Former All-American Summerhays-Roberts Qualifies for the LPGA Tour
DAYTONA BEACH -- Just when life was as perfect as could be, it got better.
After recently tying the knot with sweetheart, Cory Roberts, on Sept. 26th, former BYU All-American Carrie Summerhays-Roberts will join her father, Bruce Summerhays, in the life of a PGA professional. Summerhays-Roberts is the first Utahan ever to qualify for the LPGA Tour.
"I cannot even tell you how excited I am," Summerhays-Roberts said. "And it has not even come close to setting in yet."
This was Summerhays-Roberts' first try in qualifying for the LPGA Tour and persevered through two more stages of qualifying after disqualifying herself in the first pre-qualifying stage in Venice, Florida. Summerhays-Roberts made an accidental mistake with a wrong score signed on her scorecard after the first round of this first stage. The next step taken was to re-qualify in the second pre-qualifying stage in Indio, Calif.
Summerhays-Roberts shot six-over-par (77-68-73-76--294) to tie for 13th place and qualify on to the second stage of qualifying school in Daytona Beach, Florida.
In the final stage, Summerhays-Roberts finished one-under-par (71-73-70-73--287) to place 21st. The cut was set at 23rd position with 136 players all diving for the top 23 spots.
"I was obviously blessed for my honesty after having to disqualify myself and then to play as well as I did to make it through those next two stages and to qualify for the LPGA Tour," Summerhays-Roberts said. "Every part of my game came together; it was just amazing."
Summerhays-Roberts was one of nine All-Americans to qualify for the LPGA Tour this year.
"There are a lot of All-Americans that never make it on tour," said BYU head golf coach Sue Nyhus. "And it is rare that someone can put everything together at the appropriate time and make it on tour."
Summerhays-Roberts had the pleasure of having her new husband out there as her caddie cheering her on an also keeping her composed.
"It was my job to keep her calm, relaxed and breathing," Roberts said. "But it was hard enough to keep myself doing all those things when I was going nuts inside!"
The newly-weds were feeling the pressure together and now get to celebrate together.
"In all the sports I've played over the years, this pressure was nothing like anything I have had to faced before; and I was just caddying," Roberts said.
Summerhays-Roberts will attend the LPGA Rookie Orientation Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The next item of business for Summerhays-Roberts will to take care of is sponsorships, which will not be tough with her father playing on the Senior PGA Tour readily available to offer any advice needed.
"I'm not sure what I'm going to do about sponsors yet, but I've been playing with Ping irons and woods my entire life and it would be cool to do a 'daddy-daughter' things with Ping," Summerhays-Roberts said.
Summerhays-Roberts' first LPGA Tour event will be in February in Phoenix. Until then, Summerhays-Roberts will return to Provo to practice and prepare for the upcoming Tour schedule while her husband will carry on with his school schedule. Roberts will continue to caddy for his wife despite still being enrolled in school.
"My plans for now are to take online and independent study courses for the Winter semester so that I can travel with Carrie, caddy for her and support her," Roberts said. "I'm just so happy that we're married and that Carrie and I can live this dream together."
