Friends, Teammates And Competitors

Whitney Wade, Taryn Durham Enjoy Girls’ Junior Together On Course And Off It

 

By David Shefter, USGA

 

Fairfield, Conn. – Whitney Wade could have easily gone back to her hotel, had some dinner and relaxed after easily winning her opening-round match at the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship on Wednesday. After all, it had been a long day for many of the competitors since stroke-play qualifying needed to be completed in the morning to get the 64 players for the match-play portion of the competition.

 

Whitney Wade cheered on her friend and high school teammate, Taryn Durham, after winning her first-round match at the U.S. Girls' Junior. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

Fortunately for Wade, she had finished her second round on Tuesday before thunderstorms suspended play for the day.

 

Nevertheless, Wade was out strolling the fairways with her foldable chair in tow as day turned to dusk. The 17-year-old who will play for the University of Georgia in the fall wanted to see her close friend and high school teammate, Taryn Durham, play 13-year-old phenom Mina Harigae .

 

Unfortunately for Durham, Harigae, already a two-time California State Women’s Amateur champion, posted a 4-and-3 victory. Wade, meanwhile, easily handled 13-year-old Marika Lendl, the eldest daughter of eight-time Grand Slam tennis champion Ivan Lendl, 5 and 4.

 

“I’m not blaming it on that, but I am a little tired,” admitted Durham, who had to complete her second stroke-play round on Wednesday.

 

The two then had some anxious moments before the draw came out, fearing that they might face each other in the first round. Lendl and Durham had the same 36-hole total of 158, but when the USGA’s Tournament Player Program, which does the match-play draw, spit out the brackets, Wade and Durham were on opposite ends of the draw.

 

Four years ago at the U.S. Junior held at York (Pa.) Country Club, three members of the same Dallas club were in the field and two of them, Matthew Rosenfeld and Tyler Leon, wound up squaring off in the first round.

 

Taryn Durham extracts her ball from a bunker during her first-round match against Mina Harigae. Durham lost, 4 and 3. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

“My dad was worried,” said Wade, who has competed in many events with Durham but has never played her in match play. “I didn’t want that to happen. That would have been tough.”

 

Wade and Durham go way back to elementary school, where they actually competed on the varsity girls’ team at Glasgow ( Ky. ) High as fourth- and fifth-graders, respectively. In Kentucky, boys and girls are permitted to compete on high school teams before they actually get to high school. John Holmes, a 2003 U.S. Open participant who now plays for the University of Kentucky, did the same thing at his high school.

 

“They were the leaders of the team,” said Dan Flener, Durham ’s caddie and friend who graduated from Glasgow High in 2001 and now plays on the men’s golf team at David Lipscomp University in Nashville, Tenn.

 

“I think I was shooting 130,” said Durham of her early results. “We had eight girls on the team and five played in the matches (with four scores counting).

 

From 1997-2000, Glasgow High won consecutive girls’ team state titles. Individually, Wade has won the state title twice and finished as the runner-up on three other occasions. Durham was sixth this past fall.

 

This week, Durham and Wade have been traveling together in a mini-van their parents rented. On Tuesday night, the players, dying for some southern cooking, discovered one of their favorite restaurants.

 

“We went to Cracker Barrel,” said Wade . “We had chicken fingers. Kids stuff.”

 

Added Durham: “It’s only 10 minutes away from where we are staying. We couldn’t believe there was a Cracker Barrel, but there is not much (in the way of good restaurants) here.”

 

Of the two players, Wade has had the more-decorated amateur career. At 13, she became the youngest player ever to win the Kentucky State Women’s Amateur. A year earlier, she qualified for the 1998 Girls’ Junior at famed Merion Country Club outside of Philadelphia, Pa., and advanced to match play where she lost to Kristy McPherson, a former standout at the University of South Carolina, 4 and 3. In fact, this is the fifth appearance at the Girls’ Junior for Wade, who only skipped 2000 at Pumpkin Ridge because she did not want to travel all the way to Oregon .

 

As things turned out, Wade would finally play Pumpkin Ridge this year when she earned a spot into the Women’s Open, where she shot rounds of 81-79.

 

She has also competed at the prestigious American Junior Golf Association’s annual Canon Cup competition, a Ryder Cup-style event pitting the top juniors from the eastern and western parts of the U.S. And last year, she was selected to play in the inaugural Junior Solheim Cup that was held just prior to the Solheim Cup in Minnesota . It pitted top U.S. juniors against a similar squad from Europe . The competitors also had a chance to go to the opening ceremonies for the regular Solheim Cup that was held at Interlachen Country Club.

 

Mark Wade, Whitney ’s father, said the experience in Minnesota was priceless and that organizers played all the national anthems of the countries involved.

 

Going to Pumpkin Ridge for the Open was another memorable moment for Wade . She played practice rounds with Natalie Gulbis, Karrie Webb and eventual runner-up Kelly Robbins . Playing a difficult USGA setup certainly was a great tune-up for the Girls’ Junior and gave Wade plenty of confidence coming into this championship.

 

“My hands were shaking on the first tee,” said Wade of her Open experience. “After a few holes, I got comfortable with it … I just watched how (the pros) played and what kind of shots they would hit. Karrie would sometimes run a shot up with a 6- or 7-iron. It was just fun to watch.”

 

And Wade got all the perks of the pros, including a courtesy car for the week. “It was a Subaru and I drove it like it was my car,” she said. “I didn’t expect to get treated (like royalty).”

 

While Wade moves on to face fellow 17-year-old and two-time U.S. Women’s Open participant Naree Song in the second round of match play on Thursday, Durham will be left to watch and support her friend.

 

“She’s always there to support me,” Durham said, “and I’m there to support her.”

 

David Shefter is a staff writer with the USGA. He can be reached at dshefter@usga.org.