For more than a dozen years, the Golf Club of Houston’s pristine Tournament Course played host to the best male professional golfers in the world. This summer, the thrilling venue will welcome the best female amateurs in Texas when it hosts the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur.
From 2006-19, the Tournament Course was the site of the PGA Tour’s Shell Houston Open. Most of those years, the annual event was contested the week before the Masters. Because of that schedule, the maintenance team at the Tournament Course altered its conditioning to feature almost no rough, lightning-fast greens, and tightly mowed runoff and collection areas around the greens to prepare the pros (as much as possible) for Augusta National.
The results were epic. The Tournament Course produced popular winners the likes of Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, and Hunter Mahan among others.
Emma McMyler wants to add her name to that list.
A Xavier University junior from San Antonio, McMyler won the 100th Women’s Texas Amateur last summer at River Crest Country Club in Fort Worth by defeating Richardson’s Meagan Winans in the final match that went 19 holes. After earning the No. 4 overall seed in the Championship Match Play Bracket with a 1-under 69 in the Qualifying Round, McMyler won five consecutive matches to win the historic Spring Lake Cup, which is awarded annually to the winner of the Women’s Texas Amateur.
A month prior, McMyler won the Women’s Texas Stroke Play Championship by four shots at The Club at Comanche Trace in Kerrville. She finished with a score of 4-under 212, highlighted by a scintillating 6-under 66 in the second round. She played the four par-5s that day in 7-under par – three eagles and a birdie!
“Winning two big events in the same summer really shows that all the hard work I was putting in prior to that summer is paying off,” said McMyler, a two-time Big East Golfer of the Year who recently qualified for the 77th U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club. “Those two wins put great confidence in my game. Since those two events last summer, I’ve really played well throughout the rest of the year. Hopefully I can keep that going into this summer as well.”
McMyler used the confidence from the two TGA victories she gained last summer to her advantage once she got back to school. She won her first college event last October at the Bradley Coyote Creek Classic in Illinois. Three months later, McMyler won the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur – known as The Sally – by one shot in Florida.
The latter triumph earned her a new, exciting opportunity: an exemption into an Epson Tour event. Formerly known as the Symetra Tour, it’s a developmental professional tour a step below the LPGA. McMyler will tee it up as an amateur in the Ann Arbor’s Road to the LPGA powered by the A2 Sports Commission from June 16-18, which is the week before she defends the Women’s Texas Stroke Play Championship (June 24-26 at Traditions Club in Bryan) and about a month before the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur.
With two wins and seven Top-10 finishes, McMyler won the Big East Golfer of the Year award for the second straight time. She led Xavier to its third consecutive Big East Conference title and won Medalist Honors at the 2021 Big East Championships. A two-time member of the Women’s Golf Coaches Association’s All-Academic Team, McMyler held the 243rd spot in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings as of early June.
Xavier Coach Breanna Jenco says McMyler possesses that “It Factor” that all college coaches hope to find on the recruiting trails. McMyler’s drive, focus, and passion for golf all are on different levels than most college golfers Jenco sees, she said. McMyler was long off the tee when Jenco recruited her out of San Antonio’s Brandeis High School. She’s gotten longer recently, said Jenco, who added there was no question McMyler’s two TGA victories last summer boosted her confidence to a new level.
“What she did last summer was eye-opening for everyone,” Jenco said. “She had an awesome freshman year for us and was Freshman Player of the Year and Player of the Year in the Big East last year. She collected those accolades at the end of her freshmen year, then she really took off over the summer.”
In addition to her new-found length off the tee, another reason Jenco likes her player’s chances at successfully defending her Women’s Texas Amateur title in July is her overall competitive demeanor.
“She’s super-steady,” Jenco said. “She’s not going to give her opponent much of anything in terms of openings. She’s had some bogey-free rounds in match play events, and that is exhausting to play against. If she’s not going to make bogeys, and she is averaging about three birdies a round, that doesn’t bode well for her opponents. You’re not going to win many holes against her with par.”
While the Tournament Course at the Golf Club of Houston was built in 2006 specifically to host championship golf, there haven’t been many match play tournaments played there. General Manager Reese McCall said he’s excited to see how the best amateurs in Texas tackle the expansive, tree-lined course that has water or wetlands hazards in play on 16 of the 18 holes.
“In my nearly six years at the club, we haven’t hosted a match play event of this magnitude,” McCall said. “The back nine is set up very well for match play with a great mix of scoring opportunities down the stretch along with some holes that will catch your attention. Hopefully, we have some matches that come down to No. 18, also known as ‘the ball washer.’ The finishing hole on the Tournament Course had consistently been one of the toughest holes on the PGA Tour year after year.”
McCall said the course will play firm and fast for the best amateurs in Texas, and that’s just fine with McMyler.
“I love summer golf in Texas,” she said. “I haven’t been home since last December. It’s been a while, and I’m excited to come home and play in a few events. I think I’m peaking at the right time, hopefully that continues.”
Elite amateurs like McMyler and many of the others who will be in the field for the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur have different options where they can compete during the summer months. For McMyler, playing in her state championship is a no-brainer.
“The North and South Amateur at Pinehurst is at the same time as the Women’s Texas Amateur, and I’m glad I made the correct decision on which to play,” she said. “As an athlete, you have to make the decision on which events are going to be best for you. Staying at home and being able to drive to an event is very appealing to me.”
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