PARK RIDGE, N.J.—Three years after emerging as a local Drive, Chip & Putt standout, 10-year-old Brooklyn Behrens of Park Ridge is making her mark on the international junior golf circuit.
Behrens recently finished among the top 20 players overall—and among the top 10 from the United States—at the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship in Pinehurst, North Carolina, according to her father and longtime coach, Tom Behrens.
The field included leading junior players from 48 states and more than 50 countries.
Brooklyn played the front nine of her opening round at 4 under par and stood among the top 10 players worldwide and the leading U.S. competitors after the first day. She lost some ground during the later rounds in the North Carolina heat but retained her international top-20 finish, her father said.
The Pinehurst performance followed a series of podium finishes during what Tom described as a stellar summer.
Her latest victory came Tuesday, Aug. 25, when she shot a 77 at St. Andrew’s Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson on the Metropolitan PGA Junior Tour. It was her third win of the summer, including a victory at her home course, Blue Hill Golf Course. Although only 10, Brooklyn competes in the tour’s highest age division, for players 12–18.
In May, Brooklyn finished second at a girls national invitational at PGA National Resort in Florida. She shot a 1-under-par 71 in the final round, the best score in the field that day, according to her father.
She placed third at an Arnold Palmer invitational in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in June, shooting an even-par 72 in the final round on Palmer’s home course.
Brooklyn followed that performance with another third-place finish at a Canadian invitational. Her final-round 68 was her lowest score of the summer.
She also returned to the Drive, Chip & Putt subregional level this year. Brooklyn won her local qualifier by a significant margin with a score of 119, then finished as the first alternate at the subregional competition at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club. Her friend and fellow junior golfer Ramona Du claimed the top spot.
Brooklyn’s latest Drive, Chip & Putt run builds on the promise she demonstrated at age 7, when Pascack Press featured the rising second-grader after she qualified for a subregional competition.
At that year’s local qualifier, Brooklyn posted a total score of 102—17 in driving, 33 in chipping and 52 in putting—to finish first in the girls ages 7–9 division. The result advanced her to the subregional round at Bethpage State Park Golf Course in New York.
Founded in 2013 by the Masters Tournament, United States Golf Association and PGA of America, Drive, Chip & Putt is a free national junior competition. Players advance through local, subregional and regional qualifying for an opportunity to compete at Augusta National Golf Club on the Sunday before the Masters Tournament.
Brooklyn was playing for Haworth Country Club when she first appeared in Pascack Press. The award-winning Haworth program is led by Mark Thornewell and has included the Asselta brothers, who went on to play for St. Joseph Regional High School.
Brooklyn began accompanying her father to the golf course at about age 3, when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted other activities.
“By playing with her, I found a love for the game again, since I’d only been on the course about five times after graduating college,” Tom said at the time.
Tom played basketball and golf in college, comes from a family of college athletes and works as a physical education teacher. Those circumstances gave him a distinctive opportunity to introduce his daughter to the sport and guide her early development.
“I coached her until last year, when she started beating me in our challenge matches,” he recently told Pascack Press last week. “That’s when I knew it was time to bring in other coaches.”
Brooklyn subsequently worked with Kerry Sutherland and, more recently, Tyler Hall, a local golf standout who has competed on the PGA Tour. She continues to train at Blue Hill Golf Course in Pearl River, New York.
Brooklyn also developed an interest in women’s professional golf by attending LPGA events in the area, including the Cognizant Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club and the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National Golf Club.
Canadian professional Brooke Henderson, whom Brooklyn named as her favorite golfer three years ago, remains a major inspiration. Henderson has spent time with Brooklyn following some of her tournament rounds, according to Tom.
Brooklyn’s season will continue with regional competitions offering two possible routes to nationally televised championships.
She competes in the team-based PGA Jr. League program. Brooklyn and her teammates have lost only once this season and are scheduled to compete during the first weekend of September at a regional tournament at Kingsmill Resort in Virginia. A strong finish would send the team to the national finals in Texas, scheduled to be shown on ESPN this fall.
Brooklyn also advanced to a regional event in Maryland associated with the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship. Her father said she is one of seven players remaining in contention for a place in the national finals.
Advancing from Maryland would send her to the championship in Louisiana in November. That event is scheduled for coverage on Golf Channel.
Brooklyn met Ramona through PGA Jr. League two years ago. The two are the same age, and Tom describes Ramona as one of the leading young players in the Tri-State Area. In a tuneup for the Virginia regional Wednesday, the pair combined for an 8-under 64, including an albatross 2 on the par-5 13th hole, he said.
They regularly hold challenge matches at Blue Hill as part of their training. Ramona recorded a hole-in-one there during one of those matches.
Brooklyn, meanwhile, has made nine holes-in-one on the simulators at PGA Tour Superstore, earning a box of her preferred Titleist Pro V1x golf balls each time, Tom said.