BRONTE LAW COULD HAVE HAD HER PICK OF US COLLEGES

          READY TO STEP UP TO THE TEE .. Bronte Law (in background) 

                     at last June's Curtis Cup match at Nairn

                           Image by Cal Carson Golf Agency 

By JULIE WILLIAMS 

The amateur season roared in with talk of the Curtis Cup in Scotland, and died down with the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship in Turkey, which made patriotism a big part of 2012. But in terms of women’s amateur golf, 2012 also was the year of the Kiwi (read: Lydia Ko) and the last summer of the Jutanugarn sisters.

Golfweek will spend 10 days counting down the top amateur players of the past year. Who will be No. 1? Who else will make the list? Check back each day.

No. 10: Bronte Law

R and A’s World Amateur Golf Ranking: 7

2012 in review: Ladies British Open Amateur stroke play, 6th; GB and I Curtis Cup team member (1 1/2 points); advanced to second round at U.S. Women’s Amateur; made cut at Ricoh Women’s British Open.

Each summer, there’s a player who draws a trail of college coaches at least half a par 4 long. That’s what this Englishwoman’s gallery looked like around the shady fairways of the Country Club in Cleveland during the U.S. Women’s Amateur. 

Law was T-37 in stroke play that week, and advanced to the second round of match play before falling to Purdue’s Paula Reto. 

Law will join the UCLA (University of California-Los Angeles) roster in the fall of 2013, and one gets the impression she could have had her pick of any of the top 10 schools in the country.

The most striking thing about 17-year-old Law is the shock of wavy blonde hair that pours out from under her ball cap. 

Law also is a fiery competitor and a consistent ball-striker, who played for GB and I at Nairn in June at the Curtis Cup. 

Law teamed with Amy Boulden to put one of the first GB and I points on the board in Day 1 four-balls. She and Leona Maguire halved with Brooke Pancake and Austin Ernst the following day, and Law clung tightly to Tiffany Lua during Sunday singles. 

Lua, who will miss Law on the UCLA roster by one semester, won that match, 2 up.

Of course, Law has a history as a tough match-play competitor, having won four out of five possible points for England at the 2011 Women’s Home Internationals.

Late in the summer, Law was one of only three amateurs to make the cut at the Ricoh Women’s British Open, finishing an eventual T-33 in difficult conditions.

Law’s success on many different stages in 2012 is reason to believe she’ll do well for the Bruins. UCLA head coach Carrie Forsyth has reason to be excited for the coming year