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These Girls are Good!

*Editor’s Note*

BYU Women’s Head Coach Carrie Roberts, the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year for three of the last four seasons, knows a thing or two about woman’s golf in Utah. As the daughter of former 3-time PGA Tour Champions winner Bruce Summerhays, who was the head professional at Wasatch Mountain State Park and Homestead Resort courses during her high school years, the game of golf is part of her DNA.

Roberts played high school golf with the boys her senior year at Wasatch High in Heber, Utah, in addition to playing soccer and was the 1996 state MVP in basketball. Roberts won the Utah Women’s State Amateur multiple times and played for the BYU Women’s Golf program where she racked up six-individual wins, was a four-time, first-team All-Conference player, an honorable mention All-American, back-to-back Mountain West Conference Golfer of the Year awards and was named to the 2009 MWC All-Decade team. 

Following a two-year stint on the LPGA Tour, Roberts returned to collegiate golf as the head coach for BYU Women’s Golf where her teams have annually won team titles and have collected three conference championship trophies.

Through her career Roberts has seen the turning of the tide for girls golf in the Beehive State, where the high school girls golf program is now a league of their own and has grown to nearly 2,000 golfers in 2019.  HER Fairways magazine reached out to Coach Roberts to get her take on the current lay of the land of girls golf in Utah.

By Carrie Roberts

The PGA tour has a motto, “These guys are good!” When it comes to girls junior golf in the state of Utah you can change that to “These girls are good!”

In the last several years our girls have gone on to receive scholarships and compete at some of the most competitive collegiate teams in the country. Not only do they compete, they win and they turn pro and they win some more! Lea Garner is a great example. After her time as a state champion at Bonneville High School, Lea went on to excel at BYU where she won several individual titles and even more trophies with her team, including two conference championships and a trip to the NCAA Championship. She is the two-time Utah Women’s Open champion and she developed her game right here in the state of Utah. 

In my day a 75.00 scoring average made you an All-American. These days you need a 72.00 scoring average or below to even be considered for that award. 

The level of play has significantly been improving and it continues to get better each and every year. This summer I have seen a junior golfer shoot a course record 62! Now high school state champions have to shoot rounds in the mid 60’s to win. 

Several years ago we asked to play high school golf with the boys, now we have girl’s high school teams that grow and develop their players into collegiate stars. 

As Phil Mickelson says, “I”m hitting bombs.” Well, if you want to see a junior golfer hit it 300 yards, that’s right, 300 yards, that’s not a typo and there’s more than one doing it, then check out girls junior golf in the state of Utah to be blown away. 

The future of women’s golf is bright and it starts with the youngsters of the Beehive State!