Thirteen-year-old Lisa Copeland will putt Sunday on the 18th green where a day later she’ll watch professional golfers finish their first practice round in the 2022 Masters Tournament.
The Naperville golfer is one of 80 kids ages 7 to 15 who earned a spot in the national finals of the Drive, Chip & Putt competition at the one of the prestigious golf clubs in the world, Augusta National in Georgia.
One of 10 girls in the 12-13 age bracket, Lisa represents the Midwest after qualifying in the regional contest at Medinah Country Club in September.
She was a national finalist in 2017 for girls ages 7-9 and made the regional finals all but one year from 2015 to 2021.
Competitors gets six shots — two each for the drive, chip and putt — and Lisa plans to rely heavily on her chipping skills.
“My putting, that’s a little bit more a weaker part of my game. But I’ve got chipping to make up for it, and I’m also a really good ball striker,” she said.
People can catch the Drive, Chip & Putt nationals live at 8 a.m. on the Golf Channel.
Beyond getting another shot at winning Drive, Chip & Putt title, Lisa said she’s most looking forward spending Monday watching the pro golfers prepare for the Masters Tournament later in the week, something she was unable to do the last time she was at Augusta.
“We actually didn’t get to watch the practice round because it was canceled for bad weather,” Lisa said.
Her dad, Jeff Copeland, said like most toddlers, Lisa hit a ball around the house with plastic clubs.
It wasn’t until she was 5 and started hitting balls at the dome on Route 53 when Copeland noticed Lisa hit the ball in the air and could make the same shot consistently.
She also had the ability to make an adjustment in four or five swings, unlike adults who need weeks to change, Copeland said her instructor told him.
Those skills and hours of practice opened the door to tournaments for Lisa when she was 7 years old, and she hasn’t slowed down.
To give her the opportunity to practice year-round, the family winters in Florida and returns to Naperville when it’s warmer.
During the school year when she takes courses through an online academy, she typically practices in the morning by working on her short game and hitting wedges into the green so she’s done by noon, Lisa said.
“School is a priority for me. … I have time in the afternoon to complete all my homework,” she said.
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Outside of golf and school, her favorite activity is reading.
One book she recommends is “The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel” by Heather Morris, a New York Times bestseller based on interviews with Holocaust survivors.
If she could play a round at any course, Lisa said it would have to be Augusta “because it’s famous and you don’t get many chances to do that.”
Her dream is to compete in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur tournament, which debuted in 2019.
Her favorite course to play is the Elgin Country Club.
“It’s one of my favorites because it has a lot of elevation. There’s a lot of hills. You can be in the middle of the fairway, and everything can just roll down to the left or right side,” Lisa said. “The greens are really tough. They’re fast, and you really need to pay attention to the break because they break so much.”
Copeland said the course also might be her favorite because that’s where last year she became the youngest girl — five days after her 13th birthday — to win an Illinois Junior Professional Gold Association Championship Qualifier.
A recent highlight for Lisa was meeting Lydia Ko, a Korean-born New Zealand professional golfer. Lisa said Ko is her favorite because “she is very accurate with her approach shots and has an amazing short game.”
Copeland said in February Lisa and friends were playing 18 holes ahead of Ko at the Lake Nona Country Club in Orlando, Florida.
“It’s funny that because they were playing the whole day, and they didn’t even know it. At the very end, I said … Lydia Ko has been there playing behind you the whole time,” Copeland said.
When Lisa’s group was done, they waited for Ko to play through and got a photo with her.