Michigan Golf Journal March 2020

Going to Augusta Ally Geer-Park had a career- changing experience in Georgia in 2014 at the ripe young age of 15. She’s hoping the state of Georgia can create a new one again. Next month she will compete for a second time in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She was invited based on being ranked in the top 30 amateurs in the U.S. It was about 100 miles away from Augusta in 2014 that Geer-Park won the AJGA Junior All-Star at Chateau Elan, east of Atlanta. The year before in the same event, her biggest national experience until that time, as a 14-year-old she didn’t make the cut. “I went in and got my butt kicked,” Geer-Park said in refence to 2013. “And my dad said, ‘is this something you really want work at and put the time in – do you think you have what it takes to come back and compete with the best players in the world?’ “I was dancing at the time too, and I quit to focus on golf and came back the next year and won the tournament. That mindset switch of asking myself how much I wanted this, to take my ability and put the work into it and see what I can accomplish. Moments like that have helped define me as a person.” I would call Geer-Park the kind of person that sets MSU Senior to Compete at Augusta National One Last Time By Tom Lang Ally Geer-Park invited to second consecutive Augusta National Women’s Amateur Continues on page 9 >>