LITCHFIELD PARK, Ariz — She may have been a long way from her home of Litchfield Park, Arizona, but 15-year-old Ashley Shaw felt right at home at the Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, N.J., as she shot a one-over par 73 to win the John Shippen Cognizant Cup by two strokes on Monday.
By winning the tournament, the teen earned a spot on the LPGA Tour, as she will play in this weekend's Cognizant Founders Cup, which will also be played at the Upper Montclair Country Club, on a sponsor's exemption.
That means the 15-year-old will be going up against the best female golfers in the world, including Nelly Korda, Lydia Ko, Jin Young Ko and more than two dozen others who have won major tournaments on the LPGA Tour.
"I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity that THE JOHN SHIPPEN, Intersport and Sommer Woods has given me to play in this event," Shaw said in a press release. "To have the opportunity to play in an LPGA event is amazing. To be just 15 and to be able to have that experience of playing in a tournament with professionals at such a young age ... I’m extremely grateful."
Shaw emerged as the champion of the eight-player Cognizant Cup despite being the only amateur golfer in the field and ending her first nine holes by shooting a bogey and double bogey on the eighth and ninth holes, respectively. That left her with a score of three over par at the turn.
However, she birdied the 10th and 11th holes and made par on the final seven holes to claim the tournament title, beating Atlanta's Mariah Stackhouse, 30, and England's Georgia Oboh, 23, by two strokes.
Shaw will make her LPGA debut on Mother's Day weekend after winning a tournament where her mom, Sylvia, served as her caddy.
"I'm blessed," Sylvia Shaw said. "I'm excited and am a very proud mom. Ashley works very hard, and to see her experience the hard work coming to fruition is remarkable."
Despite only being 15, Shaw's game is already getting a lot of attention.
In 2022, when she was 13, she caught the eye of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, who is an avid golfer.
Shaw joined a new junior golf tour, called The Underrated Tour, which is aimed at making the game more equitable and accessible.
She went on to win the first-ever girls division of the Curry Cup, which is where she got to meet the tournament's namesake.
"I found it funny when I walked up to the tee box, he was like, 'Hi, I'm Steph,'" Shaw told AJGA.org in 2022. "And I was like, do you really need an introduction?"
Winning the Curry Cup allowed Shaw to compete in the Hilton Grand Vacations ANNIKA Invitational, where she got to meet one of the greatest female golfers ever, Annika Sorenstam.
Now, her game will get to be seen by the game's current greats, who Shaw will hope to take over for in the near future.
Shaw is currently ranked 194th in the American Junior Golf Association rankings, but she has been rising up those rankings since finishing tied for 11th in the Jim Click Automotive/HSL Properties Championship in Tucson in May 2023, a tournament she won in 2022.
Since then, she finished tied for 132nd in the 2023 Girl's Junior PGA Championship in Aug. 2023, tied for 30th in the Joanne Winter Arizona Silver Belle Championship in Dec. 2023, tied for 5th in the Mizuno West Coast Classic on March 14, tied for 16th in the Sacramento Junior Championship on March 28, and in 3rd place in the Mesa Hohokams Junior All-Star on May 2.
Shaw originally began competing in AJGA tournaments in 2021 and will be heading to London as an Underrated Golf Tour ambassador for the tour's first-ever tournament in Europe at the end of May.
Arizona sports
The city of Phoenix is home to four major professional sports league teams; The NFL's Arizona Cardinals, NBA's Phoenix Suns, WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Cardinals have made State Farm Stadium in Glendale their home turf and the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix is home to both the Suns and the Mercury. The Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers play at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale.
Phoenix also has a soccer team with the USL's Phoenix Rising FC, who play at Phoenix Rising FC Stadium in Phoenix.
The Valley hosts multiple major sporting events every year, including college football's Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate Bowl; the PGA Tour’s highest-attended event, the WM Phoenix Open; NASCAR events each spring and fall, including Championship Weekend in November; and Cactus League Spring Training for 15 Major League Baseball franchises.
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