Kristen Schelling celebrated her birthday in style this week: She flew to Celtic Manor in Wales to begin practice for next week’s Junior Ryder Cup.
“To represent the U.S. in the Junior Ryder Cup, to be on that team, what an honor!’’ said Schelling, a junior at Mesa’s Red Mountain High School who turned 17 on Wednesday.
“I’ve played a lot of high school golf, but never team golf – being paired with other players -- in (international) competition.’’
Schelling is one of five East Valley youths who made the prestigious 12-player squad that will take on their European counterparts Sept. 18-19 in the third edition of the matches. Others include Philip Francis, Drew Kittleson and Esther Choe of Scottsdale, and Andrew Yun, who recently moved to Chandler from Tacoma, Wash.
The U.S. team will have its work cut out for it, as the Europeans have won the first two Junior Ryder Cups. And it hasn’t been close, as the Euros ran away with the competition by scores of 9 (and a half) to 2 (and a half) in 2002, and 8 (and a half) to 3 (and a half) in 2004.
“That’s the goal: to bring back the Ryder Cup,’’ Schelling said of her team’s mission. “It’s going to be so much fun, and it’s just great that five of the 12 players are from here.’’
Schelling is the defending Class 5-A state champion, and while her summer didn’t start off with a bang, she has it going lately, as her second-place finish at the Westfield National PGA Junior Championship earned her a berth on Team Red, White and Blue.
“It was like a puzzle, and I couldn’t put it together,’’ Schelling said of her golf game this summer. “Finally, I just let it happen, and it all turned around for me.’’
The biggest win came at the “Big I” Invitational in Odessa, Texas, where Schelling emerged from a very talented field. Now, she’s on her way to Celtic Manor, which will be the site for the 2010 Ryder Cup matches.
“It’s going to be so much fun. I don’t know if we get to meet the U.S. team, but we do get to meet Nick Faldo and Sergio Garcia,’’ Schelling said. “Then we get to play the matches, which I know will be the most fun of all.
“Really, I’m just so excited because this is my first trip to Europe. I’ve been to Mexico before, but that doesn’t really count since it’s so close to Arizona.’’
Upon her return, Schelling will assume her role as Red Mountain’s top player, with hopes that her team might be able to dethrone Xavier Prep for the team title. That would have been an easier task had the Mountain Lions been able to attract another junior phenom to the school – U.S. Women’s Amateur champ Kimberly Kim, who recently moved to Queen Creek.
“Kim ‘Squared’, which is what we call Kim – that’s her nickname – would have been huge, and we were close to having her on the team,’’ Schelling explained. “But in the end, it just didn’t work out.
“So I guess we’ll just have to try harder and play better if we’re going to beat the Gators this fall.’’
Who knows? The way Schelling’s play has sky-rocketed recently, perhaps some of that will rub off on her teammates. She is an amazing success story, having taken up the game only five years ago.
“I was a gymnast before, and also played soccer and basketball,’’ she said off her early years. “Then I started playing golf with my mom and dad, and I just loved it, and knew it was for me.’’
Under the eye of instructor Rick Beacon, Schelling has developed her game while practicing at her “home courses” – Longbow, Las Sendas and Riverview.
Soon, the hard part will come: Selecting a college. The process began recently, with 29 schools already expressing interest in Schelling.
“I plan to visit a lot of them before it’s all over with,’’ Schelling said of the recruiting process. “Ultimately, I do want to play on the LPGA, but college is a big part of that. I love to learn.’’
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