Santa Fean eager to play in prestigious USGA tournament

Country’s top amateurs to compete at Las Campanas

The best golfers are said to keep an even keel in the stormiest of seas.

If that’s the case, Chanet Fiorina is drifting along without a care in the world while whitecaps rage all around her.

The Santa Fe native is set to play in this month’s USGA Women’s State Team Championship at The Club at Las Campanas, a national tournament that brings some of the country’s best amateur players together for a three-day event that is, by all accounts, one of the most prestigious golf events New Mexico has ever hosted.

Fiorina is one of three players on a Team New Mexico lineup that includes Albuquerque’s Samantha Surette and Rio Rancho’s Jacque Galloway. Surette was part of La Cueva’s first graduating class in the 1980s while Galloway is only a high school sophomore at Cleveland High.

The trio is aiming to top the high-water mark at this biennial tournament that has had a strong Galloway representation the last two times out. In 2013, Galloway’s older sister, Dominique, helped New Mexico to an eighthplace tie, while the 2015 roster that included both Galloway girls and Santa Fe’s Jonelle Martinez also tied for eighth.

“To be a part of this, to represent the state and play right here close to home, it’s an honor and it’s a really big deal,” Surette said. “Chanet and I have played against each other a few times so we’re familiar with one another. We’re hoping it helps.”

For her part, Fiorina isn’t terribly concerned about playing on the biggest stage of her career. She has good reason not to be.

For starters, there’s the nagging back injury she’s dealing with. She strained a muscle while bending over to mark a putt just a few weeks ago and has been doing everything she can to ensure she’ll be on the course when the USGA comes to town.

“I can’t miss this,” she said during Wednesday’s media gathering at Las Campanas to promote the tournament.

Oh, and then there’s this: She’s getting married this weekend and has spent part of the last few days trying to find a new officiant for her ceremony.

“You know, just the usual wedding stuff everyone has to deal with,” she said.

She’ll tie the knot with Eric Trujillo, a fairly talented golfer in his own right. He was one of the top players in this year’s city tournament and has been Fiorina’s biggest cheerleader the last few years.

The two met while playing for Northern New Mexico College before the school eliminated both programs. They’ve been inseparable since.

Between the time she sat down to discuss the USGA and the time she tees it up for the tournament Sept. 26-28, she’ll have shored up the wedding glitches, gotten hitched, gone on her honeymoon to San Diego, played a round or two at Torrey Pines, and rehabbed her aching back to the point where she and her New Mexico teammates can make a run while playing on perhaps the finest layout the state has to offer.

As she talked to the media Wednesday, behind her was part of the 36-hole Jack Nicklaus design that opened for business in 1993, a year after Las Campanas was officially founded.

The course’s director of agronomy is Tom Egelhoff. He said all 36 holes are in pristine condition and more than ready for what will be one of the more celebrated events Las Campanas has hosted.

“I would say the past two years we’ve really been getting it done,” he said. “A lot of great programs the club has allowed us to start in that time are starting to show great dividends, cultural practices that maybe weren’t done in the past like sand-top dressing and verti-cutting and aerification. The course is firmer and more ready to play than we’ve probably ever been.”

That’s all music to Fiorina’s ears. Or at least one would think.

She’s so happy-go-lucky these days that nothing seems to faze her, not even a course that’s designed to bring the country’s best female golfers back to earth.

“All I can say is this is a real exciting time for me,” she said. “This is exactly where I want to be.”

All 36 holes are in pristine condition and more than ready for what will be one of the more celebrated events Las Campanas has hosted.