iMPACT CLASSIC: Teen ready for pros

Amanda Steinhagen, a 17-year-old rising senior at Vienna's Oakton High School, will face her toughest competition in the biggest event of her golf career tomorrow when she begins play in the Duramed iMPACT Classic at Richmond Country Club.

Steinhagen, an amateur, won the right to compete with the pros by shooting a 36-hole total of 148 in a qualifier last month.

"Playing with pros, I know I'm going to be nervous going into this because they're professionals and I'm only going to be a senior in high school," Steinhagen said.

But Steinhagen has plenty of tournament experience.

As a sophomore, she won the 2007 VHSL Girls Open state championship. Last year as a junior, Steinhagen got off to a bad start in the girls state tournament, shooting an 80 on the opening day of competition, but she bounced back with a par 72 the second day to finish one stroke behind the leaders in a fourth-place tie. She earned the fourth-place medal in a playoff.

Last year, she entered the USGA Junior Girls Championship and made the cut to advance to match play.

Steinhagen has adjusted to playing against college golfers. Now, she'll have to make another adjustment: playing in front of a gallery.

"I think just when I get out there, I'll notice there will be people watching me, which will be weird," she said. "But I think once I get out on the golf course, I'll be OK. For me, when you're standing over a ball, you don't notice anything around you. You don't even hear anything. You just tune it out, so I don't think it's going to affect me that much."

Steinhagen was 6 when she picked up the game by playing with her older sister Jennifer, then 14.

"She was running track, and the golf coach wanted her to possibly try out for the golf team," Amanda said. "She wasn't interested, but she just went to practice hitting balls and stuff like that at the par-3 golf course that I originally started playing at."

Jennifer's involvement in the game got their father, Bob, involved in the sport as well.

"My dad started playing and I guess little sister just wanted to be included in everything," Amanda said.

For Bob, it was clearly not a matter of a father prodding his daughter to play.

"She wanted to be involved in it," he said. "She asked for a set of clubs at 6, and after a few weeks, [I knew] she was serious, so that's when I found a set of cheap junior clubs."

"I actually cried my way into getting clubs is how I believe I got started," Amanda said. "I just went into the back yard with my sister, and dad would make me a deal where if I hit a certain tree or hit a certain distance with the club, he'd get me a better set of clubs."

By age 8, Amanda was playing in her first tournament on a nearby par-3 course.

"I don't think I did too well," she said.

Nowadays, Steinhagen can be found at the International Country Club, where she puts in about nine hours of practice a day.

"Depending on the day or the weather situation, I normally go over around noon-ish and leave every day when it gets dark," she said. "Most of the time is just working on specific things. I probably play nine holes every day, with one of the players over there or by myself. The rest of the time is just hitting shots into the green, just practice that way."

That practice has paid off as she begins play in her first tour event.

"We don't know how many junior amateurs have ever played in [pro] tour tournaments," Bob said. "I know this is only the second year for this one, and they only allow one person as an amateur to win the qualifier slot. So we are just tickled."

Charlie Leffler is sports editor for the Goochland Gazette and Mechanicsville Local.