Texas golfer Bentley Cotton heads to U.S. Ladies’s Beginner Championship

Courtesy of Texas Athletics

With the placing inexperienced beneath her toes, senior Bentley Cotton is aware of the right way to keep composed regardless of subsequent week’s hectic schedule. As she exchanges fun together with her caddy, Cotton takes a deep breath and approaches the ball, figuring out that sinking the subsequent putt will safe her spot within the U.S. Ladies’s Beginner Championship — the nation’s main golf match for feminine novice golfers. 

Cotton competed in three tournaments in simply 5 days, showcasing her dedication and ability on the golf course to land a qualifying rating of 73 that despatched her to the championship.

Cotton completed ninth on the Ladies’s North and South Beginner in Pinehurst; two days later, she certified for the U.S. Beginner in Arlington earlier than boarding a aircraft to Chicago for the Ladies’s Western Beginner.

Just like the U.S. Beginner, regional novice tournaments have two days of stroke play earlier than the highest gamers advance to match play. Cotton defined that the competitors’s construction helped put together her for the championship. 

“It gave me a bit of little bit of a refresh enjoying in these occasions,” Cotton stated. “I obtained to expertise each the stroke play a part of it and the match play, which is a big benefit for the Ladies’s [Amateur].”

Within the 18-hole follow rounds earlier than every match, Cotton targeted on studying the course — notably the placing greens.

“When you arrive on the course, you wish to analyze the greens and get your really feel down for the pace of the greens,” Cotton stated. “Each course is similar with reference to attempting to present your self as many birdie possibilities as you possibly can.” 

In 2019, Cotton completed the U.S. Beginner tied for seventeenth place however has not performed within the U.S. Ladies’s Beginner since 2020. 

Since debuting as a Longhorn, Cotton has introduced her stroke common down from 74.95 to 73.29 and accomplished 10 rounds with a par or higher rating throughout her junior season. Returning to the novice occasion after three years, Cotton seems to show the steering from her Texas coaches into success. 

“It’s unbelievable what I’ve finished in my years at Texas, and my coaches have positively had lots to do with that,” Cotton stated. “[Ryan] Murphy, who’s our head coach, actually dove into my wedges and helped me notice what I wanted to do to turn out to be the subsequent finest golfer on the earth.”

Cotton has performed golf for Texas for the final three years however has practiced in Austin since she was seven. As an Austin native, Cotton grew up {golfing} at her neighborhood nation membership, the Balcones Nation Membership, and now primarily performs on the Austin Nation Membership. 

Together with her household and pals close by, Cotton stated she invitations her teammates to her household’s home for crew dinners, one thing she hopes to do to have fun her second U.S. Ladies’s Beginner look. 

“I really feel like I’m nearly just like the mother,” Cotton stated. “Everyone’s part of my household on the crew, so we attempt to welcome them in and make them really feel as in the event that they’re house.”

Cotton will hit the fairways of Bel-Air Nation Membership in Los Angeles on Aug. 7 for the primary day of matchplay as she hopes to additional develop her skilled profession.