Suzie Tran of Poulsbo, Wash. fired a final round 7-under par 65 to win the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship at Koasati Pines at Coushatta Resort in Kinder, La. The three-day tournament for players 14-18 years old concluded November 15, 2021.
Tran’s final round included seven birdies and 11 pars to give her a one-stroke victory over Isabella McCauley from Minnesota.
Bellevue’s Angela Zhang finished second place in the Girls 13-under division after firing a final round 4-under par 68.
Tran has already been noticed by the University of Washington and Gonzaga University golf programs for her excellence in golf, and is possibly headed toward a D-I scholarship in the sport at some point. Though college coaches cannot comment on high school players, they know who she is.
In the 2019 Washington Women’s Amateur, Tran, competing as a 13-year-old against mostly collegiate players, held the first round lead before finishing third in the championship. She also finished third in the 2021 Washington Women’s Amateur.
Tran won medalist honors, with partner Lauryn Nguyen, in qualifying for the 2021 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, and in August 2021 Tran won her first AJGA event, the AJGA Junior All-Star at Stanford.
She is now a high school sophomore, being home-schooled by her father, who is a math teacher at Poulsbo Middle School.
Keep an eye on Tran this summer, and in the summers to come.
