PHOENIX — “It’s really nice to be just three minutes from my home,” Valley native, Syndey Seigel, said. “I am trying my best to represent Arizona.”
It’s a journey that has come full circle for Sydney, as competing in the Division 1 Golf Championships has always been a dream since she played for Pinnacle just a handful of years ago.
“My goal senior year of high school was to make it to Nationals before it moved to a different location,” Seigel said. “I am right at home and it feels good.”
You’d think it would be a nerve-wracking situation stepping up to the tee on a stage you've always dreamt of. But for the sophomore golfer at the University of Tulsa, it was anything but.
“I actually wasn’t nervous at all,” Seigel said. “I just did my own thing and felt like I was practicing at home with my friends.”
A place she is very familiar with, considering Seigel was a member of the Pinnacle High School golf team and helped lead the Pioneers to an AIA State Championship back in 2020. Now she is just three miles away from her Scottsdale home, hoping to earn new hardware on the biggest stage there is.
A full-circle moment not only for Sydney, but her family as well.
“It’s really nice to have these people come out and support me because it shows how much they care about you and I care about them,” Siegel said.
“I am really happy for her,” Ruth Seigel, Syndey’s mother, said. “Because she put the time in and couldn’t be prouder of her however she finishes here. She made it.”
As the old adage goes, home is where the heart is. And for the Seigel family, Grayhawk Golf Club is home.
“Your nerves and adrenaline are high,” Seigel said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen the whole day, but then I look at the first tee and see my mom there and it’s that piece of home. It’s nice to be at home and have that piece of home.”
Let’s hope the hometown girl can use her knowledge of the course to her advantage as she competes alongside some of the best college golfers in the entire nation.
The NCAA Women’s D1 Golf Championships will wrap up Wednesday, May 24.
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