DENVER - In the battle of freshmen state high school golf champions — past and present, and from adjoining states — this round went to the veteran.
Rylee Salome, who claimed the New Mexico girls 4A state title in 2022 as a freshman en route to earning four state championships, proved relentlessly steady on June 20 at Denver Country Club in defeating 15-year-old Landry Frost of Colorado Springs, 3 and 2, and landing the title in the 110th CGA Women’s Match Play.
Frost, the Air Academy freshman who won the Colorado girls 4A state high school championship in May, led after nine holes on that Friday. But the New Mexico State-bound Salome birdied the 10th hole after hitting the par-5 in two and won the first four holes of the back nine en route to the title.
Salome relished capturing the victory in the oldest CGA state championship, which has been won by such players as LPGA Tour veteran Jennifer Kupcho (twice) and social media sensation Paige Spiranac.
“It means everything,” Salome said of the win. “It’s amazing (the championship) has been going on for 110 years. To be able to win it today is just great. I think it’s wonderful that they keep such a tradition alive for so long.”
Salome becomes the latest in a line of players from outside of Colorado who have periodically claimed the CGA Women’s Match Play crown. That list also includes Pimpisa Rubrong of Thailand (2023) and Kennedy Swann of Texas (2018).
Asked where that Friday’s victory might rank for her among her golf accomplishments, the 18-year-old Salome said, “This is definitely toward the top, if not the top. It’s such a competitive field and a lot of golf — six rounds in five days. You have to stay mentally tough and keep trying to play good golf.”
Frost, who won the girls 14-15 chipping title at the 2024 Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National, was trying to become one of the youngest winners of the CGA Women’s Match Play. (Becca Huffer, for instance, captured the title at age 15 in 2005.) But after posting a strong even-par score of 35 on the front nine at DCC — and never trailing to that point — Frost couldn’t keep the momentum on the back nine.
Frost made bogeys at 11 (after her drive found the deep stuff next to Cherry Creek), 12 (bunker) and 13 (sand again), which left her 3 down and trying to rally. She made a nice 20-foot birdie on No. 14 to make up a little ground, but Salome didn’t make mistakes to help the cause. Indeed, she didn’t record a bogey or worse for the final 13 holes of the match.
“I’m a little disappointed but I fought until the end,” Frost said. Finishing runner-up “shows me that I’m not far off. My hard work is paying off. It just makes me very confident for the future.”
Salome, who resides in Tome a little south of Albuquerque, is no stranger to winning open-age state and regional championships. For instance, she captured the title in the 2022 New Mexico-West Texas Women’s Amateur. In the case of the CGA Women’s Match Play, she made it a family affair as her dad, Pat, caddied for her all week, and her mom, Melissa, was a very interested spectator.
In the end, it worked out nicely as Salome went undefeated (6-0) in her matches en route to the title.
“I feel like I played pretty well,” she said of the week as a whole. “I struggled with my irons the first few days (during pod play) at CommonGround, but I started hitting them a little better here at Denver Country Club, which helped, and I putted pretty well all five days.”
That week marked the first time since 1971 that Denver Country Club hosted the CGA Women’s Match Play, though the CGA Women’s Stroke Play came to the historic course in 2016, when Kupcho prevailed for the title.
Rylee Salome, Tome, N.M., def. Maddie Makino, Parker, 4 and 2Kaitlin Zingler, Lakewood, def. Samantha Paradise, Tampa, Fla., 4 and 2 Landry Frost, Colorado Springs, def. Aubri Braecklein, Northglenn, 20 holes Ava Schroeder, Colorado Springs, def. Sydney Gillespie, Highlands Ranch, 3 and 2
Rylee Salome, Tome, N.M., def. Kaitlin Zingler, Lakewood, 2 and 1Landry Frost, Colorado Springs, def. Ava Schroeder, Colorado Springs, 3 and 2
Rylee Salome, Tome, N.M., def. Landry Frost, Colorado Springs, 3 and 2
For all the results from the CGA Women’s Match Play, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com
