Former W. Chester golfer set for U.S. Women's Amateur
Kelly Whaley liked playing golf when she was a child but didn't always listen to everything her parents told her about the game, even if her mother, a former LPGA tour player who made history by competing in a PGA Tour event, was one of the top teaching pros in the country.
Kelly Whaley liked playing golf when she was a child but didn't always listen to everything her parents told her about the game, even if her mother, a former LPGA tour player who made history by competing in a PGA Tour event, was one of the top teaching pros in the country.
"We did butt heads a lot," she said.
But Whaley, 19, the daughter of Suzy Whaley, a former West Chester resident who is secretary of the PGA of America, accepted the advice and has developed into a fine college player. She will compete in her first U.S. Women's Amateur beginning Monday at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Delaware County.
"It's really fun knowing what she has done, trying to live up to that," Kelly Whaley said Friday while visiting her mother at the PGA Championship. "It's always been my goal to do what she has done. It just pushes me to do better. You either want to do what she's done or you can go farther.
"There's a little bit of pressure in there. Everyone expects, 'Oh, your mom did this, so you should live up to that.' But it's a lot of fun."
Suzy Whaley, who is two steps away from becoming the first woman president of the PGA, the 28,000-member organization of golf professionals, likes to joke that if you ask Kelly and her older sister, Jennifer, "how we got them to play, they will tell you, 'My parents gave us the option of nine holes or 18.'
"Certainly neither of us expected our children to play high-level golf," she said. "But they were going to learn. They were going to be part of a family activity. I love golf for that reason – that we're outside, that it's fun. I don't know if they thought it was fun the way we had them out with us, but we did it as a family and because of that, our girls worked harder."
Bill Whaley, who grew up in Kennett Square and graduated from Unionville High School, is national director for PGA Tour Properties, which oversees the network of TPC courses, and will caddie for his daughter this week.
Suzy Whaley, whose parents moved to West Chester when she was playing college golf at North Carolina, is director of instruction at Suzy Whaley Golf in Cromwell, Conn. She played on the LPGA Tour in 1990 and 1993, and drew national headlines in 2003 when she competed in the PGA Tour's Greater Hartford Open on an exemption she received by winning the 2002 Connecticut Section PGA championship.
As a freshman last season at North Carolina, Kelly Whaley ranked second on the team in stroke average. She has had a fine summer season, advancing to the semifinals of the Western Women's Amateur and making the cut in an event on the Symetra Tour, the LPGA's developmental circuit.
Now she'll compete in the Women's Amateur at the difficult 6,259-yard, par-71 Rolling Green layout.
"That's all I've wanted to do," she said. "It's a huge tournament so it's so special to be able to play. I'm super excited. I'm prepared and ready to go."
The Whaleys have family in the area and hope that they and friends from Suzy's days playing at Radley Run Country Club will come out.
"Kelly is striving for better ball-striking and more birdies, and she's working hard on that," her mother said. "We're just going to support her."
The local lineup
Philadelphia-area contestants in the field include:
Kate Evanko, 18, West Chester, Unionville High School, entering Georgetown
Madelein Herr, 18, New Hope, Council Rock North HS, entering Penn State
Aurora Kan, 22, Boothwyn; Concordville HS, Purdue
Alessandra Liu, 23, Bala-Cynwyd; Lower Merion HS, William & Mary
Jackie Rogowicz, 18, Yardley; Pennsbury HS, Penn State
Meghan Stasi, 38, formerly of Voorhees.
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