Scarlett Schremmer was polite and respectful, but there was little hiding her irritation that she’d let a good first day get away from her at Champions Retreat. Two-under par and tied for fifth at the turn in her Augusta National Women’s Amateur debut, she gave back three strokes on her inward nine to make her goal of qualifying for the final round at Augusta National that much harder.
“I just hit a few errant shots on the back nine,” the 18-year-old said after her opening 73, her darting eyes revealing that she didn’t really want to talk about sitting 10 shots behind Megha Ganne’s record-breaking 9-under opening-round mark. “But no, it’s fine. All positive emotions. I mean, a little bit nervous, a little excited, a little bit everything, a little bit of a discouraging finish coming in. But, I mean, I played pretty well for the first two and a half hours. And it’s just nice to have people out here supporting women’s golf.”
The perils of golf must feel strange to a young woman who fearlessly followed her older sisters into the ocean and tackled the massive waves off the North Shore of Oahu. Schremmer became a three-time national shortboard surfing champion before she was a teenager or ever picked up a golf club. Golf courses don’t come crashing down on top of you or have unseen terrors lurking under the surface. Competitors don’t try to snake a wave from under you. Is there anything in golf as terrifying as riding a 30-foot wall of water?
“I don’t know. I mean, 50-yard bunker shots are pretty scary,” Schremmer said.
Schremmer walked away from competitive surfing immediately after winning her third national title at age 12. With her sisters gone to college – the oldest, Mason, to Australia, where she’s now a top-10 professional longboard surfer, and Lola to Purdue – Scarlett was burned out and lonely in the water and ready for something new. Her family had moved to just off the 14th hole on Hoakalei Country Club, which hosts an annual LPGA tournament. And, oh yeah, the mom who raised three surfing girls was a former LPGA player.
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