While women’s golf is full to the brim with talent from juniors to seniors, there were three standouts among the field in 2020. Adrian Anderson, Rachel Kuehn and Jayne Pardus had the most successful year in amateur golf at a local, regional, state and national level. In honor of their impeccable play in the last year, they have earned the Richard S. Tufts Award and been named the 2020 Carolinas Junior Girls’, Women’s and Senior Women’s Players of the Year.
Related: Past Champions
Adrian Anderson of Murrells Inlet, S.C. has taken junior girls’ golf by storm this year with 22 top-10 finishes out of her 25 starts in 2020. A few of these include claiming victory at the WSCGA Junior Girls’ State, the Region 6 5A and the PKBGT Invitational at Bermuda Run Country Club. Notably, the member of the Carolinas Mid-Atlantic Girls’ Challenge Matches team earned runner-up at the Jimmy Anderson Girls’ and Mimosa Hills Junior as well as earned third at the Hope Valley Junior and Carolinas Girls’ Championship.
In addition to the Carolinas Junior Girls’ Player of the Year honor, Anderson has also earned the 2020 Beth Daniel Award, the South Carolina Junior Golf Association Girls’ Player of the Year distinction. Anderson will graduate high school in 2022.
Rachel Kuehn of Asheville, N.C. claims her first Carolinas Women’s Player of the Year honor after a year full of top finishes in several prestigious events. Kuehn kicked off the year being named to the 2020 U.S. Arnold Palmer Cup Team. From there, she captured the Ladies’ National Golf Association Amateur and won her first putter boy at the Women’s North and South Championship. After her victory at Pinehurst, Kuehn headed to Maryland for the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
The Wake Forest University junior made a deep run advancing to the Round of 16, one of three Carolinians to do so this year. In CGA play, Kuehn finished 4th at the Carolinas Women’s Amateur and won the Carolinas Women’s Four-Ball with her partner, Jensen Castle.
Jayne Pardus of Mount Pleasant, S.C. is the only repeat honoree this year as this is her second consecutive year earning Carolinas Senior Women’s Player of the Year award. Pardus’ first win of the year came at the WSCGA Senior Championship where she swept the field for the second year in a row with a 12-shot victory. Pardus continued her outstanding run with a win in the Senior Division at the South Carolina Women’s Open. Just one week later, she tied for sixth at the Senior Women’s North and South Amateur, which was the best showing of any Carolinian in the field.
Finally, the reigning Carolinas Senior Women’s Player of the Year wrapped up 2020 by earning runner-up at the Carolinas Senior Women’s Amateur. Pardus was also named the 2020 Women’s South Carolina Golf Association Senior Player of the Year.
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