Teenager breaks records at Longbow Golf Club

Prep star Hannah O’Sullivan becomes youngest Symetra Tour winner

Hannah O’Sullivan

The normal teenager’s weekend consists of procrastination, relaxation and rummaging through social media networks trying to find the newest pictures of friends or tweets from celebrities. For Hannah O’Sullivan of Chandler, Arizona, last weekend was about winning tournaments and breaking records. The 16-year-old junior from Hamilton High School became the youngest player (16 years, 9 months, 11 days) to win on the Symetra Tour, claiming her first victory at the Gateway Classic held at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa. O’Sullivan joins Lexi Thompson and current world number one Lydia Ko as the only other women to win an LPGA TOUR or Symetra Tour event before their 17th birthday.

With her mother faithfully on the bag, O’Sullivan jumped out to a 4-stroke lead Saturday over second-place finisher Haley Italia after shooting a tournament record-tying 7-under 65. Four birdies on the front nine Sunday expanded the lead to seven strokes, which allowed O’Sullivan to coast through the back nine where she carded eight pars and a bogey. Italia’s 11-under 205 couldn’t overcome the deficit, but earned the first place check of $15,000 due to O’Sullivan’s amateur status, which prevents the prep star from collecting professional winnings in order to retain her right to compete at the University of Southern California in 2017.

Not only did O’Sullivan become the youngest player to win an LPGA TOUR event, she was also the first amateur to win a Symetra Tour event since Kellee Booth won the Pacific Bell FUTURES Classic in 1999. Her 15-under 201 broke the 54-hole tournament scoring record by three strokes, set by Alena Sharp last year. It was quite the weekend for the teenager who just wanted to stay calm and play well, but Monday was back to reality, and school, where she had to make up a history test she missed on Friday.