Ava Bunker
Ava Bunker’s golf game has only grown stronger over the past year.
The Edinburgh resident and homeschooled junior-to-be still plays in many of the top youth golf tournaments in the country, and her results this year have gotten better. With Bunker’s summer tournament season still to go, she’s always looking for improvement.
“2023 was definitely a bit of a rough year for me. I had a lot of back-to-back tournaments during the summer, and I didn’t perform as well as I could have,” Bunker said. “2024, I performed way better, and a lot happier of playing again. I’m definitely seeing a difference in my game than what I saw last year.”
Bunker, who was the IHSAA individual state champion when she played at Columbus North as a freshman, has been travelling the country far and wide. In 2023, Bunker played about 20 tournaments, and in 2024, she’s projected to play about 12 to 15 tournaments.
Bunker mentioned when she played in 2023, she spent seven straight weeks bouncing from East Coast to West Coast playing in tournaments without a week off. By competing in a lesser number of tournaments this year, Bunker is able to have more practice time to help improve her game.
“I’m really trying to narrow that down this year and make sure I have time in between my tournaments because I felt like I wasn’t able to practice and fix what I was having issues with,” Bunker explained. “This year, I think I’ve been able to perform better since having that little break in between my tournaments, and I’m definitely happy with the outcomes of them.”
Bunker should be. In her recent tournaments, she finished as the girls runner-up in the Circle K Junior Championship at Otter Creek last month. Earlier this month, Bunker placed 14th at the Junior North and South Amateur Championship at Pinehurst Resort Country Club in North Carolina, the same course that hosted the U.S. Open Championship in mid-June. She returns to Pinehurst this weekend when she tees off at the World Teen Championship.
With playing at many top-notch courses across the country, each course has its unique set of challenges.
“The courses are definitely great to play on,” Bunker said. “The yardages are definitely getting longer. The competition is getting stronger and hitting it farther and being way more precise. That pushes me to be more precise with my game and work harder. That way, I can hit it longer and keep up with everyone else that’s in the field.”
Bunker prefers quality over quantity. She said she doesn’t want to wear herself out by hitting balls for several hours straight at the range. She splits time by spending two to three hours at the range one day, four to five hours on the course another day or both on a rare occasion. If she does both, she won’t spend more than six hours for the day. She also does the Stack System to help her with the speed of her clubs to increase distance with her clubs.
Bunker also seeks help from her golf coach, Jeff Smith. She mentioned having Zoom meetings as needed, but said she is also coaching herself to figure out a rough patch in her game.
“I don’t want to be super reliant. I want to try to fix it on my own before I go and ask for help. I really do try to fix the stuff on my own. I seem to be doing pretty well with it,” Bunker said. “I’ve had a couple issues recently at my last tournament where I was hitting it to the left, and my putting wasn’t good on the last day. I finally was able to fix it. I actually had a Zoom lesson (recently), and (Smith) did everything, looked through everything, everything seemed to be good and in check, so I got to really take my time and keep everything well and in check.”
Spending many hours on the golf course and playing in many tournaments can have a toll on anyone from the pros to the amateurs. Bunker is no exception. She’s been figuring out a way to still enjoy life as a teenager outside of golf and allow herself time to hang out with friends or have a simple rest and relaxation day at home.
“I’m still able to balance everything out,” she said. “Recently, I’ve been getting up early and going out and playing, or I’ll go to the range and make sure I have a good range session. I’m still able to balance that and still have fun being with friends. I’ll come back and enjoy my time at home. I’m still able to give myself a lot of free time with my practice.”
It didn’t long for colleges to see Bunker’s talent. Last month, Bunker committed to play golf at Indiana University and is undecided on what major to pursue. Following college, Bunker has her eyes set on turning pro.
“People are like, ‘Why not just go pro after high school?’ But I wanted to have that college experience, be on a team, have people that support that will also help me going into pro,” Bunker said. “I feel like I’ll have a little bit more experience with higher tournaments and competing against higher D-I athletes, so I’m really excited for that. I definitely want to go pro after college.”
Based on how 2024 has gone so Bunker, she feels she’s in a good spot with her game at this point.
“I’m really happy with how my game is right now. Obviously, you can always get better,” she said. “At any time, it doesn’t matter how good you are playing, even the professionals, they can get better at any time. So I’m not saying there’s no room for improvement, but I’m really happy with how my game is right now, and I feel I’m playing pretty solid.”
