Once embarrassed to say she played golf, new Kiwi professional Amelia Garvey is this week taking the next step towards joining her friend Lydia Ko on the LPGA tour.
Amelia Garvey is about to tee off in one of the biggest weeks of her golfing career.
The 21-year-old Christchurch professional starts stage two of the LPGA qualifying school later this week in Venice, Florida - playing for a shot at a 2022 LPGA tour card alongside the best women’s golfers in the world.
She’s come a long way from the kid swinging her plastic clubs in the backyard, to the girl who was embarrassed to admit she was a golfer, and then to one of the few women in the world who've played the exclusive Augusta National course.
And as she goes into this important tournament, she knows she has the support of her fellow Kiwi golfer and friend, Lydia Ko. And Garvey wants to do the world’s former No.1 proud.
Garvey stormed through stage one of Q-School (as it’s better known) in August, when she finished in a tie for fourth in a bumper field of 339 quality competitors.
That result assured her of the chance to play tournaments on the second-tier Symetra Tour next year. But she’s not content with that, as she makes a push at the Plantation Golf and Country Club on Friday to cement full Symetra Tour status by advancing to stage three in December – and with it, a shot at a 2022 LPGA card.
She's shown she's in good form - sinking a hole in one in her practice round on Monday.
It’s already been a hugely successful year for Garvey. She competed at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and came up with a clutch win in a qualifying tournament to book a spot in her second US Women’s Open.
The US Open was her first tournament after turning professional in May, and despite missing the cut, she was ranked in the top 10 for putting statistics. Garvey also donned cap and gown as she graduated with a communications degree from the University of Southern California (pictured below).
So how does an athlete born in Manchester, England, and grew up in Christchurch, end up attending a university in downtown Los Angeles and becoming one of the rising stars of women’s golf?
Like many whose journeys start out borne from the stuff of their dreams, credit must go to Garvey’s father, Lee, for putting the possibility of golf into her mind.
“He saw me swing a golf club for the first time when I was about six, a little plastic set in the back garden,” Garvey says. “I was out there swinging it by myself and he thought to himself ‘That is not normal.’”
The Kaiapoi Golf Club, just north of Christchurch, soon became a second home to Garvey as she her game began to develop through her childhood and early teenage years.
As she became more aware of the opportunities the sport could open up for her, Garvey’s peers weren’t always understanding - in an era when there were still strong gender connotations associated with different sports.
“I used to be embarrassed saying I played golf when I was in intermediate school and starting high school. Until people saw I was travelling the world, I was always pretty embarrassed because I was the only girl who played,” Garvey reveals.
“I grew up playing with guys four or five years older than me and never had another girl to play with. It was definitely not the popular sport to play at all.”
Towards the end of her time at Burnside High School, Garvey visited a handful of universities in the United States hoping to land a scholarship on a highly regarded college golf programme.
College sport in the land of the free is unrivalled around the globe, with its fervent fanbase, bottomless pit of finances and resources, and the sporting contests it produces.
It’s also the launchpad of a significant number of golfing careers. The extremely competitive collegiate system serves players well as they navigate the transition from amateur to professional status. And Garvey didn’t have to look far to know making the shift stateside was the right move for her.
“I’d been playing with girls before they went over to the States, and I remember watching them on TV in the NCAA championships,” she shares. “Seeing that and realising how cool it was, that was the moment where I thought I wanted to go down that path.”
Garvey’s last visit was to the University of Southern California, whose formidable golf programme was ranked second in the country at the time. Ever modest, she gave herself no chance of receiving a full scholarship from the Trojans, but by the end of the trip to LA, her college future was secured.
Her CV from four years as a collegiate player makes for impressive reading: two Pac-12 Conference championship titles in a row, two time All-Pac-12 first team selection to go alongside three All American honourable mentions, while also playing at the NCAA championships three times. Her college record boasts 11 rounds in the 60s, and she finished in a tie for seventh at the NCAA championships in 2019 when she was only a sophomore.
Not only is Garvey flipping gender stereotypes as a female golfer, but she’s also disproving theories that golfers aren’t genuine athletes. She and her USC teammates would be out on the practice course at 7am and not return to their studies until 7pm. It’s not as simple as walking around hitting a ball along mown grass - there's a lot of strength and conditioning work, too.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in the gym and also speed training,” Garvey says. “It’s becoming a bigger part of the women’s game - girls are starting to hit the ball 280-300 yards [255-275m] on average.”
Her work is paying off, with her swing speed being ranked in the top five of the LPGA professional ranks.
And what about playing at that golf course, Augusta? The hallowed fairways and greens of the most famous course in the world is the promised land for any golf fan or player. From the notoriously strict ban on electronic devices and photographs, to the infamous ‘Amen Corner’ where many players have seen their hopes of winning the coveted Masters green jacket perish - there is history everywhere you look.
The club only has around 300 members at any time, and membership is secured by invite only. This is also a club that didn’t welcome African-American members until 1990, and it wasn’t until 2012 Augusta admitted its first two female members (former US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, among them).
That was a mere nine years ago, and yet here was Garvey in April this year lining up in just the second hosting of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur since its inception in 2019. She can count herself among the few women to have played the course, and the remarkable feat isn’t lost on her.
“We teed off early in the morning and it was about four degrees, and there were girls complaining about the cold,” Garvey recalls. “I just thought ‘What are you doing, you’re at Augusta!’
“I just couldn’t stop smiling. I didn’t care how cold it was, I was having the time of my life. It was one of the coolest days of my life.”
For all of the highlights she has experienced in 2021, the continual challenge Garvey faced was not having her family by her side for any of it. It has been nigh on a year since she was last in New Zealand and was able to see family and friends.
Several attempts to book an MIQ spot have been in vain, with Garvey’s window of opportunity over Christmas and throughout January fast closing. Barring a miracle, by the time the 2022 season gets underway in February, it won’t be until the end of the year she will next be able to get home.
“I don’t want to think about it too much, I like to keep my head down and focused on what is in front of me,” Garvey concedes.
“But as an athlete, your wellbeing needs to be happy. The fact I haven’t been able to see my family and my sisters and my dog is rough. It is a priority at the end of the day for my performance, you’ve got to be in the right headspace. Thinking about these things isn’t making it easier for me.”
Encouraging more women and girls to play golf in New Zealand is also a huge passion of Garvey’s. She knows the physical and mental benefits that come from being outdoors, playing the sport socially or competitively. She emphasises the beautiful courses all around the country, with extraordinarily low green fees in comparison to the rest of the world, are there to take advantage of.
Golf New Zealand agree, having recently unveiled their new strategy for women and girls golf, ‘Our Ambition’, focused on ensuring ‘women and girls are welcomed, valued and thriving in golf.’
When asked how it feels to be another female inspiration for young Kiwi girls alongside Lydia Ko, Garvey is quick to deflect all of the praise onto her friend.
“She’s already written the history books, and she did it all by the age of 20,” Garvey says. “She did everything at such a young age, it’s absolutely ridiculous. I can’t even fathom at my age now what she has achieved, and she did it when she was five years younger.”
The pair have a special relationship, as Garvey was a recipient of the Lydia Ko Scholarship in 2018. They regularly catch up to chat all things golf and even have a practice round or two when their schedules allow.
“Whenever I’ve done well in a tournament, she’s always congratulating me, and she's a big advocate for women’s golf in New Zealand,” she says. “To know she’s out there wanting someone from New Zealand to be on tour with her is a testament to her character. I want to do her proud, she’s done a lot for me as a recipient of her scholarship.”
Garvey also talks candidly about her dream of becoming an Olympian – it’s a prime motivator that gets her out of bed in the morning. And the goal is not just to line up alongside Ko in the starters box, but also to share the podium with her.
“She’s the only golfer right now to have two Olympic medals, it’s amazing what she’s done. I grew up absolutely idolising her, so to maybe be on the podium with her would be a dream come true,” she says.
Los Angeles 2028 is calling, especially as Garvey has played at the Riviera Country Club before.
When reminded of Ko’s statement that she’s aiming to retire at the age of 30, there’s a definite twinkle in the eye as Garvey calculates that Paris 2024 could be the prime opportunity for her dream of them teeing it up together as Olympians.
