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2024 WOMEN’S PLAYER OF THE YEAR: KELSEY CHUGG
Kelsey Chugg was thrilled to win a sixth Women’s State Amateur title, long before knowing that the victory ultimately would make the difference between her and runner-up Ali Mulhall in the UGA Women’s Player of the Year presented by Primo race.
Kelsey Chugg celebrated her sixth Women’s State Amateur title this year at TalonsCove Golf Club.
Chugg left the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur in Massachusetts disappointed about losing in the round of 64, but the points she earned by advancing to match play also were needed to lift her above Mulhall.
So she earned a seventh Player of the Year honor in the 13-year history of the award, even without getting any bonus points for calmly responding to the bear-spray incident in the Sand Wedge Cafe.
There are multiple potential starting points for the summary of Chugg’s 2024 season. The snapshot of crisis management as a contestant in the Utah Women’s Stroke Play Championship at Mountain Dell Golf Course captured her life, perhaps even better than the image of her holding the Women’s State Am trophy for the sixth time.
As the ranking Salt Lake City Golf administrator on site, Chugg dealt with emergency medical and law enforcement personnel, responding after a patron’s canister of bear spray was accidentally discharged in the clubhouse and affected bystanders’ eyes. The episode came during a weather delay, as Chugg was anticipating a playoff. She actually was relieved when a scoring update made Adeline Wach the winner by one stroke.
“It really is another day in the life,”the 33-year-old Chugg would say later. “Never a dull moment in my job. I’ve kind of learned to compartmentalize things. I think you have to, in my life. That was definitely a stressful day.”
Of winning her seventh Women’s Player of the Year award Kelsey Chugg said, “I say it all the time, I love to play, I love to compete. It’s almost like therapy for me, amid other things in life.”
We’ll never know if Chugg could have regrouped to participate in a playoff. The takeaway: Working in golf administration is not necessarily conducive to maintaining an elite golf game, yet Chugg’s consistency is remarkable. In the Player of the Year race that counts a woman’s top four events, Chugg posted 193.33 points to Mulhall’s 172.5. Chugg earned 100 points for the Women’s State Am win, 50 as the Stroke Play runner-up, 25 for her Women’s Mid-Am showing and 18.33 for a tie for eighth in the Mary Lou Baker Open.
Mulhall, a 2024 Nevada high school graduate whose family is now based in St. George, collected 75 in the Women’s State Am, 37.5 in the MLB Open and 30 each for winning the Women’s Spring Open (with sister Molli) and the Coral Canyon Women’s Amateur.
“I say it all the time: I love to play, I love to compete,” Chugg said. “It’s almost like therapy for me, amid other things in life. I always enjoy competing against these great young players. It’s awesome; they keep me sharp.”
2024 UGA Women’s Player of the Year feature written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photos provided by Fairways Media/Randy Dodson.