NEWTON, Mass. – There were emails awaiting her Sunday morning, though none of them were to salute Alexandra Austin for posting the only sub-par score in the opening round of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.
No, sir. Her Saturday achievement – sweet as that 2-under 70 was at Brae Burn CC – wasn’t about to stop the real world from spinning on its axis. The emails were from customers needing answers and Austin, who works for her father’s insurance company in northern Virginia, spent the morning before her second-round tee time doing office work.
Welcome to the world of competitive amateur golf where the game is your passion but it’s not your work. There are no paychecks, only gratitude for the chance to play elite competitive golf and satisfaction when the job is well done.
Of course, it’s not always the bottom-line score that deems whether you’ve handled things positively because after making a double-bogey on Brae Burn’s devilish par-3 sixth, her 16th hole, Austin gritted out a birdie-par-par finish to right the ship. With a smile, she acknowledged that her 78 wasn’t as impressive as Saturday’s 70, but at 148 “we held it together” and finished T-3 in the stroke-play portion of the national championship.
“We” being emphasized with a wide smile because Austin is a little more than 5 ½ months pregnant so you better believe that she wasn’t alone down the stretch in blustery second-round conditions.
“The last couple of holes I could feel him moving,” laughed Austin.
It would be taking extreme literary license to jokingly suggest the son (Alexandra and her husband, Josh Grove, who also caddied for her, have picked out names but nothing has been finalized) reacted to his mother’s shot into the downhill par-3 sixth. It was slightly long left and on a severely sloped green she pitched through the putting surface into rough and made double. Or that the baby boy loved the birdie at No. 7, her 17th hole, and strong par finish at the par-3 eighth. (At Brae Burn, competitors started their round at either No. 1 or No. 9.)
Either way, “he’s active,” laughed Austin and that’s a very good thing because it matches his mother’s competitive spirit. In fact, “I didn’t ask for approval (from her doctor) to play. This is my favorite tournament and I knew I would play and feel fine.”
If she were home in northern Virginia, Austin said she’d be going to the gym, lifting weights, and riding her Peloton. So walking for more than five hours up and over serious elevation changes for than 6,200 yards at Brae Burn CC – even being 5 ½ months pregnant – was a challenge Austin was more than equal to.
All of which segues into the true barometer of the health of golf because you should measure it not by the PGA and LPGA tours – they are merely entertainment vehicles – but by the deep passion for the game that exists at the amateur level, both competitively, collegiately, and recreationally. There is a love and respect for the game at this level that disappears exponentially when it becomes your livelihood.
Alexandra Austin can speak from personal experience.
A standout golfer at Radford University (Class of ’15), Austin has played the game since the age of 8. What appealed to her first and foremost was the chance to play a sport that her father, Gordon, loved and it became twice the fun when her mother, Michelle, chose to take up the game at the same time.
That golf presented options to quench her competitive fires and possibly lead her onto the college landscape ignited Austin’s passion. And, yes, she was intrigued by the chance to do it professionally.
What delayed her entry into the pro world was the chance to play in the USGA’s Women’s Amateur Four-ball Championship. She and her good friend from Virginia, Lauren Greenlief, made the semifinals in 2016, which earned them an exemption into the 2017 event. When that was over, Austin, who had been living in the Orlando, Fla., area and playing minitours, officially declared herself a professional and accelerated her focus on the play-for-pay world.
What prompted her exit from the pro world at the end of 2018 was the painful realization that the love of golf had disappeared. “When I woke up one day and didn’t feel like practicing, I said to myself, ‘This is it. I’m done.’ ”
Austin had played well at the minitour level and felt up to the next level.
But against large fields of aspirants trying LPGA Tour qualifying to at the very least earn status on the Symetra Tour, Austin saw little progress in her game. What she felt was an absence of fun. It was now a business.
“My parents were great. They totally supported my decision and I’m glad I tried it and don’t have to look back with any regrets,” said Austin, who told of not touching a club for nine months when she called it quits to pro golf.
Her return to amateur golf has revived all the passion and all the love she once had for the game. There have been significant measures of success – she was a quarter-finalist at last year’s USGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship and this past summer Austin was runner-up in the Virginia State Women’s Open – but the glory is more in the form of smiles and friendships.
With her husband of two years on her bag and her mother walking every hole of this USGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Brae Burn, Austin appreciates this return to amateur golf more than ever. Asked if it was easier to brush off the bad shots when she reminds herself that she’s carrying a child, Austin shook her head.
“Yes, I know he’s with me. And I felt him the last few holes today,” she said after shooting 78 in Round 2.
“But amateur golf, even in these championships, is fun and with bad shots, you smile and get support from your competitors. I mean, sometimes I’m out there and I’m not sure what my score is because I’m just enjoying being out there, hitting shots and having fun.”
The enjoyment grew exponentially in the Round of 64 Monday with a win against Olivia Herrick, then even more in Tuesday morning's Round of 32 when Austin defeated Catherine Matranga. In the round of 16 Tuesday afternoon, the magic continued as Austin charged past Clare Connolly to confirm her berth in the quarter-finals.
Brilliant stuff for a spirited competitor who has a presence about her. Yes, her game is solid and it is getting stronger and stronger with every swing.
But it is very true this notion that there is a glow around a woman who is pregnant.
Equally true, too, is the glow to amateur golf and how it brings the game into focus and reminds us how and why we fell in love with the game in the first place.
