Team dynamics takes a unique form for 26-year-old identical twins Sarah and Jessica Spicer.
When they arrive at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, Texas, for the ninth U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship on May 11-15, they plan to take advantage of their innate knowledge of each other as people and as competitive golfers.
The former Virginia Tech collegians have been playing golf together since they were 7 years old and were also competitive synchronized skaters before concentrating on golf. They believe they are close to the prototypical pairing for a variety of reasons.
“We don’t have to worry about saying I’m sorry or not saying I’m sorry,” Sarah said. “We know each other so well. I know Jess is practicing and she’s trying her hardest. … It makes us a lot more comfortable out there. I see that as a big advantage.”
Jessica, whose confidence grows when her older sister trusts her on-course decisions, agrees with that assessment but adds another built-in edge.
“We’ve both caddied for each other numerous times,” she said. “Now, we get to be partners and caddies. We never take caddies in four-ball stuff because we basically caddie for each other.”
The Spicers, who advanced to the quarterfinals at the 2022 championship in Puerto Rico, will be competing in the U.S. Four-Ball for the fourth time.
Sarah is older by a couple of minutes. “I get to use that when I need it,” she said with a grin.
“Once you’ve played with your twin sister, there is nothing else that compares.” — Jess Spicer
Since graduating from Virginia Tech in 2021, they found that any time together has been dramatically reduced because they live in different states and pursue different careers. They’ve even won the Virginia Women’s Four-Ball together, in 2022.
Sarah, who won the North Carolina Women’s Amateur in 2015, the 2023 Maryland Women’s Amateur and was the runner-up in the North & South Junior Girls in 2014, works as a data analyst in Silver Spring, Maryland. Jess, a pro shop assistant at Cypress Point Country Club in Virginia Beach, Virginia, was named the Carolinas Golf Association’s women’s player of the year in 2022 after winning the Carolinas Women’s Match Play. Jess also won the 2019 Carolina Women’s Amateur and was the Carolinas Junior Girls’ Player of the Year in 2014.
At Virginia Tech, they were both Atlantic Coast Conference all-academic selections, and Jess was the school’s 2019 female athlete of the year.
From their time in junior golf at Northern Durham High School in North Carolina and then at Virginia Tech (where they also lived together) to their current post-college lives, they guesstimate that they’ve played thousands of times together.
Talk about institutional knowledge. Therefore, a go-to system for their Four-Ball game plan developed gradually but meaningfully.
“I make more birdies in four-ball than I do on my own because I know Sarah has a really good short game,” Jess said.
“I tend to be more consistent,” said Sarah, who also tees off first. “I tend to hit the fairway and I don’t make as many birdies, but I can make pars and that frees Jess up.”
Their “system” allows Jess to putt more aggressively because of Sarah’s trust.
“Not being free is why you don’t make as many birdies because you are afraid of messing up,” Sarah said. “That trust allows us to free up.”
When their schedules allow, they want to play together because they cherished their earlier times on the course. Sarah remembers only one time when they played head-to-head. “It was in the Carolinas Junior Match Play in the first round, which was really unfortunate,” Sarah said. “You always want to be coming together in the finals. It was a good match, but she got me.”
Sarah noted, tongue-in-cheek, that Jess might want another partner. “I have a 9 to 5 job,” but added, “there is nobody I’d rather play with. We have so much fun out there.”
Jess pointed to a time when she asked her sister to play in the Virginia Four-Ball and Sarah was unable to participate. “I didn’t think about getting another partner to play with me,” Jess said. “Once you’ve played with your twin sister, there is nothing else that compares.”
Known to finish each other’s sentences, wear the same clothes and listen to the same music, the Spicers are also similar in strengths and weaknesses on the course.
“We have been playing well enough to make a run, but sometimes you run into a brick wall. This could be the year we are the brick wall.” — Sarah Spicer
Jess is longer off the tee and Sarah hits more fairways, but their short games and putting are about equal.
“Shorter shots and getting the ball in the hole is both of our strengths,” Sarah said.
As they approach the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, they hope to employ their individual traits/strengths – Sarah’s stability and Jess’ aggressiveness – as well as their previous three appearances to propel them further in the match-play draw. In 2023, they advanced to match play but lost in the first round.
The event is Jess’ favorite because “it’s the whole experience of playing with my twin sister, and we get to be teammates and not competitors.”
At their Four-Ball qualifying in late October at Colonial Country Club in Thomasville, North Carolina, they earned co-medalist honors with a ham-and-egg performance. It featured six pars, one birdie and a bogey from Sarah and five birdies and four bogeys by Jess. Given that effort, Sarah is realistically optimistic.
“We’ve been increasing in success,” she said. “Last year, we played great in qualifying and, honestly, played great in the first match. We’ve got a lot of motivation to string it together this time. We have been playing well enough to make a run, but sometimes you run into a brick wall. This could be the year we are the brick wall.”