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It’s apropos that Amy Fruhwirth’s introduction to golf came at a place called Heartwell. A lifetime love affair with the game was ignited the moment she first set foot on the Long Beach, Calif., par-3 course with her father – and where she later bumped into a future superstar seven years her junior.
“Maybe you’ve heard of Tiger Woods,” she said. Fruhwirth, who turned 55 in July, would carve out her own impressive career, becoming one of four players to win both the U.S. Women’s Amateur (1991) and U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links (1992), while also reaching the final of the 1985 U.S. Girls’ Junior and representing the USA in the 1992 Curtis Cup Match.
In between, she helped Arizona State win the 1990 NCAA title. Her USGA match-play record was 25-7, almost Tiger-like. Twelve years on the LPGA Tour followed, producing one individual win (1998 Friendly’s Classic) and a team title with Clarence Rose at the 1997 JCPenney Classic, before she retired after the 2004 season.
Today, Fruhwirth still visits golf courses. In her second stint with the Arizona Golf Association she is now program director, a position she relishes.
“I love this game, and I want people to learn it,” said Fruhwirth. “Golf can be intimidating for beginners. I want them to feel comfortable playing.”
Working in the Outreach Department under managing director Anj Brown, Fruhwirth and fellow program manager Meagan McEnery promote the game, especially to neophytes. “Get Your Golf On: Nine and Wine” pairs newcomers with a mentor who helps explain basic etiquette and best practices. Afterward, everyone congregates in the clubhouse for hors d’oeuvres and drinks while chatting about what they learned.
“I’m a really good cheerleader,” said Fruhwirth. “This is a game for a lifetime. You can play it at any age, at any leveland still enjoy it.”
So how did Fruhwirth get from elite competitor to ebullient promoter? Former teammate Missy Farr-Kaye, now the head women’s coach at Arizona State University, alerted her that the state association had an administrative opening. So, a year before giving birth to the first of her two children, daughter Brooke, Fruhwirth settled into her first “regular” job.
“I was now commuting 20 to 30 minutes to work,” said the previously country-hopping Fruhwirth. “I remember thinking, ‘This is what normal people do.’ It was so weird.”
From there, she worked as a club fitter at Ping, the Phoenix-based equipment company, where Fruhwirth later met her husband, Brian Kowalenko, an agronomist who oversees the company’s sprawling practice facility. But with the arrival of Braeden, their second child, she became a stay-at-home mom for five years. Two years ago, Fruhwirth came back to the Arizona Golf Association in her current role.
While she still occasionally plays, Fruhwirth says her competitive days are in the rearview mirror. Having received a three-year exemption into the U.S. Senior Women’s Open as a past U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, Fruhwirth missed the cut in the second edition in 2019 at Pine Needles and again last year at NCR Country Club. With two active children and a full-time job, Fruhwirth has little time for serious golf. She gets much more satisfaction seeing people, especially women, catch the golf bug like she did all those years ago in Southern California.
“I want people to get what I did out of the game,” she said. “Golf is just a special, special game."
David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA.
