TULSA, Okla. — Ava Bresnahan and her family are members at Southern Hills Country Club, which meant she got to compete in front of numerous friends during Saturday’s Drive, Chip and Putt regional qualifier.
“My parents said the 2027 (qualifier) was going to be here, but then the golf professional here said it was going to be 2026, so we were so excited,” Bresnahan said. “My mom was like, ‘You need to take this opportunity.’”
Last year, Bresnahan finished seventh in the Girls 7-9 age division at the National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club. This year, however, Bresnahan moved up to the Girls 10-11 age group and finished five points short of returning to Augusta National.
Bresnahan is the first alternate behind division winner Addilyn Paige Stephens of Pearl, Miss.
The National Finals take place April 4, 2027, the Sunday before the start of the Masters Tournament. Stephens is well aware of the Masters but said she didn’t know about Southern Hills’s history before arriving at the course on Saturday. The field of 111 competitors in the Drive, Chip and Putt regional qualifier had the chance to share the same practice spaces on which Tiger Woods prepared to win the PGA Championship in 2007 and Justin Thomas did the same in 2022.
“It's really exciting,” said Brian Davis, executive director of the South Central PGA. “We actually did this eight or nine years ago, so this is kind of Round 2 at Southern Hills.
“To be in a place that's hosted PGA Championships and U.S. Opens, it's great for the kids to experience something like this.”
That experience began at 1 p.m., on Saturday under clear, blue skies that brought unseasonable mid-September heat, with temperatures pushing into the upper 90s.
“We've got water stations everywhere,” Davis said. “You do the best you can (with the weather). But I'm sure people from Texas are used to it.”
Several Lone Star State golfers made the trip to Southern Hills for Saturday’s competition and ultimately, five of the eight National Finalists were Texans.
That included Shirley and William Park, siblings from The Colony, Texas, just north of Dallas.
Shirley won both the driving and chipping competitions on her way to scoring 165 total points and winning the Girls 12-13 age group by a 33-point margin. She then went to work cheering for her brother William, who scored a 15-point victory in the Boys 14-15 division.
William matched his sister by also winning the driving and chipping skills.
Asked how much competition there is between him and his sister, William answered. “A lot. We argue about golf all the time.”
Who’s right?
“She’s usually right,” William said.
Emotions are often high in Drive, Chip and Putt competitions, and the day’s first winner demonstrated that. Chloe Wang of Houston told her dad she had a bad feeling before the last competitor’s score was posted. Despite that, Wang’s score of 117 points held up for first place in the Girls 7-9 division.
Wang then shared a tearful hug with her dad before spilling more tears while on the phone with her mom, who was in Houston.
“When I saw the leader board, I was really excited,” Wang said. “I was crying.”
Nakia Davis also was brought to tears Saturday. Davis watched Saturday as her son, Carson Ayuso, qualified for the National Finals in the Boys 7-9 age group with a total score of 131 points. Older son Blake was also a National Finalist in the Boys 7-9 division in 2025.
Davis, the former Vanderbilt golfer who became the first African American to play the sport in the Southeastern Conference from 1993-96, got emotional when thinking about her dad, Warren. He laid the groundwork for his family’s golf tradition because of his “fearlessness” while enduring racism on courses in the 1960s.
“My dad grew up in the ’60s when this wouldn’t be possible,” said Davis, who now lives in Cypress, Texas. “We’re carrying it forward.”
One golfer will be carrying the Oklahoma flag to Augusta National. Tulsa local Zion Benjamin started playing golf with plastic clubs in his backyard and has progressed to playing on Tulsa-area public courses through the area’s First Tee program.
On Saturday, Benjamin won the Boys 10-11 division over Palmer Rody, who lives in nearby Bixby, Okla., thanks in part to his performance on a Southern Hills practice green on which many a major champion has rolled putts, given the course’s illustrious hosting history.
“I was just watching professional golf, and I was like, ‘I want to do that one day,’” Benjamin said of why he has stuck with the sport.
Now, as a National Finalist, an important chapter of his golf story will always be tied to Southern Hills. Perhaps another will be written at Augusta National next spring.
About the Finalists
Chloe Wang was traveling to China last summer and missed the chance to compete in the Drive, Chip and Putt competition. This year, she traveled the southern United States to make her way to Augusta National in the Girls 7-9 division. Wang, from Houston, advanced through qualifiers in Louisiana and Mississippi on her way to the regional qualifier in Tulsa, Okla., where she scored 117 total points after winning the drive and chip skills.
“Last year I was on vacation, so I just forgot about it,” Wang said. “This year, when I came back from (U.S. Kids Golf) Worlds, I went to sign up.”
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Carson Ayuso of Cypress, Texas, is getting the chance to follow in his brother’s footsteps. Blake Ayuso finished fifth in the Boys 7-9 division of the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals in 2025. Carson punched his ticket to the 2027 National Finals with a score of 131 points, including an age-group best score of 55 points in the chipping competition. He remembers well accompanying his brother to Augusta National.
“It’s going to be even better,” Carson said of competing there. “They treat you like you’re the king of the world.”
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After making the 10-hour drive from Pearl, Miss., to Tulsa on Friday, Addilyn Paige Stephens wasn’t feeling well. The last time that happened, according to her dad, Randall, she woke up and won a golf tournament. That history repeated itself on Saturday as she posted a score of 127 to win the Girls 10-11 division over Tulsa local Ava Bresnahan, who competed in the National Finals in 2026.
Stephens posted a balanced victory – she was consistent in scoring across all three categories and won without earning the most points among her age group in any of the individual skills.
“I feel really good,” Stephens said after winning. “I’ve been wanting to go (to the National Finals) for a while.”
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A product of Tulsa’s First Tee program, Zion Benjamin putted his way to victory in the Boys 10-11 age group. Benjamin scored 70 points in the putting competition for a total of 156 points and edged fellow Tulsa-area golfer Palmer Rody.
Benjamin also won the driving competition with 46 points, while Rody took top honors in chipping.
Benjamin’s dad, Blake, played high school golf for Jenks High School and competed in the 2008 Oklahoma Class 6A Boys Golf State Tournament.
“We live very close to here,” Zion said. “It’s pretty cool. I’m excited.”
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Shirley Park went from competitor to cheerleader after winning the Girls 12-13 category at Southern Hills. Park, from The Colony, Texas, advanced to the National Finals with a score of 165 points – 33 points ahead of second place.
A couple of hours later, her brother William won the Boys 14-15 division.
“Just having a strong mental game and focusing on every shot,” Shirley Park said of her keys to victory. “I think it (the National Finals) will be really tense, but I’ll be really excited.”
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Conrad Holzman, of Houston, traveled nearly 500 miles to win the Boys 12-13 age group. Despite the long distance, he found plenty of familiar faces and received loud cheers when he walked to the podium to accept his first-place trophy.
“There’s a few that I’ve really gotten to know throughout the tournaments,” Holzman said of his fellow Texans in the competition. “(I know them) just from all the tournaments I’ve played in throughout the years, just meeting them and how important they’ve been.”
Holzman said chipping is his favorite discipline because of the creativity needed. That creativity paid off Saturday as, despite finishing tied with two others for the most points in that skill (50), his strong chipping score helped him pull away from his closest overall pursuers.
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Emma Stein of Westlake, La., was visibly bothered while warming up on the practice range before Saturday’s competition.
“I was just pulling it really bad, and I fixed my stance,” Stein said.
The fix worked, as Stein won the Girls 14-15 division to advance to the National Finals for the first time in five tries. Stein held her own in the driving competition with 46 points, then clinched her 16-point victory with a score of 70 in the putting competition.
“I just tried to not be stressed about it,” Stein said. “I wasn’t as nervous because I wasn’t expecting anything, but now I’m more excited because I’m actually going.”
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William Park of The Colony, Texas, had a tough act to follow after watching his sister Shirley win the Girls 12-13 age group. William, however, didn’t quite see it that way.
“Not really,” William said when asked if he felt extra pressure to win after watching his sister’s victory. “I’m really excited. It’s on my bucket list.”
Now the Parks will check it off their bucket list together. Like his sister, William topped his division in both driving (71 points) and chipping (45 points). William’s overall total of 176 points was the best in all eight age groups.
“It’s really exciting, kind of unbelievable that we both get to go,” William said.
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