Katie Scheck (right), who teamed with Morgan Ellison to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, will skip the U.S. Women’s Amateur as she recovers from a heart procedure.
EDWARD M. PIO RODA, COURTESY USGA
By Paul Payne
Whenever Katie Scheck walks outside the back of her parents’ home in Ooltewah, Tennessee, she can catch a glimpse of the Honors Course in the valley below.
But that glorious vista of Tennessee’s most revered golf course, which will host this week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur, only serves as a constant reminder of Scheck’s absence from competing in the championship that will unfold just a few miles away.
Playing the Honors Course is a rare treat for those fortunate enough to wrangle an invite. Earning a berth in the Women’s Amateur there while sleeping in your own bed each night is even more extraordinary.
But the Honors Course will remain tantalizingly close and yet so far away for Scheck this week. After securing an exemption by teaming with Morgan Ellison of Peachtree City, Georgia, to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball in early May at Daniel Island Club in South Carolina, her summer plans quickly took an abrupt turn.
An unexpected surgery after winning the Four-Ball required an extended period of recovery, leaving Scheck with a narrow window to return her game to championship form. Faced with the dilemma of maintaining her spot among the participants or withdrawing due to her untimely setback, she decided that the importance of having the best golfers in the field trumped her personal desires.
“I have too much respect for myself, for that tournament, and all the great things the USGA has done to take a spot away from someone who has been preparing all summer,” Scheck said. “I didn’t want to play just because I had the exemption. That’s not who I am. That’s not what I was taught. That’s not my values that I believe in. It was hard, but I know I’ve made the right decision.”
She was given an eight-week recovery time with limited use of her left shoulder and minimal movement allowed. She counted the weeks until she would be cleared to resume swinging a golf club, and it left her only three weeks of preparation.
Scheck underwent open-heart surgery when she was only 6 months old, the result of a genetic condition on her father’s side of the family. She later had a defibrillator inserted as a preventative measure, as did her father, Kevin, and her younger sister, Kelli, who is also an accomplished amateur golfer.
“I could go to the pool, go to the beach, even climb mountains if I wanted to,” Scheck said. “It’s just very normal to me. I’ve lived with this my whole life. It’s not like this suddenly happened three years ago.”
With avoidance of contact sports being the only limitation, Scheck pursued golf as her recreational outlet. After her family moved from Chicago to Georgia in 2014, she led her Lake Oconee Academy golf team to three state championships while earning individual medalist honors all three years. She was runner-up in the Women’s Western Junior in 2021 and was named the Georgia High School Golf Coaches Association Player of the Year for her classification.
After two years at Penn State, Scheck transferred to Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, where she was twice named to the All-Southern Conference team prior to completing her eligibility as a graduate student this spring.
But in April Scheck received a series of unexpected warning signals from her monitoring device. After she met with doctors in Atlanta, it was discovered that the lead wire that connects her heart to the device had broken and would need to be surgically replaced.
“They told me I had a month before surgery would be required, and that month covered my conference championship and put me just past the Four-Ball,” Scheck said. “They turned the device off, and I was aware that my safety net wasn't there anymore. It wasn’t holding me back from going. I just didn’t think about it because I wasn’t going to play with fear.”
After much soul-searching and many conversations with her parents, Scheck ultimately decided to surrender her spot in the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Scheck and Ellison were seeded third after stroke play, then embarked on a quest that resulted in winning all five of their matches to secure the title. They won the championship final in 19 holes, completing a week in which the duo played a championship-record 92 holes on their way to securing the crown.
It was over dinner during the championship that Scheck discovered one of the perks for winning was an exemption into this year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur, which would be staged in Ooltewah, the town to which her family had relocated in 2022.
“That was like a dream come true,” Scheck said. “Everyone's goal is to play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur. That’s the most prestigious event any amateur can play in their entire life. And then on top of that, it’s in Ooltewah, Tennessee, at the Honors Course. I joked with my mom, saying, ‘We won't have to get hotel room, and I can sleep in my own bed.’”
“Even though it’s in her hometown, she doesn’t want to be there if she can’t play her best. She’s got too much respect for the game of golf and the tournament to take away from it. We could not be prouder of her.”
Kevin Scheck
But Scheck’s jubilation was quickly tempered following her surgery. She was given an eight-week recovery time with limited use of her left shoulder and minimal movement allowed. She counted the weeks until she would be cleared to resume swinging a golf club, and it left her only three weeks of preparation.
After much soul-searching and many conversations with her parents, she ultimately decided to surrender her spot in the championship.
“It was difficult,” Scheck said. “It's every amateur's dream to compete in such a prestigious tournament, and I was able to qualify to go play in it. But I want to go play when I’m at the top of my game, and there was no way I was going to have time to get into the shape I was at Daniel Island.”
Kevin served as Katie’s caddie at the Four-Ball, and the disappointment of not watching his daughter compete at the Honors Course is soothed by witnessing the integrity behind her decision to relinquish her spot.
“It was her decision, and we agreed,” Kevin said. “Even though it’s in her hometown, she doesn’t want to be there if she can’t play her best. She’s got too much respect for the game of golf and the tournament to take away from it. We could not be prouder of her.”
