Meet Myers Park’s Elizabeth Rudisill: America’s top 12th-grade girls’ golfer

Myers Park High’s Elizabeth Rudisill is the best 12th-grade girls’ golfer in America, and she’s already made the cut at an LPGA event.

“I would say she’s one of one,” Myers Park coach Jason Lockwood said. “Nobody has ever come through this program, boy or girl, and accomplished what she has done.”

At 17, Rudisill, who has committed to Vanderbilt, has already constructed quite a resume:

▪ She was state runner-up as a freshman.

▪ She won the state championship as a sophomore, breaking a 19-year-old N.C. scoring record.

▪ As a junior, she lost the 4A state championship in a playoff but played in the Junior Solheim Cup in Spain, an event where a team of the best girls’ juniors in the USA play a similar team from Europe.

▪ This fall, Rudisill qualified for the LPGA’s FM Tournament in Boston. Playing along with a field of notable pros, Rudisill made the cut.

“I made a ton of pars and didn’t make mistakes,” she said. “I tried to focus on myself. If I went out there admiring all the players, I would feel like I didn’t fit in, but I had earned my way in.”

▪ Rudisill also played in another Junior Solheim Cup this fall, just outside Washington, D.C. She won all of her matches, including taking down World No. 9 Andrea Revuelta of Spain in singles.

▪ And this week, Rudisill — who has been Charlotte Observer player of the year for the past three seasons — will try to win a second state championship.

The 4A finals are Monday and Tuesday at Pinehurst No. 6, the same course where Rudisill set her state record two years ago.

“I am not really trying to do anything (this week),” Rudisill said. “It’s more just hitting fairways and greens and staying in the present. You can have a mindset like, ‘I need to go out there and win this, like redemption for last year, or I need to go out there and beat my state record,’ but that’s a hard thing to do. So I just stay in the present.”

Rudisill said she started playing at 8, when her father put the clubs in her hand. By 11, she said, she got serious. Lockwood, her coach, said her natural talent and length can separate her from even the best junior players.

For example, when Rudisill shot a 6-under 66 to win the 4A regional championship last week, she knocked a driver 285 yards, pin high on the 18th green.

“Honestly,” Lockwood said, “there really is no weakness. Her short game is good. Her putting can come and go, but that’s everybody. I do expect her to be on (the LPGA) tour one day. I think she’s got everything it takes. I mean, she was good when she came here and in the past Solheim Cup, she beat a top 10 (junior) player in the world. She was kind of shocked to (be) put against her, but her coach said, ‘You’re that good.’”

Rudisill said she plans to graduate from Vanderbilt and won’t turn pro early, even if given the chance.

“I value a college education,” she said. “And it’s obviously Vanderbilt, a really good school, and I value a college education. It’s something that’s important to me.”

Lockwood said that type of grounded attitude is what’s allowed Rudisill to thrive as big-time recruit in a sport, at least in North Carolina, that doesn’t produce tons of them.

“She’s not flashy,” Lockwood said. “She’s a quiet kid. The girls (on the team) enjoy playing with her. I think for her opponents, if they can go out there and beat her, it’s kind of like it’s their Super Bowl, and one day they can say, ‘I beat Elizabeth,’ and be sitting there watching her on TV on the weekend.”