ROGERS — Nerves gripped Kelli Shean from the moment she arrived Tuesday morning at Pinnacle Country Club. The junior on Arkansas’ golf team felt nervous when the P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship qualifier began and a bogey on the par-3 third only intensified her anxiety.
That’s when her best friend and first-time caddy, Chandler Rackley, flashed Shean a wide smile and — per her pre-round advisement — started making her laugh.
“He just said, ‘Don’t worry about it,’” Shean said. “From then on, we were making jokes, and it was real relaxing.”
So calming, in fact, that Shean finished with three birdies and 12 pars, earning a spot in the NW Arkansas Championship field with a qualifier-best, 2-under-par 69. Shean landed one of two qualifier spots in this weekend’s LPGA tournament. Tour member Ashli Bunch snagged the other, while Arkansas’ Kristin Ingram shot 79 and failed to qualify.
Shean, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, used her recent experience playing at Pinnacle to get by with a performance UA coach Shauna Estes-Taylor called “average.” Shean said she “never sank a putt at all on the front nine” but rebounded to birdie Nos. 10, 11 and 14.
“We’re 25 minutes away (from Pinnacle), so I’ve played it four or five times,” Shean said. “I love this course. I never played it before they did all the changes. Everyone keeps telling me that the course is so much harder, but I don’t know any other way.”
Estes-Taylor and former Arkansas golfer and LPGA Tour rookie Stacy Lewis watched much of Shean’s round, and they both raved about her recent improvements. Shean, who registered a 74.79 stroke average for Arkansas last season as a sophomore, advanced to the second round of match play at this summer’s United States Women’s Amateur.
“Kelli’s been playing great all summer,” Estes-Taylor said. “The last few weeks of practice she’s been swinging so nicely. Her short game has been really sharp, and she has done a good job of managing her game. She’s super talented, and I think she’s one of the most talented players in college golf.
“She missed quite a few opportunities to go even lower out here.”
Lewis said: “Kelli’s got great talent. She’s a great athlete. She hits it plenty far, but when she first came to Arkansas, she would just swing for the fences — driver on every hole. She’s learned a lot about course management and how to maintain her round, and you can see that in how she’s playing.”
Shean said she’s hoping to simply make the cut this weekend, though she’d settle for “any good golf.”
As long as she plays like she did when Rackley lightened the mood Tuesday, Estes-Taylor said Shean should continue her summer of stellar play. Shean agreed that, come Friday, she needed to concentrate on only her own game.
“(The front nine) was very frustrating,” Shean said. “I didn’t want to think too much about how everyone else was doing. It was a lot of pressure, but once I calmed down and got the back nine going, it was better.”
Kelli Shean
School: Arkansas
Height: 5-foot-6
Class: Junior
Hometown: Cape Town, South Africa
Notables: Won the United States Amateur qualifier in Frisco, Texas, by shooting 72 and advanced to the second round of match play at the event. … Has played in every Arkansas event in two seasons as a Razorback and dropped her stroke average to 74.79 as a sophomore. … Named to the Southeastern Conference’s All-Freshman team after posting a 76.22 stroke average.
LPGA Qualifier Scores
69 — Kelli Shean*
70 — Ashli Bunch*
79 — Kristin Ingram
81 — Janice Gibson
* Top 2 Qualified
