Midway – What’s the name?
There are plenty of things about Arden Allein Lushheim, the new Utah Women’s State amateur champion. We’re just talking about her first and middle.
Move some letters and it spells adrenaline. This is one way for Park City golfers, a rising junior at the University of Nebraska, heading towards the 119th Women’s AM Championship.
Louchheim sealed him off in a 36-hole championship match against 17-year-old St. George’s Phenome Kate Walker on Thursday, beating teenagers 7 and 6 in a competition that only ended early on at Wasatch Mountain State Park Golf Course.
“I’ve definitely been on adrenaline all week. Obviously, Nebraska is not 7,000 feet so I’m bumping even further at elevation,” Lushheim said. “But I think I’ve been juice for 5-10 yards all week since I was in juice.
“I don’t know if my heart rate has fallen below 100 in the last 24 hours. I think the passion and desire to win will drive you. I’m sure I’ll crash tonight, but I managed to get through it.”
Certainly, adrenaline played a role. But so did the stability, experience and the ability to do things other state contestants have never done before. He continues to win the title after disrupting the great Kelsey Chug, the event’s six-time champion.
Louchheim defeated Chugg 3 and 1 in Wednesday’s semi-finals shortly after beating Byu Golfer and best friend Berlin Long.
“Why are you saying that?” It was her response when her father, the Utah Jazz broadcaster David Rock, mentioned how the Chug Conqueror was flat in the next match.
But then she used it as a motive, and on Thursday the same motive drove her in when she put her name in the Utah Golf record book.
Lushheim, 20, has joined these five Utah-raised women who played college golf out of state and is back to win the amateur Utah women. State/Nebraska).
Grace Summer Hayes won the event in 2020 before enrolling in Arizona.
“It means everything. … Anyone who is the name of Utah Golf has won this tournament: Grace, Tess, Lila (Galleai), Kelsey, Kelsey, and many more. Adding my name to that list means the world.
“I’ve seen all of those players and seen how successful their careers are. Having this little checkpoint for me is a real verification that I’m moving in the right direction and that what I’m working on in the game is right,” she continued. “I’m confident that I’ll be in my third year at Nebraska.”
As far as these two names are concerned, her name (Arden) is the street that her mother, Akemi, grew up. Her middle name (Alline) is the name of her father’s grandmother.
“My parents both worked in sports broadcasts,” said Lushheim, a Nebraska sports media major and calling Big Ten Network’s college football games. “That’s why I’ve heard a lot of interviews in my lifetime.”
To her brother Carter, she said: “Thank you for spending my last day at 22 (years) watching golf.”
To Long, who believed she helped her chug with her “incredible golf mind,” she said: “These last two victories didn’t happen without you.”
About the Maria Chi Band, where you can listen to performances throughout the afternoon on Pioneer Day: “I think we might have to make a playlist for the Maria Chi Band.”
As for Walker, she has nothing to hang her head. The two-time Girls 4A Individual Golf Champions (2023 and 2024) got off to a decent start, but I saw Louchheim make five birdies on an 11-hole stretch and clean up.
Louchheim won six holes after the age of 18, and then closed at the 30th hole, relatively conservative, almost error-free. Walker sunk a few long putts to extend the game and never lost hope.
“I just didn’t make a putt (18th in the morning),” Walker said. “It’s really that. That’s match play. And I wasn’t hitting it like yesterday. Yesterday, I made a lot of putts, and they weren’t in today, and it’s golf.
Walker turned 18 in August and made a promise to play at Utatech’s “My Hometown School.”
The week she overcame a volatile 78 in stroke play qualifying and then beat Natalie McLean, Page Anae, Adrie Nelson and Ashley Lamb, was a confident man who hit Louchheim Buzzsaw.
“It taught me good things, I taught me that there is enough,” she said. “So I think it gave me a lot of confidence.”
Louchheim won the US women’s amateur victory at the Bandon Dunes Golf Club in Oregon next month. This is a development that means adjusting vacation plans.
119th Utah Women’s State Amateur
Wasatch Mountain State Park Golf Club
Thursday’s 36-hole Championship Match
- No. 7 Arden Louchheim def. No. 29 Kate Walker, 7 and 6
