By: David Li
With an impressive list of accomplishments as an amateur, Quebec City’s Sarah-Eve Rhéaume now has her sights set on transitioning that success to the professional ranks.
Currently in her fourth year on Golf Canada’s National Team Program, the 22-year-old’s resume includes victories at the 2019 Quebec Women’s Amateur Championship, the 2021 SoCon Women’s Championship, the 2022 Glencoe Invitational, and the 2022 Ororo PGA Women’s Championship of Canada.
Rhéaume graduated from Furman University in December and is now focused on the exciting journey ahead as a professional. Given her consistent results as an amateur combined with her powerful and solid all-around game, respected golf insiders are predicting a bright future ahead.
One of them is her long-time coach, Fred Colgan, who has been working with Rhéaume since she was nine years old.
“Sarah-Eve is a pretty long player and can hit her driver between 260 and 270 yards on a regular basis; and in the last 12 months, she’s been very good in every aspect of her game,” he said about Rhéaume who also played hockey growing up but gave it up at 15 to focus solely on golf.
It’s interesting to note that Colgan also provided golf lessons to Rhéaume’s parents, Alain and Monique, and her older brother, Joel. In fact, he was giving lessons to Rhéaume’s mom when she was 38 months pregnant with the long time National Team member.
“Sarah-Eve has been improving in every aspect of her game year after year and she’s got the talent and motivation to make it onto the LPGA Tour,” Colgan added confidently.
National Team women’s head coach, Salimah Mussani, is also optimistic about Rhéaume’s chances to succeed at the highest level.
“Sarah-Eve has got all the talent in the world and a great team behind her including her long-time coach Fred Colgan,” she said about the five foot eight inch amateur standout.
“One of the things we do at the National Team Program is we work with the athletes like Sarah-Eve to help them make that successful transition from amateur to professional. We help them create routines and plans to build on their good habits and to achieve their goals,” Mussani added.
Rhéaume says her time spent with Golf Canada has been a great benefit towards her overall development.
“Besides all the great resources we have access to, the program has the best players in the country coming together and we compete against each other and could push each other to another level,” she noted.
“Also all the best pro golfers in Canada have been through the program and it’s great to see their success and it gives us motivation to work even harder.”
Rhéaume’s hard work and talent led to a stellar 2022 season. Last June, she won the Glencoe Invitational and then followed that up by winning the Ororo PGA Women’s Canada Championship shortly after.
Having competed against her at the Ororo PGA Women’s Canada Championship in Bromont, Quebec last summer, Rebecca Lee-Bentham, a former LPGA Tour player and also the 2019 PGA Women’s Canada Champion, sees a bright future ahead for Rhéaume.
“Sarah-Eve is athletic and talented from what I’ve seen and she’s definitely got the potential to be successful as a professional,” said Lee-Bentham.
After her triumph in Bromont, Quebec, Rhéaume earned an exemption into the 2022 CP Women’s Open.
“It was my first LPGA tournament. It was in Ottawa and it was just a great atmosphere as it was in Brooke Henderson’s home town. It was also not too far from Quebec City so my parents and a couple of friends came also,” she recalled.
“I missed playing the weekend by one shot, but still it was a great experience and a super fun week. I got to meet a lot of girls that I watched on TV and got to see what it’s like to play on the LPGA Tour.”
Having caddied for his long-time student on the second day of the CP Women’s Open, Colgan clearly remembers Rhéaume’s strong second round, where she shot 69.
“On the back nine we had some really good looks at birdie but didn’t make any of them. One or two more putts and she would have played on Saturday and Sunday which would have been awesome,” he noted. “Still, it was a good performance and gave her a lot of confidence and motivation.”
The experience at the CP Women’s Open definitely has given Rhéaume confidence that she could hold her own against the best of the best. And with the support of Golf Canada along with a solid team behind her, the 22-year-old Canadian is eager to reach her full potential on the golf course.
“I have been playing pretty well the last 12 months. I feel pretty confident about my ball striking and so when I get my putter going I could put up some strong results,” said Rhéaume, who has partial status on the Epson Tour this year.
“My goal is to work hard and be able to play on the LPGA Tour one day and also represent Canada in the Olympics.”