Sarah White packed up her 2012 Ford Escape and headed west on March 13 at 2:30 a.m., determined to get from her San Antonio suburb to Mesa, Arizona, before sunset. White’s father taught driver’s ed for 32 years, and she picked up a few pointers along the way, hence the early wake-up call.
“You’re more awake when you wake up,” she said, “than you are when you’re coming down the last four hours. I’d rather drive in the dark in the beginning.”
Dad still called every 90 minutes though.
The Symetra Tour is the ultimate road warrior life. And the 14-hour drive back to Longbow Golf Club for this week’s season-opening Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic was especially sweet for White as it took her back to the place where everything changed instantly last August when she won the Symetra Tour’s Founder’s Tribute.
The victory kickstarted a 10-day stretch of golf that shined a light on the fine line between obscurity and stardom in the women’s game. Between uncertainly and security.
4 hours 4 minutes left. I am dead inside
— Sarah
(@Sarah_White39) March 13, 2021
A fifth-place finish at the Texarkana Children’s Charities Open on the Women’s All Pro Tour earned White $1,690 and a spot in the Symetra Tour’s field at Longbow. White – who had no status of any kind – took full advantage of the opportunity by winning in her first Symetra start, edging Casey Danielson and Sophia Popov by one stroke.
“I was just a nobody on the mini-tours,” said White.
One week later, Popov, the player White had just beaten by a stroke, won the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon. Suddenly a Symetra Tour player who didn’t have any LPGA status of any kind was a major champion.
Sophia Popov, the winner of the 2020 AIG Women’s British Open, poses with the her trophy at the FireRock Country Club in Fountain Hills, Arizona. (Photo: Thomas Hawthorne/USA TODAY Network)
Like White, Popov played her way into the AIG by virtue of a top-10 finish at the Marathon Classic, which doubled as a qualifier.
“It’s pretty unheard of to have non-members of two tours win back-to-back,” noted White.
When White first arrived at Longbow last Sunday to practice, the Clover Cup, a college event she used to play in at Texas State, was finishing up on the 18th with the identical hole location she faced last August.
“I could still vividly relive that 6-foot putt and still feel the chills of everything that happened,” said White of the putt she drained to win. “I can do that any point that I need to remember why I’m here.”
Popov left Longbow disappointed to have another runner-up finish, noting that she’d been “pretty patient” waiting for that first win. She rushed out of Mesa to begin the long trek to Scotland for her first Women’s British Open appearance in nine years.
“Every shot is pretty much going where I want it to go,” she said after the round, “so all I can do is just keep doing what I’m doing. Pick a good number, pick a shot and just hit, and it’s been working really well for the last three or four months. Honestly nothing is going to change next week except for the weather.”
Only everything changed at Troon, and a 304th-ranked Popov, like White, gave countless touring pros still waiting for their big break a renewed sense of hope.
People have asked White what they need to do to get on the Symetra Tour. What does it take? She tells them that she played to her strengths and worked on her weaknesses. There’s no set formula.
Symetra Tour golfer Sarah White.
This week 132 players will take their first step toward trying to earn an LPGA card. White will compete alongside the No. 1 amateur in the world, Rose Zhang, and Emily Pedersen, who ended her 2020 season on the Ladies European Tour with three consecutive victories. Zhang, 17, makes her debut on the Symetra Tour this week. She won the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur and finished tied for 11th at last year’s ANA Inspiration.
White won’t be battling triple-digit heat this time around at Longbow. She won’t have a caddie either as older brother Brett has his own tournament this week, and her dad slipped on some ice back home in Michigan and broke his tibia and fibula.
Sarah is battling her own injury as well, a stress fracture in her left ankle and tendonitis. She only really notices the pain though after the golf is done and she’s taking her shoes off in the parking lot.
But the vibes are still good in Mesa.
“Some people have a misconception that maybe it was a little luck,” said White. “No, absolutely not. We worked to get to that opportunity.”
The notion that anyone can beat anyone any given week still hangs thick in the air.