MESTA-GARCIA IN FRONT
She leads Western New Mexico’s Dominguez by one shot after Day 1
Ruidoso’s Emma MestaGarcia takes the early lead at the New Mexico-West Texas golf tournament at Santa Ana Golf Club.
SANTA ANA PUEBLO — Two titles are up for grabs during the next two days of the New Mexico-West Texas/Albuquerque Women’s Amateur golf tournaments at Santa Ana Golf Club.
But the overall champion of the event, which combines two tournaments, could well be determined by the winner of an unofficial third tourney: the best player raised in Mexico.
After Saturday’s nearly six-hour opening round, Ruidoso’s Emma Mesta-Garcia was one of only two players to break par. She fired a 2-under 70 and has a one-shot lead over El Paso’s Brenda Dominguez in the 54-hole event.
Albuquerque’s Stephanie Blount, 56, shot par 72, and leads the City version of the tournament, which is being held for the 74th time.
Avery Sky, a 12-year-old from Rio Rancho, was another big story Saturday. She is tied with Suzanne Roberts for the lead in the second flight at 83.
There were 77 players in seven flights Saturday, with 14 competing for in the championship flight. Of those, only six are also eligible for both the City and NMWT crowns.
Today, an eighth flight — the Super Seniors (age 60-plus) — will be added for the final two days. There are 11 players in that flight. They compete for 36 holes.
Mesta-Garcia and Dominguez, who aren’t eligible for City because they don’t live in the Albuquerque area (Belen and closer), are college golfers with roots in Mexico.
El Paso’s Dominguez said her parents live in Juarez, “but they wanted me to be born in El Paso, so I could have more opportunities. So I was born there, then I was raised in Juarez.”
The 19-year-old said she attended middle school
and high school in El Paso, and now plays golf at Western New Mexico.
Dominguez and Mesta-Garcia, 20, who is playing out of Ruidoso, where she is working for the summer at the Links at Sierra Blanca, said they don’t know each other. They played one group apart on Saturday.
Today they are paired in the same group with Blount and Shannelle Tafoya (80). The foursome will tee off on No. 10 (Cheena Nine’s first hole) at about 8 a.m.
Mesta-Garcia is a rising junior at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She was born and raised in Mexico (Torreon), then attended the Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy in Orlando, Fla.
She also attended a high school in Orlando before being recruited to UTRGV.
“Oh my God, I love it here,” she said of the Albuquerque area. “The weather is so nice. Everyone is saying it’s so hot. But compared to Texas and Florida, it’s really nice.”
Mesta-Garcia had four birdies and two bogeys during her round and got a little help from her caddie/boyfriend Casto Gomez, a recent UTRGV graduate who is from Spain and will attend Web. com Tour school this fall in hopes of making pro golf a career.
Gomez played on the same high school golf team in Málaga, Spain, as current PGA Tour sensation Jon Rahm. Gomez is also working at the Links and living in Ruidoso.
Mesta-Garcia, a business administration major, has her eyes on a pro career as well.
“But I have two more years of college first, and definitely want to get my degree,”said MestaGarcia, who tied for 17th at the Western Athletic Conference championship in the spring — the best individual finish for the Vaqueros.