It has been a busy summer for Claudia Pilot.

Thursday, September 02, 1999

It has been a busy summer for Claudia Pilot. The Austin school teacher will stay busy once she gets back in the classroom, not just teaching, but also on the golf course.

Already this year Pilot has traveled to three states to compete against the best amateur golfers in the world and will be heading to a fourth state next week to compete in the Third Annual United States Golf Association’s State Team Championships, Sept. 7-9, at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, in Williamsburg, Va.

Before traveling to Virginia, Pilot will make a stop at the Minnekahda Golf Club on Friday where she hopes to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur (open to golfers 25-and-over) which takes place Oct. 2-7 in Dunwoody, Ga. at the Cherokee Town and Country Club.

If Pilot qualifies for the U.S. Mid-Amateur, she will gain more points in the race for the Minnesota Golf Association’s Women’s Golfer of the Year. Currently, she is leading the way due in no small part to her win at the Minnesota Women’s State Amateur last month.

The Minnesota team going to Virgina is comprised of three men and three women. The men are J.B. Lloyd, South View Country Club; Terry O’Loughlin , White Bear Lake; and Joe Stansberry, Hiawatha Golf Club; The other two women on the team are Lynn Anderson, Baker National Golf Club and Brenda Williams, Island View Golf Club. The men and women play in separate competitions in the three-day event with the top two scorers each day counting toward the team’s total stroke score.

"Brenda, Lynn, and I have been traveling companions this year," said the Austin High boys’ golf coach. "I know them very well. Brenda is a good friend that I won the Minnesota four-ball championship with in 1997. She also won the Minnesota Mid-Amateur in June, when I was with Adam Plotts and Lacy Erickson at the state high school tournament."

Pilot began her golf career when she was 4 or 5. She competed on the boys’ team at Hutchinson High School. She then competed at Mankato State University when only two other Minnesota schools had women’s golf programs. She continued playing golf after college, but she only really competed in weekend tournaments. Her golf career moved into second gear when she got a job teaching in Austin.

"It’s a wonderful job, teaching," said Pilot, who teaches physical education at Neveln Elementary. "Not working in the summer I became totally dedicated on working on my golf. My success, proves if you work hard you can achieve big things."

Now the dedicated golfer, Pilot began to compete in almost all the Minnesota golf events as well as some national tournaments about five years ago. This year she competed in the Western Amateur in Indiana, the Trans-National in Edmund, Okla., at the Oak Tree Golf Course,which has hosted the PGA Championship, and at the U.S. Women’s Amateur in North Carolina.

At the Trans-National, Pilot met up with Kellee Booth in the second round of match play. She fought her tooth and nail before losing on the 17th hole. Booth is ranked No. 1 in the world this year among amateur women. Booth went on to win the Trans-National and also won the Western.

The highlight of Pilot’s summer, however, was winning the MWGA’s Women’s Amateur. She shot 72-76-71 for a three-day total of 219, three over par.

"I am very proud of the way I played on a very difficult course," Pilot said. "The last four holes I went birdie, birdie, par, par with the final two holes long and into the wind. It might have been the best four holes I have ever played."

The next week she played in the U.S Women’s Amateur where she was unable to make the cut to the 64 players that qualified for match play.

"Winning the Minnesota Amateur was such a high," Pilot said, "I was pretty exhausted in North Carolina. I had trouble with my short game which didn’t help on very large, undulated greens."

Pilot said the key to her game is being accurate off the tee and with her long irons. This week she was working hard on her short game to prepare for next week’s challenge. She has second-hand knowledge of the narrow fairways on the Virginia course and has studied brochures of it.

Maybe she will shoot a personal best score of 67. She has shot 68s on four different courses, including the Austin Country Club.

"I’m real exhilarated about this opportunity," Pilot said.