Golf

Amy Bockerstette Becomes First Person with Down Syndrome to Compete in Collegiate Championship

May 12, 2021 by Tara S

By: Joel Baell

Amy Bockerstette became the first person with Down syndrome to compete in a national collegiate athletic championship.

Bockerstette, 22, teed off Monday at the National Junior College Athletic Association national championship at Plantation Bay Golf & Country Club in Ormond Beach, Fla., representing Phoenix’s Paradise Valley Community College.

A Special Olympian in Arizona, Bockerstette catapulted to stardom when she was given the chance to play a practice-round hole with Gary Woodland at the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open. At TPC Scottsdale’s par-3 16th, Bockerstette made a “Did you see that?” up-and-down for par, telling Woodland “I got this” before sinking an eight-foot putt. A performance, wrapped in Bockerstette’s indelible positivity and Woodland’s sincere joy, that went viral twice: the week of the Phoenix Open and again after Woodland won the U.S. Open later that year.

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U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN: KAITLYN PAPP EARNS LOW AMATEUR HONORS

December 14, 2020 by Tara S

14 Dec 2020
by AmateurGolf.com Staff Photo by: Chris Keane / USGA photo

Kaitlyn Papp, a senior at the University of Texas, finished tied for ninth and earned low amateur honors at the 75th U.S. Women’s Open at the Champions Golf Club in Houston.

Papp, an Austin native, fired a 3-over 74 in Monday’s final round to complete her week at 3 over par, six shots behind the winner A Lim Kim of Korea. Prior to Monday, she posted scores of 71, 68 and 74 over the first three days of the tournament. With a birdie on the 72nd hole, Papp finished two shots clear of Australia’s Gabriela Ruffels and Sweden’s Maja Stark for low amateur honors.

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Texas amateur Kaitlyn Papp hangs tough at U.S. Women’s Open, trails by four

December 12, 2020 by Tara S

By Beth Ann Nichols | December 12, 2020 9:57

HOUSTON – Kaitlyn Papp first picked up a golf club, a cut-down putter, on the island of Okinawa where her dad, Tony, was stationed as a Navy Medical Service Corps officer.

“We would practice putting next to the flight line,” said Tony. “The green perched up nice and high and we could look out and watch the jets come in and come out.”

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U.S. Women’s Open is a home game and a reunion for Longhorns Kaitlyn Papp, Agathe Laisne

December 9, 2020 by Tara S

By Julie Williams | December 9, 2020 3:14

Like every other part of 2020, Kaitlyn Papp’s preparation for the U.S. Women’s Open included something non-traditional: a graduation ceremony. Not surprisingly, she didn’t walk. Instead, the Texan pulled up a Zoom link and watched the ceremony from home. She already received a cap and gown from the university and everything.

Papp finished off her degree in physical culture and sports from the University of Texas in three and a half years, a notable feat for the two-time First-Team All-American who owns two individual titles as a Longhorn.

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