2022-23 NCGA Senior Women’s Player of the Year—Karen Garcia
With an eye on retirement, and knowing she’d have some extra time to compete, Cool resident Karen Garcia’s primary goal entering the 2022-2023 championship season was to make Team NCGA for the California Cup.
The California Cup matches, held every two years, consist of the best NCGA players taking on their counterparts from the Southern California Golf Association.
Turned out, the 61-year-old Garcia did more than make the team. Thanks to her solid play, she’d earn NCGA Senior Women’s Player of the Year honors for 2022-23.
Garcia finished the season with 1,195 points. Her good friend and fellow Sierra View CC member Lynne Cowan, an NCGA Hall of Famer and five-time Player of the Year honoree, was second with 1,035 points.
“I’m ecstatic that I was able to play enough to get the points,” Garcia said. “I did just enough to hold off Lynne as well.”
For Garcia, winning the points title literally was a matter of time. Following her retirement as a high school counselor in June, her calendar opened more than it had in years.
Garcia took advantage of the extra opportunities. She’d win the PWGA Legacy Senior, and posted runner-up finishes at the PWGA Legacy Open and NCGA Senior Women’s Amateur. Overall, she’d finish in the Top 5 in seven of her nine starts.
“Knowing that I was going to retire, I kind of mapped out the tournaments that I could and wanted to play in,” Garcia said. “Normally, by July I’d be back at work at school.”
The extra time gained didn’t just mean more events. It also meant more practice. Garcia spent most of that time sharpening her putting skills.
Added together with her long game, Garcia was formidable. Even at age 61, she still hits her driver 230-240 yards on average and clocks a swing speed of nearly 90 mph.
“Yeah, the long game can help. But when you hit it farther, sometimes that means it’s just deeper into the woods.,” said Garcia with a laugh.