One year ago at The Olympic Club, Amari Avery, competing in her first U.S. Women’s Open, wasn’t sure what 2022 might bring: college or professional golf. Now, four and a half months into life at USC, she’s absolutely thriving as an 18-year-old freshman and among the favorites at this week’s NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship, held May 20-25 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Physically, Avery feels she’s ready for LPGA. But mentally, she said, it might have been too soon for the play-for-pay ranks.
“I think skipping a big level like that,” said Avery, “I feel like it could cause harm more harm than good to certain people’s games.”
And given the amount of star power Avery possesses, every building block will prove crucial to maximizing her intriguing potential. Last year at Olympic, Cheyenne Woods, niece of Tiger, played a practice round with Avery and declared that she has “it.”
Avery became part of the national conversation as early as elementary school, when she starred in the 2013 Netflix documentary, “The Short Game.” Her dad, Andre, nicknamed her “Tigress” and her personal website lists all the ways she’s like her hero Tiger. Both were born on Dec. 30 in Orange County, California. Both are African-American and Asian (Avery’s mother is Filipino). Both recorded their first ace at Heart Well Golf Course and notched their first big title at what’s now known as the IMG Academy Junior World. (Avery was 6; Tiger was 8.)
It’s probably fitting then that Avery wound up going to college because Woods did that too, winning the national title at Stanford in 1996. No black female has ever won an individual NCAA Championship since the first event was held in 1982.
Avery’s three-win season trails only USC’s Annie Park (2013), Mikaela Parmlid (2003) and All-American Irene Cho (2006), who each had four. Both Park and Parmlid collected their fourth wins at NCAAs. Avery comes into the national championship currently No. 3 in the Golfweek rankings and on the shortlist for the ANNIKA Award.
“I think she’s growing up every month that she’s here,” said head coach Justin Silverstein.
Homeschooled since the sixth grade, being back in the classroom came as a bit of a jolt to Avery, but she’s loving it now. Even little things like going to class in jeans with her hair down, laptop in hand, is a nice shift from everyday golf life.
“I just want to grow up a little bit and find who Amari is without the golf part,” said Avery. “Just kind of see what that looks like and see who I become.”
Avery said she cherishes time spent with her family, especially daily practice back home at Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, California, with her father and little sister Alona. But this time apart is an important building block, too.
“I’ve always wanted to turn pro, and I will do it at some point,” said Avery, who told USC coaches that she’ll be there for at least two years.
“If I’d turned pro before going to school and playing college golf … I wouldn’t know how to handle that world by myself.”
In one semester at USC, Avery, who has won three times, said her game has done “almost a complete 180” and her confidence has soared. While she’s competing against many of the same players from junior golf, Avery said most of their games seem completely different at the next level.
Avery’s ball-striking, which was already a strength, has gotten stronger thanks to the Trojans’ data-driven approach. She’s especially fond of the line drill on the simulator, where the focus is on hitting a line rather than trying to hit a number.
“I hardly miss any greens now,” said Avery. “I don’t have to chip as much.”
She quickly noted that Silverstein still reminds her to practice her short game, however, as he should.
Silverstein said Avery arrived trying to do too much with her golf ball and didn’t know her yardages. He has encouraged her to hit cuts, unless there is no other option. At the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, he wrote in her yardage book in big black Sharpie, “No trick shots,” on the par-5 13th.
Silverstein said Avery hits the ball more solid than anyone he’s ever coached, and he told her that if she hits 54 greens in a college tournament, “theoretically, there’s almost no way you can lose.”
A more disciplined approach, less aggressive targets, a better understanding of her yardages and better speed on the greens. (Avery hit her putts too hard when she arrived.) These are critical areas of improvement since she came to L.A.
Putting, Silverstein said, is what needs to improve the most from now until Avery leaves school, which might not be as early as she expected given the bonus of NIL (name, image, likeness) money.
Avery’s first NIL deal came with Bank of America when she shot a commercial for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She’s also an ambassador for Angel City Football Club, a team whose owners include Natalie Portman and Serena Williams.
And just recently, she fulfilled a longtime dream of signing with Nike.
“I think it has been a dream ever since I touched a club,” said Avery, who signed with Wasserman for representation and has the same agent as Cameron Champ.
Days before the NCAA Championship, Avery opened her own bank account and got a debit card. While she declined to divulge how much she’s making in NIL deals, she described it as a “great deal of money,” and not what she expected for a freshman in college.
She’s currently learning about taxes, savings and LLCs. It’s a lot to take in, and Avery is grateful to be learning these lessons before she turns pro.
“I come from a middle-class family,” she said. “We have some money but not a ton. There was a point where I thought I have to support my family in some way, so if that means turning pro at 17, then that’s what I was going to do. But luckily, we had a lot of backing to keep me going for all these years, and obviously, my little sister will keep going and finish her junior career.”
NIL money makes a four-year career at USC seem entirely possible, though right now she’s only committed to two.
When Avery won the NCAA Stanford Regional last week, she beat the top two amateurs in the world. No. 1 Rose Zhang finished one stroke back, and Ingrid Lindblad of LSU finished four back in fifth.
Avery has posted 10 of 24 rounds in the 60s and boasts a scoring average of 71.04. She needs only one more round in the 60s to tie the school’s all-time record set by Kyung Kim in 2014. Annie Park holds USC’s season record scoring average of 71.36.
The impressively consistent Avery has finished outside the top eight only once this semester in eight starts – a tie for 18th in the Silverado Showdown.
Last summer, Bailey Davis came up short in her bid to become the first Black American female to win a USGA title when she fell to Zhang in the final of the U.S. Girls’ Junior. Though Avery wanted to be the first to do it, she was rooting hard for Davis to make that history.
“Wherever we can get a win like that, I’ll take it,” Avery said.
The more times Avery finds herself in the position to be the first, she said it gets both easier and harder. Easier in that she’s had more experience, harder in that she still hasn’t done it yet.
“Eventually we’ll get one of those,” she said, “and that will be long gone in the past.”
That kind of history could be made this week, and with the NCAA Championship now broadcast live on Golf Channel, it would be captured for the world to see.
Amazingly, the player once known as “Tigress” has yet to meet her idol Tiger.
“It’s the worst thing in the world!” Avery exclaimed. “I’ve gotten very close to him.”
She once watched him play a 6 a.m. practice round at Torrey Pines, where Woods’ manager gave her a golf ball.
“I’m pretty sure he saw me,” she said. “I would hope that he knows who I am, but I’m sure we’ll meet somewhere down the road.”
That much seems destined.