SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – The faces tell the story after the last drives, chips and putts have been made – often before the scores are tallied. The players in Drive, Chip and Putt regional qualifying usually know where they stand. They know a drive off the grid is costly, and that sinking the final putt might put them over the top and on the road to Augusta National.
The expressions varied at windy Whistling Straits during Saturday’s regional qualifier. There were some grimaces, a handful of frowns, but most telling were the smiles on the faces of the eight division winners who quite literally collected their ticket – golden, no less – to the National Finals slated for the Sunday before the 2027 Masters Tournament. Even after an overcast sky and a sprinkle of rain replaced early sunshine, these youngsters were absolutely beaming.
Two of the winners are returning National Finalists, and they live but a few minutes apart in Lockport, Ill.
Brielle Downer, the 10-year-old winner of her division, came within an inch of winning the Girls 7-9 division as an 8-year-old at the 2025 National Finals. She and Ellie Kim of Danville, Calif., faced a tie-breaking putt on Augusta National’s 18th green that year, and ultimately Kim walked away with the division title.
Now, thanks to Downer’s 60-point victory in the Girls 10-11 division, she’ll get a second chance at the National Finals. She made two of three putts at Whistling Straits, including the 30-footer.
“It motivated me a lot,” Downer said of that close call in 2025. “I practice every day. I’ve learned from Nelly Korda, do my routine, focus on it, step to the ball and hit it.”
Fellow Lockport resident Emory Munoz, winner of the Boys 12-13 age group, will be making his third trip to Augusta National after finishing ninth and seventh, respectively, at the National Finals in 2023 and 2024.
“It honestly feels good to just be going back,” said Munoz, who will turn 12 by April. "It feels really good. The best part will be being with my friends and my family.”
He led his division in driving, booming three drives over 220 yards, but also scored well in chipping, an area in which he had struggled in the past.
“The first year, chipping (at Augusta), I thinned it over the green, and the second year, I did pretty much the same thing,” Munoz recalled.
Two of his three chips on Saturday settled about three feet from the hole, which he saw as a vast improvement.
The day’s closest outcome came in the Girls 12-13 division. Fiona Lin of Markham, Ontario, finished one point ahead of Madison Pyatt, a Eureka, Mo., resident who won the Girls 7-9 division at the 2024 National Finals. Lin scored 65 points in putting compared to Pyatt’s 60. Lin gained ground when her second putt, from 15 feet, finished within a foot of the cup compared to Pyatt’s finishing two feet away. Those extra 10 points carried Lin over the top.
“It’s actually the worst part of my game,” Lin said. “Today, maybe I just got lucky, because I made the 30-footer, and it’s my first time doing that.”
But Lin’s day was about more than luck. She finished second in the regional qualifier at Laurel Valley Country Club last year, and Lin’s mother, Xiaolin Chu, said she had worked hard on her putting since then.
Going down Magnolia Lane, seeing the course. And the grass is so nice.
Seven-year-old Miles Chu of O’Fallon, Mo., was consistently good in driving and chipping and outstanding in putting. He sunk his first two putts to lock up a 12-point victory over Landon Hunt of Omro, Wis., and win the Boys 7-9 age group despite Hunt making his final putt.
“I was a little bit nervous,” Chu said. “But not that nervous.”
A golfer since he was 2, Chu now plays from the shortest set of tees at Winghaven Country Club back home. He counts driving as the best part of his game, and that paid off with two drives over 140 yards into a west-southwest wind blowing 15 mph.
In the Boys 14-15 division, Anthony Moore of Eureka, Mo., had a similar experience, except his drives were all around 260 yards, which helped carry him to a 24-point victory over Jackson Kettner of Cedar Falls, Iowa. But there was more to the 14-year-old Moore’s game.
“The best part of my game was probably my putting,” Moore said. “I needed to make some big putts.”
Sinking putts from six and 30 feet was important, especially because Kettner had already made his first two putts.
“No lie, it’ll be amazing,” Moore said of the National Finals. “Going down Magnolia Lane, seeing the course. And the grass is so nice.”
Alexi Omillian of Kansas City, Mo., was consistent off the tee with three drives over 210 yards. She made one of her three putts to run away with the Girls 14-15 division title on her last try. She scored 55 points on the green and won that skill.
“I just tried not to think about it,” the 15-year-old said of her last chance. “I’ve played DCP since I started in golf, and I’d never made it to a regional. This was my fifth try. I’m just so excited. I knew what everyone else in front of me had done, so I knew I had to get some points on putting.”
Rohin Patel of Bloomingdale, Ill., the Boys 10-11 division winner, almost sounded like a TV golf analyst in describing his game: “Get the ball down the middle. The short game is always the hardest part of the game. If you get your short game down, you’re always going to be the best player.”
That formula worked for the 10-year-old. He was third in driving and putting and second in chipping, compiling 109 points for an eight-point margin of victory.
Patel’s dad, Parthiv, called Rohin “pound for pound the best golfer, because he’s so little,” but Rohin stood tall when it counted.
So did the smallest player in the field of 112 competitors. Ruby Appleby, a 7-year-old from Mequon, Wis., was the youngest of the four Appleby siblings in the regional qualifier. Competing in the Girls 7-9 age group, she was the first in her family to hit her nine shots, and she won her division by a dozen points on the strength of her splendid putting. She picked up only nine total points for her three drives, but was the second-best chipper, and by sinking her first putt and coming close on the next two, jumped from third place to first.
Appleby knew exactly how she’d celebrate. “Maybe go get ice cream,” she said. “My favorite is cookies and cream.”
As was the case with the other seven National Finalists, the smile on her face said it all.
About the Finalists
Ruby Appleby, 7, of Mequon, Wis., may be a Masters trivia expert someday soon. Having watched on TV only since last year, the Girls 7-9 age group winner already knows the winner gets a Green Jacket, and she has picked Justin Rose as her favorite golfer. Why?
“Because he’s almost won the Masters multiple times.”
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Miles Chu’s favorite golfer was Tiger Woods until Michael Thorbjornsen, recent winner of the Rocket Classic, came along. Chu, the O’Fallon, Mo., resident who won the Boys 7-9 age group, wants to attend Stanford, as Thorbjornsen (and Woods) did.
The clincher came at the recent BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, where Thorbjornsen – a Drive, Chip and Putt National Champion in 2016 – posed for a photo with his newest fan and signed a hat.
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Brielle Downer of Lockport, Ill., is hard to beat on the putting green, but players in the Lockport Chamber of Commerce golf outing at Broken Arrow Golf Club would have a chance to do so just days after Downer won the Girls 10-11 age group at the Whistling Straits regional qualifier.
As part of a charity fundraiser, players will take aim at putts of 15 and 30 feet, which is similar to the length of putts Downer will face next April in the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta National.
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Rohin Patel, winner of the Boys 10-11 age group, said qualifying for the National Finals tops the experience of winning a two-day Illinois Junior Golf Association tournament because of the iconic destination.
Patel, of Bloomingdale, Ill., has followed in the footsteps of his golfing brothers but is the first to advance to Augusta National.
“I just got into it,” he said of tagging along on the golf course. “Going down Magnolia Lane? It’s going to be really exciting. It’ll be a great view.”
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Like many girls, Fiona Lin of Markham, Ontario, counts Nelly Korda as her favorite golfer, and for more than her on-course skills.
“She’s just a really good golfer,” said Lin, winner of the Girls 12-13 age group. “She’s a role model. At school, I wrote a biography of her as well.”
But Lin, unlike most of the National Finalists, doesn’t see professional golf as a vocation. “Maybe a lawyer,” Lin said.
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Emory Munoz, the Boys 12-13 age group winner from Lockport, Ill., has improved at golf since his first appearance at Augusta National for the 2023 National Finals, but one thing hasn’t changed: He’s as big a fan of Jordan Spieth as they come.
The reason is simple: “I play like him,” Munoz said. “Birdie-bogey every hole.”
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Alexi Omillian of Kansas City, Mo., won the Girls 14-15 age group. She will use her father, Doug, as her caddie at Augusta National, and he’s thrilled for her.
“She’s busted her butt for six years now just to get better at golf and now she’s starting to reap some of the rewards, enjoy the fruits of it,” he said. “It’s been fun. She gets to see things I never got to. I’m just riding her coattails.”
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Anthony Moore, 14, of Eureka, Mo., was quite eloquent in describing what winning the Boys 14-15 age group to qualify for the National Finals meant to him: “This means a lot to me. It’s always been a goal since I started my golfing journey when I was 7 or 8. I watched my first Masters when I was probably 7 – the Tiger Woods Masters. It got me into golf.”
