. In the Fourth Flight, Maria Jose Martinez Almeida of Houston defeated Brooke Morales of McKinney, 7&6. In the Fifth Flight, Simone Campise of Lewisville scored a 1-up victory against EG Messenger of Montgomery. In the Sixth Flight, Molly Murray of McKinney defeated Aidan McLachlan of Dallas, 4&3.

The Texas Golf Association extends its gratitude to the Golf Club of Houston, including its staff and membership, for their support, hospitality, and generosity during the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur. We greatly appreciate the efforts from the club, as well as the TGA volunteers, for helping us create a memorable championship week. For more information on the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur, click here.

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McMyler, Isaac to Play for 101st Women’s Texas Amateur Championship

HUMBLE – After winning their third and fourth grueling matches of the week on Thursday, defending champion Emma McMyler from San Antonio will face Montgomery’s Remington Isaac on Friday for the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur title on the Tournament Course at the Golf Club of Houston.

A junior at Xavier University, the 21st-seeded McMyler held off No. 1 seed Camryn Carreon, also from San Antonio, in a back-and-forth Semifinals match that came down the final hole. Up 1 in the match, McMyler laced a long iron from the fairway bunker on the par-4 18th that found a piece of the left side of the green. Carreon, a senior at the University of Texas at San Antonio, missed the green from the fairway. She nearly holed her chip shot, but her ball bounced past the cup.

Carreon conceded her opponent’s short par putt to give McMyler the 1-up victory.

“Camryn’s been playing well all year,” said McMyler, who won twice for XU last season. “It was a great match, a hard-fought match. It was fun to play against someone who is also from San Antonio. I’ve known her for a while. It was a lot of fun, and a really great match.”

The other Semifinal match featured two talented players who also knew each other well. Both No. 31 seed Remington Isaac and 30th-seeded Hailee Cooper are from Montgomery. They played on the same Montgomery High School golf team; Isaac was a freshman when Cooper was a senior. Together, they led a talented team to the UIL Class 6A Regionals in 2018.

Thursday at the Tournament Course, Isaac came out on top with a 1-up victory. The two longtime friends both shot even-par 36 on the front nine, then proceeded to match each other – par for par – from the 10th to the 17th hole. Isaac poured in an 11-foot birdie on No. 18 to capture the win and advance to the Final Match.

“We were pretty much all square the whole round,” said Isaac, a sophomore at Kansas State. “My putt on 18 was downhill, breaking hard left. I didn’t want to run it too far by because then I needed to make the par putt if I missed the birdie. It just barely dribbled in. It was a pretty good putt.”

Earlier Thursday morning, in a Quarterfinals battle of two participants in the upcoming 122nd U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay in August, Carreon outlasted University of Illinois sophomore Alise Knudson from Dallas in 19 holes. Carreon took a 1-up lead on the 17th hole and had a ticklish 4-footer for par to end the match on the par-4 18th.

She pushed it.

Carreon didn’t have to wait long to exact revenge. She drilled a 10-footer for birdie to win the match on the first extra hole.

“Honestly, I was upset after I missed that little putt on 18,” she said. “On the first playoff hole, I said to myself, ‘It’s all or nothing.’ I really crunched my drive. I didn’t hold anything back. My putts weren’t falling all round, but I finally got one when I needed it.”

In other Quarterfinals action from the Championship Bracket, McMyler took care of 20th-seeded Hunter Nugent, a UTSA senior from Irving, 3&2. Isaac defeated University of Houston senior Annie Park from Houston, 3&2. Cooper beat last year’s runner-up at the 100th Women’s Texas Amateur Megan Winans, an Oklahoma freshman from Richardson, 2&1.

In addition to the Final Match in the Championship Match Play Bracket, Friday also brings the Finals in six lower flights. All the competitors who finished 33rd or worse in Tuesday’s Qualifying Round were seeded into flights based on their scores.

For more information on the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur, click here 

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Top-Seeded Carreon Advances to Quarterfinals at 101st Women’s Texas Amateur

HUMBLE – University of Texas at San Antonio senior Camryn Carreon survived a birdie barrage, an ace, two talented opponents, and 99-degree weather on Wednesday on the Tournament Course at the Golf Club of Houston to advance to the Quarterfinals at the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur.

After dispatching No. 32 seed Leah Alberto of Kingwood 4&3 in the morning’s Round of 32, Carreon found herself 1 up through 11 holes in the Round of 16 against Houston’s Sarah Kmiecik, a junior at Mary Hardin-Baylor. Then Kmiecik birdied the 12th, 13th, and 14th holes to flip the match and go 1 up.

Carreon and Kmiecik traded pars on the par-15 15th hole, then the fireworks show began.

The par-3 16th played 168 yards into a right-to-left wind. Kmiecik pulled out a 4-hybrid with 25 degrees of loft. She flushed it and called after it, “Be the right number!”

Spoiler alert: It was the right number.

Her ball landed just right of the hole, spun left, hopped twice, and disappeared. It was Kmiecik’s fourth career ace and third in the past six months. Suddenly, she was 2 up with two to play. A lot of opponents might’ve packed it in after that, but not Carreon. All she did was drain a 15-foot birdie on No. 17, and then a 25-footer for another one on the 18th to draw the match to even.

Carreon ended it when she stuffed a wedge to 4 inches on the 20th hole.

“I was just trying to give myself a chance towards the end,” said Carreon, who recently qualified for the 122nd U.S. Women’s Amateur in August. “On the greens, I was just freeing myself up. They weren’t falling earlier today in the round like they’ve been, but they did at the end. It was the right time.”

The second, third, fourth, and fifth seeds all were eliminated from the Championship Match Play Bracket in the morning’s Round of 32. Such is the nature of match play. Anything can happen. Kyle Fraser from Fort Worth, the No. 2 seed, lost to 31st-seeded Isaac Remington of Montgomery in 19 holes. No. 3 seed Haley Vargas was defeated by 30th-seeded Hailee Cooper from Montgomery, 1 down. The No. 4 seed, Delaney Martin from Boerne, fell to Irving’s Hunter Nugent, 3&2. The fifth seed, Gabriela McNelly from Mico, lost to McKinney’s Ellie Rippee, 3&1.

Meagan Winans, runner-up at last summer’s 100th Women’s Texas Amateur, was one of the few top seeds to survive Wednesday’s Rounds of 32 and 16. The University of Oklahoma freshman from Richardson needed 19 holes to get past Hankamer’s Cari Denson in the morning. It wasn’t any easier in the afternoon; Fort Worth’s Megan Tang pushed Winans to 23 holes before the young Sooner notched the victory.

The heat was a major factor yet again, with the mercury tipping out at nearly 100 degrees. By 1:30 p.m., the heat index was 105 degrees. Shade umbrellas, lots of bottled water, and iced towels were omnipresent at the Golf Club of Houston.

Four of the 16 matches in the morning’s Round of 32 went to extra holes, highlighted by a 24-hole marathon between Texas Golf Hall of Famer Mina Hardin from Fort Worth and University of Illinois sophomore Alise Knudson from Dallas. Knudson ultimately prevailed after trailing 3 down through nine holes.

Hardin was still 1 up by the time they reached the 18th tee box, but she pushed her drive into the right rough. After a punchout back to the fairway, Hardin clipped a wedge to 4 feet. Knudson was in for par; Hardin needed to convert the knee-knocker to win the match.

“I misread it,” she said.

After trading pars on the first extra hole, Hardin said she thought she was cooked when Knudson poured in a 20-footer for birdie. Hardin, the 2010 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion, answered by draining a 15-foot birdie of her own.

“We were both hitting really good shots,” said Hardin, a five-time Women’s Texas Amateur champion. “It’s not like we were dogging it around out there. We were both 1-under through the first five extra holes.”

The match concluded on the Tournament Course’s par-4 sixth hole when Hardin yanked an approach shot into the water.

“That’s golf,” she said. “Sometimes you’re the bug. Sometimes you’re the windshield. Alise is a heck of a player.”

The Championship Match Play Bracket’s Quarterfinals begin Thursday at 8 a.m. The Semifinals follow in the afternoon, setting the stage for the Final Match on Friday morning. For more information on the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur, click here.

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Camryn Carreon Grabs Top Seed at 101st Women’s Texas Amateur

HUMBLE – Riding a wave of momentum from her first amateur victory two and half weeks ago, San Antonio’s Camryn Carreon on Tuesday fired a 4-under-par 68 in the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur Qualifying Round at the Golf Club of Houston’s Tournament Course. Carreon, a senior at the University of Texas at San Antonio, earned Medalist honors and the No. 1 seed in the Championship Match Play Bracket.

“I’ve been trying not to have any expectations,” said Carreon, who won the 2022 Women’s Stroke Play Championship on June 26 at the Traditions Club. “No matter the emotions during round from the last hole, I’m just trying to stick to the gameplan, and it helped out.”

So did a solid iron game and hot putter.

Carreon, a First-Team All-Conference USA selection who record seven Top-20 finishes for UTSA last season, made six birdies on Tuesday. None of them were from longer than 12 feet away.

“My putting was good today,” she said. “Inside 10 feet, they were dropping. It’s not going to happen all the time, but when it does, and you just know it’s going to fall, it’s the best feeling ever.”

A recent qualifier for the 122nd U.S. Women’s Amateur later this summer, Carreon will attempt to complete the TGA Women’s two-step this week by winning both the Women’s Stroke Play and Women’s Texas Amateur in succession. Only Emma McMyler has accomplished the feat; the Xavier junior won both high-profile championships last summer.

Kyle Fraser, a mid-amateur from Fort Worth, finished one shot behind Carreon at 3-under 69. The former collegiate Lacrosse standout at Stanford got off to a torrid start Tuesday with three birdies on her first five holes. Fraser added three more on the back nine on the Tournament Course to help offset one bogey and a double-bogey.

Haley Vargas from Lubbock, Delany Martin from Boerne, and Gabriela McNelly from Mico share third place at 1-under 71. Martin is one of five players in the field from University of Houston’s Women’s Golf Team, which makes their home at the Golf Club of Houston along with the Men’s Team.

Thirty-two players posted scores of 4-over 76 or better to establish the Championship Match Play Bracket. The remaining competitors were placed in one of six flights based on their Qualifying Round scores.

Fort Worth’s Mina Hardin won Senior Medalist honors with a 3-over 75. A five-time Women’s Texas Amateur champion and the 2010 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur winner, Hardin has been a consistent presence at this championship for years. A veteran of more than 50 USGA national championships, Hardin was inducted into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame in 2012.

Three juniors tied for Junior Medalist honors at even-par 72. Megan Winans from Richardson, Houston’s Ashley Yen, and Alise Knudson from Dallas also tied for sixth place.

In addition to being tested by the Tournament Course’s demanding routing and the water or wetlands hazards looming on 16 of the 18 holes, the competitors in the Qualifying Round also were challenged by the elements. The Greater Houston Area has been racked with Heat Advisory days this summer, and Tuesday was no different.

By 2 p.m., the temperature peaked at 99 degrees with a 108-degree Heat Index. The forecast projects a little more favorably: mid- to lower-90s by the end of the week.

The 101st Women’s Texas Amateur is the second TGA championship played at the Golf Club of Houston. The proud club also played host to the 2007 Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play, won by San Antonio’s Jonathan Mathias. For 17 years, the club hosted the PGA Tour’s Houston Open, first played on the Member Course from 2003-05 before it moved to the Tournament Course from 2006-19.

The Rounds of 32 and 16 in the Championship Match Play Bracket will be played Wednesday, starting at 8 a.m. For more information on the 99th Women’s Texas Amateur, click here.