On the 54th and final hole of the 2024 NCAA Division I Regionals at Auburn University Club, University of Minnesota golfer Isabella McCauley stared down one of the most important putts of her life. It was a downhill, 25-foot putt for birdie that broke from left to right. Make it, and McCauley would claim the last individual spot for nationals. Despite the odds, McCauley felt comfortable.
“I had a really good feeling about it,” McCauley said.
A big reason for her confidence: her 20-year-old Scotty Cameron putter that she’d been using since she was 11. The club belonged to her dad, Sean Patrick McCauley, before her and his initials are engraved in it. With complete faith in her game and the putter, McCauley stepped up and sank the putt, pumping her fist in the air.
A junior at Minnesota and the 2024 Big Ten individual co-champion, McCauley fulfilled a dream by earning an invitation to this year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur, which starts Wednesday. McCauley earned the invitation by being one of the top 30 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking not already in the field.
“Going into the fall season my No. 1 goals were to win another college event, to make ANWA and to make nationals as a team,” said McCauley, who became the first University of Minnesota player to earn an invitation in the Augusta tournament’s six-year history.
McCauley will be one of 72 women playing the first two rounds at Champions Retreat Golf Club on Wednesday and Thursday and an official practice round at Augusta National on Friday. The low 30 and ties after 36 holes will return to the hallowed grounds for Saturday’s final round.
As a competitor, McCauley says she wants to win. However, she also wants to have fun.
“Ultimately, I think it’s just going to be a week of soaking in the experience and really just making memories,” McCauley said.
The 21-year-old from Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, will draw upon at least one past experience on a big stage. As a 17-year-old in 2021, she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, edging professional and former U.S. Curtis Cup player Lindy Duncan for the last spot. She says qualifying for the Women’s Open is one of her biggest accomplishments, and, despite missing the cut in the major, it was a great experience.
“If I can tee off on the first tee of the U.S. Open, I can tee off anywhere,” McCauley said.
“You rely on your meticulous preparation. If you’re putting in all the practice you can, you can’t really be upset with the result.” – Isabella McCauley
Since enrolling at Minnesota in 2022, McCauley has won three college tournaments, including the individual Big Ten Championship in 2024 that earned her a spot at NCAA regionals. As with her big putt at regionals, McCauley needed a clutch performance in the final round to win the Big Ten. She entered the zone and shot 8-under 64 to earn a share of the title.
“You rely on your meticulous preparation,” McCauley said. “If you’re putting in all the practice you can, you can’t really be upset with the result.”
McCauley’s father introduced Isabella and her younger sister, Reese, to golf, and now the sisters are teammates at Minnesota. Their mother, Stephanie, home-schooled both girls through high school so the family could spend more time together.
“He just knew he really wanted us to get into golf and love golf as much as he did,” McCauley said of her dad. “It’s very easy working with him. It’s been a really cool father-daughter relationship.”
McCauley started playing golf at age 6. For her father, a former golf teacher for two years, introducing Isabella and her sister to golf at a young age was intentional.
“What I would read a lot about teenage girls is when they would start golfing in their teens they would quit quickly because it’s so humbling and so difficult,” Sean said.
To Sean, golf is special.
“I just think this game is the best game on the planet and I knew how many opportunities it might give them,” Sean said. “But it’s more so about all the life lessons you get from golf, because you lose way more than you win.”
Sean fostered his daughters’ love for golf by emphasizing fun
“He kind of bribed us with candy or whatever it took,” McCauley said. “He just made it really fun for us.”
One game her dad introduced stands out to McCauley.
“We had certain shows we really liked when we were little and he would cut out the characters and put them on popsicle sticks,” McCauley said. “If we had a good shot he’d put up a good character and if we had a bad shot he’d put up a bad character.”
For example, McCauley used to like “Little House on the Prairie.” If she hit a good shot, her dad held up Laura Ingalls. If she hit a bad shot, he held up Nellie Oleson.
Even if he no longer holds up the characters on popsicle sticks, Sean says the tradition lives on to this day at all the tournaments he attends.
“If they hit a really good shot, they look at me, mention the name of a character, and then they wink,” Sean said.
“The people you play with will forget your score but they will never forget how you act.” – Sean McCauley
McCauley believes having fun fosters winning. At age 8, she won her first tournament in her first competitive start. She learned she loves the added pressure competition brings.
“I got a taste of what winning felt like and I wanted to experience that more,” McCauley said.
At 11, she beat her dad for the first time.
“I remember my dad was so happy I beat him,” McCauley said. “That was so fun for me because growing up you think your parents are the best at everything they do so being able to beat him was awesome.”
Sean believes winning is important, but being a good person on the course is more important.
“The people you play with will forget your score but they will never forget how you act,” Sean said.
In fact, the McCauley sisters both have one of their dad’s sayings laminated inside their bags: “It’s not your score that matters, it’s your character.”