If you were to imagine a fairytale ending to a college golf career, it would probably go something like this:
Twin sisters from Oceanside … who learned the sport in the Pro Kids academy that largely serves underprivileged children … attended El Camino High School … spent three years at Long Beach State … took a leap of faith in transferring to Eastern Michigan, an unfancied program with no championship pedigree … helped the Eagles qualify for the NCAA women’s championships for the first time in school history … and now return to play just a few miles from where they grew up.
“I’m so proud to be part of this history,” Janae Leovao said after shooting 3-under in the 54-hole regional qualifier to lead Eastern Michigan past storied programs like UCLA. “I’m so excited to write history here.
“I hope we keep writing it.”
The NCAA women’s championships began at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course early Friday, the first of four days of stroke play to determine the individual crown followed by two days of match play for the team title.
Texas junior Farah O’Keefe won the individual title on Monday, surviving a wild back nine when she made only two pars and won by two shots over U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Megha Ganne of Stanford.
While defending champion Northwestern didn’t qualify for match play, top-ranked Stanford will face USC in Wednesday’s team final after ending Eastern Michigan’s first-ever qualifying run for match play. The Eagles defeated Texas in the quarterfinals Tuesday — with Janae Leovao beating O’Keefe — before losing 5-0 to the Cardinal in the semifinals.
Eastern Michigan, though, might be the best story in college golf this season, thanks to the Leovao twins and an ambitious vision by the school to transform a scuffling program into a national contender despite never previously qualifying for the NCAAs and, as recently as two years ago, never being ranked above the 200s.
“They believed in doing something that there is no way to see it but you could only dream about it,” coach Josh Brewer said.
Brewer was hired two years ago after more than a decade as head coach at perennial power Georgia, part of a commitment by the school and a motivated (and wealthy) alumni group willing to pump resources into a woebegone golf program. In January 2024, Eastern Michigan opened a 13,000-square-foot indoor performance center with full-swing hitting bays, chipping and putting areas, locker rooms and latest golf tech.
GameAbove, the alumni group supporting the program, offered NIL-type deals that pledged to financially support the budding pro careers of EMU golfers after graduation. It also helps fund a national schedule that had the Eagles avoiding the teeth of a Michigan winter by playing 11 of 12 tournaments out of the region, including four in California.
Brewer recruited heavily overseas, landing stars from Belgium, Australia, Colombia, Italy, the Philippines and three from Thailand.
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Then he noticed twins Janae and Jasmine Leovao from Long Beach State were in the transfer portal.
Jasmine, who is one minute younger, was the first to entertain the idea of transferring. She had won the Big West Conference title and in 2024 qualified as an individual for the NCAA Championships in their first year at La Costa.
Janae, who had no individual titles and didn’t think her game was worthy of transferring, initially planned to stay before changing her mind while trying to imagine being apart from her sister.
Finding a program with two available scholarships for domestic athletes in a sport dominated by internationals quickly eliminated many options. Eastern Michigan didn’t offer a big name — it is a part of the Mid-American Conference that was dominated by Kent State and never had another school reach the NCAAs — or ideal weather, but Brewer sold them on his vision.
And he’d take both of them.
“It’s really special,” Jasmine said. “We don’t know what it’s like without it. We’ve started this game together, and we’ve gotten to where we are together. We both wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for each other.
“We have the same class schedule, the same major, we’re roommates. It’s really cool to basically have a built-in best friend.”
They are two of five siblings, and their parents were looking for a sport that could create a path to a college scholarship. They tried basketball, volleyball and tennis.
“We hate running,” Jasmine said in an interview with the College Golf Network, “so that didn’t end well.”
Pro Kids was started by former Chargers lineman Ernie Wright in 1994 in the San Diego neighborhood of Colina Park, believing golf could help underserved youth develop life skills on and off the course. A second facility opened in Oceanside in 2012.
The Leovao twins and an older brother were among the first group of kids to join, spending most afternoons there doing homework when they weren’t playing golf.
The identical twins have different games. Janae is more measured and disciplined; Jasmine is more aggressive and creative.
A high school coach had them use different colored towels on their golf bags to tell them apart. The media relations department at Eastern Michigan distributed a cheat sheet to the NCAA and its broadcasters, noting they have beauty marks in different spots on their chins, wear earrings differently and have different ball markers clipped to their green “E” hats.
Despite the adjustment of leaving Southern California for Ypsilanti, Mich., they have both excelled in their new surroundings. Janae won the first two tournaments of her college career and climbed to 145th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Jasmine has four top-five finishes this season and is 205th. Eash has been MAC golfer of the week three times.
“It’s inevitable for people to compare each other and think who’s better,” Janae said. “I know it’s on and off for us, and how close we are in talent. I know we push each other to be better and also we wish each other the best all the time.”
Eastern Michigan climbed to 19th in the women’s team rankings this season, by far the best in school history, and became the first MAC program to receive an at-large invitation to the NCAA championships. In 12 tournaments this season, the Eagles have finished in the top four in 11.
The trip to the NCAA regionals in Tallahassee, Fla., was also a program first. They finished fourth, one shot ahead of Kentucky and four better than 2024 national runner-up UCLA.
“I don’t think any of us expected to be together in Ypsilanti, Mich., wearing Eastern Michigan gear, representing the school,” Brewer said. “It’s just kind of a blessing for us. Just excited to, you know, mess up some people’s year-end meetings (with the athletic director), when they have to explain why they lost to Eastern Michigan.”
Brewer is an Indiana alum and has drawn parallels with the Hoosiers’ improbable run to the football national title earlier this year after being historically one of the worst programs in Division I. And how the championship game was played in Miami, the hometown of quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
“It’s kind of a home event for us,” Brewer told Golf Channel. “Our twins (grew up) literally 10 minutes from the golf course. … Why can’t we have our storybook ending?”