Tournament a dream come true for Santa Fe golfer

Trio of New Mexicans tee off today at prestigious USGA Women’s State Team Championship

It’s been quite a month for Chanet Fiorina-Trujillo.

The Santa Fe native landed a spot on her dream team, she tied the knot with the man of her dreams, she spent some time basking in the Southern California sun and now she’s about to tee it up at perhaps the biggest golf tournament in Northern New Mexico history.

She’ll be one of three players to represent the state in the USGA Women’s State Team Championship to take place Tuesday through Thursday at Las Campanas. Team New Mexico will be on the course by the early afternoon.

“I’ve been wanting to be in this tournament for so long,” Fiorina-Trujillo said. “It’s been a goal of mine for a while and I’ve been talking to everyone I can about getting in. Now that I am, it’s kind of hard to believe.”

The 25-year-old will be joined by Albuquerque’s Samantha Surette and Rio Rancho’s Jacquelyn Galloway. The trio will be trying to improve on New Mexico’s best ever eighth-place finish at the bi-annual tournament held two years ago in Missouri.

Players from all 48 teams in the field — Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota and Puerto Rico are not represented — were on the course Sunday and Monday for practice rounds. The field will be trimmed to 21 teams after a 36-hole cut following Wednesday’s second round and the team with the lowest two-person score after 54 holes will be the champion.

While Galloway is the youngest player on the team, she’s also the most experienced. She played in this event two years ago while paired with her older sister. A 17-year-old high school student, she is one of 27 teenagers in the field that also includes 11 players in their 60s and 31 more in their 50s.

Fiorina-Trujillo likes the mix, saying the varied backgrounds makes for an interesting experience.

“I’ve been in so many tournaments with great players but this, this is something special,” she said. “To have one girl on our team be so young and

another [Surette is 45] who has a lot experience, it’s an exciting thing for me because I’m kind of in the middle.”

A former champion at the New Mexico Women’s Amateur,

Fiorina-Trujillo’s wild month has also included plenty of time rehabbing a bad back that threatened to keep her sidelined this week. That back got some muchneeded rest after she and Santa Fe’s Eric Trujillo got married on Sept. 9 at the Santa Ana Resort.

The whirlwind of her ceremony was broken up a few times by the preparation for this tournament, billed as the most prestigious women’s tournament the state has ever seen.

Tournament directors are hailing it as a showcase for dozens of the top players in America. The field includes seven USGA individual champions, including Meghan Stasi of Oakland Park, Fla. She is a four-time winner of the USGA Mid-Amateur crown and is the only player in the field to have competed in the Curtis Cup (2008).

There are five players who have been a part of a Women’s State Team championship and one, Susan Marchese, who is making her 12th appearance in this tournament. She represents Team Nebraska.

TOURNAMENT NOTES

Play begins at 7 a.m. Tuesday. The New Mexico contingent starts at 12:20 p.m. when Galloway tees off on No. 10, followed 10 minutes later by Fiorina-Trujillo. Surette is the last to get going at approximately 12:40.

All scores are posted to the USGA website at www.usga.org.