Former NCAA golf stars shine at Native American Open

On a day when the desert winds were a golfer's nightmare, the elite women emerged from the 10th green at this year's Native American Open at Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico, their faces beaming with joy.

While the conditions might have dampened spirits, these golfers were indefatigable. The lead three were former NCAA standouts — Glynnis Price, Taylor Harvey and this year's Native American Open champion, Faylyn Beyale.

Beyale's impressive golf resume, rooted in her Navajo heritage, includes being a two-time AAAA individual state champion in New Mexico. At Western New Mexico, she led the team three times to the Division II national championship and placed 22nd individually in 2011. She served as a pro at Riverview Golf Course and San Juan Country Club and is currently the deputy director and lead coach with First Tee-Four Corners, a youth development organization. She has her eyes on the Arizona Women's Open in December.

"I'm self-taught," she said, though she immediately credited her cousin Flavia Torres and Flavia's husband with getting her focused on the game early in life.

"Golf came pretty easily for me," she added. That is saying a lot for someone who has racked up regional and national titles, and now — in her first appearance at this popular event — the title of Native American women's champion.

After shooting par at the Twin Warriors and Santa Ana courses at the October tournament, Beyale noted the joy she felt at seeing so many talented Indigenous golfers out there. Golfers like Harvey, who placed second and shared similar pride about playing alongside standout Native American golfers in Price, Olivia Long and Beyale.

"From the beginning to the end, our group was filled with smiles and laughter and taught me a very important lesson," Harvey said. "I believe that Faylyn displayed the true epitome of what golf is meant to be about, being present."

Harvey, with connections to the Hopi and Apache tribes, is an assistant PGA pro at Sun Country Golf House in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. She cut her teeth in Division I golf, playing four years at Prairie View A&M and a graduate year at Delaware State, before getting an opportunity through the USGA Pathways Internship. The internship experience and her current role often remind her of how her love for the game began.  

"My story starts when I was 8 years old. My dad won tickets for our family to attend the Waste Management Phoenix Open," she said. "We ran into First Tee of Phoenix, and from there it was history."

Reflecting on the fourth annual Native American Open this fall, Harvey shared how golf had been a "way out."

"After high school graduation, I received a full-ride scholarship to play four years of DI collegiate golf at Prairie View A&M University. ... While attending my amazing HBCU, I understood that diversity is a gift and one we do not find often on the golf course," she said. "PVAMU women's golf introduced me to a whole new world that I thought did not exist and propelled my passion to see black and brown faces in the golf industry."

At her last college golf tournament, the PGA Works Collegiate Championship hosted at TPC Sawgrass and televised on the Golf Channel, Harvey passed her Playing Ability Test — required to become a PGA professional. She was then offered the chance to be the Sun Country PGA Section's first PGA Works fellow. There, she is learning the ins and outs of how to run a successful golf operation while working toward completing her PGA certifications. Her mission remains to inspire and uplift Indigenous youth to pursue their passions. 

Not surprisingly, Harvey's journey has put her in touch with others traveling a similar road — most recently, the golfers at the Native American Open. There, 160 golfers from 17 states and two countries, representing nearly 50 tribes, bands and nations, gathered to play a game widely seen as white and elitist.

"The course reminds me of Native excellence on and off the golf course," Harvey said. "It was so special to see Santa Ana and Twin Warriors filled with Indigenous people from all over the country and from Canada representing and honoring our history and culture."

Third place at this year's open went to Price, who is of Navajo heritage. Her resume includes being an A-AAA individual state champion in New Mexico, earning four-time all-district honors and winning the 2009 Albuquerque City Championship. Like Beyale, she shined for Western New Mexico, competing with her team in two Division II Women's Golf Championships and finishing just behind Beyale in 23rd at the 2011 Division II championship. She placed second at the 2023 Native American Open.

This growing culture of Native women in the game also traces back to Gabby Lemieux. Lemieux, with Shoshone-Paiute heritage, is among a growing number of Native athletes who have benefited from the development of golf on Native land. Once the No. 1 ranked collegiate golfer at Texas Tech, she is also among the first Native Americans to play on the LPGA's qualifying tour, the Epson Tour, and became the first Native to compete in the U.S. Women's Open in 2022. 

"When I play on the tour sometimes, we have tournaments that are Native-run, on Native-owned courses," she said. "Our cultures are being shared with people from all over the world. Like, before the pro-am starts, the tribes are blessing the courses. Our rituals are including people from the outside world in our traditions. I can go to Michigan, to Idaho, to Nevada. Golf has become a way to experience Native culture through a different lens that is native owned and supported. It's super beautiful."

Harvey witnessed a similar truth at the Native American Open, one that gives her hope.

"The Native American Open is a time to reclaim and restore what the game of golf can look like now," she said, "and in the future."

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Mark Wagner is the author of "Native Links: The Surprising History of Our First People in Golf" (2024, Back Nine Press). He is the founding director of the Binienda Center for Civic Engagement at Worcester State.