Arden Louchheim has played only twice in the Utah Women’s State Amateur Championship. Yet having grown up in a junior golf culture with a bunch of recent winners, she long ago recognized the prestige of the event.
“Anyone who is a name in Utah golf has won this tournament … to get to add my name to that list just means the world,” she said Thursday, after a 7-and-6 win over Kate Walker in the 36-hole final match at Wasatch Mountain Golf Course.
Louchheim is a former ski racer from Park City who graduated from Salt Lake City’s Rowland Hall and plays for the University of Nebraska. Probably because she missed the Women’s State Am during high school due to various conflicts, Louchheim lacked the name recognition of some of those recent champions she referenced. Yet she was well known within the Utah Junior Golf Association.
Louchheim was 12 years old in 2017, when she defeated Ali Mulhall in an age-group final of the UJGA’s annual Utah State Junior Amateur Championship. Judging by what they’ve gone on to do in Utah golf, the list of other division winners that year is impressive: Tess Blair, Blake Tomlinson, Lila Galea’i, Simon Kwon, Peter Kim, Aadyn Long and Toa Ofahengaue.
Louchheim then won the Girls 15-18 division title over Long in 2023, before heading to Nebraska. She joins this group of homegrown Utahns who were playing for out-of-state colleges at the time of their Women’s State Am wins: Skyli Yamada (Tennessee), Annie Thurman (Oklahoma State), Natalie Stone (Colorado State), Sirene Blair (San Diego State) and Tess Blair (Iowa State).
Louchheim’s win in the 119th Women’s State Am as a Nebraska golfer also created this odd dynamic in Utah golf: Robin Krapfl, the reigning Senior Women’s State Am champion, is a former Cornhusker player and coach.
As for the younger generation, citing the likes of Grace Summerhays, Lila Galea’i, Tess Blair and six-time winner Kelsey Chugg, Louchheim said, “I’ve seen all of those players and how successful their careers are, and to have that little checkpoint on mine is just real validation that I’m moving in the right direction and what I’m working on in my game is correct.”
Walker would attest to that theory about Louchheim’s ability. The week in Midway also was rewarding for the senior from Crimson Cliffs High School in St. George. Asked about her biggest takeaway, Walker said, “That I’m good enough.”
It’s also true that she needed to play extraordinary golf to beat Louchheim, who was steady throughout the tournament. The only variable that may have made Thursday’s competition more interesting was the challenge of maintaining a high-level game after the emotion that goes into beating Chugg, as Louchheim did in Wednesday’s semifinals (Chugg is 41-8 in Women’s State Am matches).
With the asterisk that Summerhays topped Chugg in the 2020 final match at nearby Soldier Hollow Golf Course, no player who ever beat Chugg in Women’s State Am had gone on to win the title that year or any other year. And Summerhays has not produced another championship in four subsequent tries.
But if there was such a thing as a Curse of Kelsey, Louchheim shattered it in the morning round. She lost No. 2 to Walker’s birdie and dropped two other holes, while winning nine of the other 15 holes to go 6 up at the break.
As it turns out, Louchheim was aware of such Chugg-related history, courtesy of her father, Utah Jazz radio broadcaster David Locke. “Initially,” she said, smiling, “I was like, ‘Why would you tell me that?’ (But) he knows how I work. So that was definitely motivation. … It was a new day today.”
Louchheim eventually led 8 up and, although Walker did all she could to extend the match, the math became inevitable. In the end, an 18-hole match resulting in a 4-and-3 win for Louchheim in the morning would have been about the same as 7 and 6 in the afternoon, with the Utah Golf Association’s return to a 36-hole final.
Lochheim’s mother, Akemi, herself is an accomplished sportscaster. Arden is both a willing interviewer and interviewee. Asked how she, as a Nebraska sports media and communications major, would evaluate herself as a golfer this week, Louchheim again used the word “validating.”
By her account, Louchheim’s sophomore year of college didn’t go as well as her freshman year. But the convergence of a new swing coach, a Women’s State Am title and a fresh start with the Cornhuskers’ new coaching staff has her feeling confident about what’s ahead in her last two years at Nebraska.
Before returning to Lincoln, she’ll enjoy using her exemption into the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes in Oregon, Aug. 4-10.
And next summer, she’ll have the opportunity to play as a defending champion in the 120th Women’s State Am at Oakridge Country Club.
Kurt Kragthorpe, Fairways Media
Courtesy Fairways Media
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