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The Air Force Academy's Eisenhower Golf Club is playing host to the 74th U.S. Girls' Junior Championship this week. This exclusive event features some of the top women's amateur players in the world.
Of the 156 players in the field, there is only one from Colorado. 18-year-old Logan Hale proudly represented her home state in her first-ever USGA Championship.
"It was a super cool experience," Hale said. "Just being apart of such an amazing group of girls and players, it's cool to just make it here."
Logan grew up in Colorado Springs before moving to Erie ahead of her sophomore year of high school.
"This is home turf," she said. "There was a lot of people that came up to me and were like 'we're rooting for you.'"
Before golf, skiing was Logan's, first love.
"I was 100 percent into skiing and golf wasn't even in the back of my mind," she recalled. "But then I started taking some lessons and over time I was like, 'oh I could be pretty good at this', I just overall liked it better and had a bigger passion for it."
Pursuing that passion led her to a Division I golf scholarship to the University of Denver.
"I love Colorado in general and I just got the best feeling also from the coaches there too, Martha Richards she's just an amazing coach," Hale said. "The campus is super pretty too so everything about it just kind of checked all my boxes."
Logan wrapped up her first USGA Championship on Tuesday at 17 over par and tied for 128th place.
"This is just a course that if you don't have your A game, it's a tricky course to just play in general," she said. "We all make mistakes out there but today I just couldn't get into a rhythm."
It wasn't the outcome Hale hoped for but this is just the beginning for the talented, young golfer. Up next, Hale plans to defend her 3A State Title as a senior at Erie High School.
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