The 'Three From B.C.'

The Last Three British Columbians To Win The Canadian Women's Amateur Championship From L-R: A.J. Eathorne, Tracey Lipp And Jessica Potter - Images Courtesy Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer/British Columbia Golf

The 105th playing of the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship begins Tuesday at Marine Drive Golf Club in VancouverAs the last three British Columbia women to win the event, Jessica Potter, A.J. Eathorne and Tracey Lipp each has a little piece of the tournament’s rich history. British Columbia Golf's Brad Ziemer asked them to reminisce about the tournament and what winning it meant to them. We begin with the most recent British Columbian to win the event:

Jessica Potter captured the title in 2006 at Moncton Golf & Country Club in New Brunswick. To say that win came as a surprise to the then 20-year-old Potter would be an understatement.

The Coquitlam native, who graduated from Gleneagle High School, went to Moncton struggling with her game. In fact, she almost didn’t go at all. “I was going through quite a few swing changes with my coach at the time, who was Brett Saunders,” Potter says.

“I seriously thought about not going because I was going through such a transition and I felt like it might be best to just stay at home and work on things. But I decided I should just go and try and fight my way through it.”

Potter beat Veronique Drouin of Sts-Anges, Que., on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to earn what she calls the biggest win of her life. She recalls leaning heavily on her short game to get through the week. “I had to get it up and down a lot because my swing was failing me a little bit and I had a couple of days where my putting was huge. Each day there was something that was a little off and I tried to rely on the other half of my game to get me through. Somehow I was able to get through it.”

Potter had travelled east alone to play in the tournament. Her parents were at home trying to track her progress on their computers. “They were refreshing their screens all day,” Potter says.

The win helped earn Potter, who was heading into her junior year at the University of San Francisco, a spot on Canada’s National Amateur Team. “It was a big win for me in terms of getting me on the national team and getting me an exemption into the Canadian Open and it was a huge confidence boost for me going into my junior year in college. A lot of things came together mentally with that win . . .I think it was a turning point where I started to really believe I could win and play.”

In recent years, Potter -- make that Dr. Potter -- hasn’t been able to play as much golf as she’d like. After graduating from university, Potter attended medical school. Now 32, she just completed her residency in Portland and has accepted a private practice position in San Francisco. Her specialty is podiatry. “I am excited,” she says. “It has been a long haul and I get to start a new chapter now. Now I won’t have the supervision crutch to fall on. It’s all me now.”

A.J. Eathorne’s win in 1997 came much closer to home. The Penticton native won her title at Rivershore Golf Links in Kamloops, where she beat American Grace Park, then the world’s top amateur. Eathorne had just finished a successful junior year at New Mexico State University and recalls not being happy with the way she was portrayed as the underdog heading into the event. “I remember watching on TV and it said ‘Grace Park, golf phenom’ and I was like, huh?” Eathorne says with a chuckle. “And it was like ‘A.J. Eathorne, local favourite.’ That’s all I am, a local favourite?”

Eathorne says she was highly motivated heading into the event. “I was always very competitive and it (the Canadian Women’s Amateur) was the one thing I hadn’t won yet and my good friend Tracey Lipp had won a couple of years before. It felt like it was my time. I was ready.”

image courtesy AJ Eathorne

A.J. Eathorne's Little Girl Macie Is The Light Of Her Life These Days

Eathorne was buoyed by the support of family and friends who made the trip from the Penticton area. “Some of my parent’s friends from Penticton came up and they had little badges that said A.J.’s Army,” she says. Eathorne, who was 21 at the time, ended up winning by seven shots. She finished with a four-round total of 278 or 10-under par. “It kind of put the asterisk on my amateur career,” she says of her Canadian Amateur win.

“I think it showed me I was past that stage and I really wanted to move on to the professional side of the game the following year. It was a big thing for me, it was a stepping stone. It was obviously huge for me to win it and have that confidence. It was weird, it was kind of like I checked off a box and went, all right, I’m ready to move on.”

Eathorne did indeed move on to the LPGA Tour after graduating from New Mexico State. She played full time for several years and made more than $1 million in career earnings on the LPGA Tour. For the past seven years she has been an instructor at the Predator Ridge Resort in Vernon, where she runs the popular 'Swing Like A Girl' program. “I get a nice balance of teaching and doing my 'Swing Like a Girl' groups,” she says. “That is good fun, I love to see the ladies and pushing that side of things. And I spend a lot of time with Macie, which is the favourite part of the day.”

Macie is Eathorne’s year-and-a-half-old daughter, who these days is keeping her mom very busy. “She is awesome.” Eathorne says. “She’s moving and grooving. One busy kid.”

Tracey Lipp’s win came in 1995 at Beloeil Golf Club just outside of Montreal. She was 22 and headed east thinking she had a chance to win. “I was confident,” Lipp says. “I had won the BC (Women's) Amateur the year before and then I lost to A.J.(Eathorne) in a playoff at the BC Am a month earlier. I was playing well, I was confident. I am not going to say I thought I was going to walk away with it, but I did know I was playing well and it was on my radar for sure.”

Lipp, who played her collegiate golf at the University of B.C., remembers being a bundle of nerves coming down the stretch. She topped her drive on the 18th tee and made double-bogey but managed to hang on for a one-shot win. “The nerves hit me near the end of that final round and I do remember I could barely swing the club.”

Lipp, who in 1992 became the first UBC golfer to win a NCAA event, called her Canadian Amateur win the biggest of her life. “I won some university events, but that is definitely the biggest one. It is amazing, people say ‘you won the Canadian Amateur!’ It is so long ago, but it is an honour to have won it.”

Lipp played professional golf on the Futures Tour and in Europe after graduating from UBC, but eventually packed it in. “It was an amazing experience but I don’t think I was mentally ready for what it took at the time,” she says. “I wish I had done some things a bit differently. I didn’t want to be out there on my own travelling for months on end. It is not an easy lifestyle. And I wanted to have a family. I am not saying you can’t do both, but there wasn’t that much money out there then, either.”

Lipp’s family now consists of husband Brent Derrheim, who is the Head Professional at Beach Grove Golf Club in Tsawwassen, 15-year-old daughter, Zoe, and 12-year-old son, Charlie. These days, Lipp works for the South Delta Minor Hockey Association as an administrator. Her job and family keeps her busy and she doesn’t have as much time as she’d like to play golf. Her son is beginning to compete as a junior so she hopes that might get her out on the links more often.

“I do enjoy it,” she says. “We played at Vancouver Golf Club recently and it was fun. I hit it good. My short game needs some work, but when you don’t practice what do you expect, right? I was only one-over on the back nine at Vancouver Golf Club and that was great. Don’t ask me about the front.”