After a grueling summer of amateur golf, Tyler Watts and Pinky Chaisilprungruang earned men’s and women’s Elite Amateur Cup honors.
Watts, a 17-year-old University of Tennessee commit, competed in four of seven tournaments in the men’s Elite Amateur Golf Series. He started with a bang by winning the Sunnehanna Amateur in Pennsylvania, becoming the youngest Sunnehanna champion ever and setting a new 72-hole tournament scoring record at 19-under par.
Watts subsequently finished T6 at the Northeast Amateur Invitational. In the North & South Amateur at Pinehurst, Watts lost in a playoff for medalist honors before falling in the championship match to Carlos Astiazaran in 19 holes. He finished the season by losing in a playoff to advance to the Sweet Sixteen match-play bracket at the Western Amateur.
By winning the Elite Amateur Cup, Watts secured an exemption into the PGA Tour’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship in November.
Chaisilprungruang, a rising sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who's from Thailand, finished T17 at the Sea Island Women’s Amateur before winning the Southwestern Amateur at Arizona’s Desert Mountain Club. She later earned co-medalist honors at the North & South Women’s Amateur at Pinehurst and the Women’s Western Amateur in Michigan.
The Elite Amateur Cup honor earned her an exemption into the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes, where she qualified for match play and advanced to the round of 32.
Everett Munez