DELLWOOD, Minn. – High school senior Gabriella Eifrig traveled over 1,900 miles from her home in Newport Beach, Calif., to White Bear Yacht Club this week, looking to qualify for the 2024 U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur.
Earning medalist honors by carding a 5-under 67 Wednesday, Eifrig will only need to travel 60 miles from home to El Caballero Country Club, site of this year’s national championship July 15-20 in Tarzana, Calif.
“I’m so excited and it’s nice that it’s in California,” said Eifrig, who will make her USGA championship debut later this summer. “I’ve never seen the course, but I look forward to playing a practice round soon. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
“I was confident coming in because I put in some practice this week and my game felt good. Today I played pretty well right off the bat—my putter was feeling good and so was my driver, and I felt like those were the two things that helped me score well.”
Following a three-putt bogey at the par-4 second, Eifrig came surging back by carding three birdies over a four-hole span beginning at the fourth.
She took a step back after failing to get up-and-down to save par at the eighth, but left herself with a tap-in birdie at the par-5 ninth to turn in 2-under for the day.
“I was feeling good after nine—I hit eight out of nine greens on the front, and making a birdie at nine was a confidence boost going to 10,” she said.
Carrying momentum to her back nine Wednesday by sinking a 6-footer for birdie at the 10th, Eifrig wedged a pair of approaches in close to convert birdie chances inside of four feet at Nos. 13 and 16.
Eifrig was one of 16 players to make bogey or worse at the 183-yard par-3 17th, where she made bogey to slip to 4-under for the tournament.
With the lead well in hand, Eifrig was looking for a two-putt par at the last from 20 feet, but her ball had other ideas.
“I just wanted to play it safe and make par on that hole, but it ended up going in,” said Eifrig, who claimed the lone qualifying spot with an eight-stroke victory at 5-under 67.
Currently ranked No. 213 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings, Eifrig fired a final-round 65 at Encinitas Ranch Golf Club to earn a five-stroke victory at the Future Champions Golf Tour's San Diego Junior Amateur last August.
Issues with her schedule resulted in Eifrig choosing Minnesota as her qualifying destination—for good reason.
“My dad grew up Edina and we come up here every summer,” she said. “We had some conflicts with other locations, so we thought, ‘Why not go to Minnesota?’”
Eifrig, who also played beach volleyball at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School, will play her collegiate golf at Georgetown University.
Ryleigh Knaub, from Debary, Fla., carded a 3-over 75 to finish as first alternate, while Emmerson Hinds, of Boulder City, Nev., finished as second alternate by shooting 4-over 76.
The national championship in July at El Caballero Country Club is the second USGA championship contested at the 67-year-old William H. Johnson design.
The course previously played host to the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2018, and hosted the LPGA’s Office Depot Championship from 2002 to 2004.
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