She’s won back-to-back Class 4A individual high school state championships at Northwest Guilford, both times outdueling a player hailed by The Charlotte Observer as “America’s best 12th grade golfer.”
She’s a tireless worker, commonly seen during daily practice sessions with a determined smile on her face and a Carolinas Golf Association stocking cap atop her head during cold months on the practice range at The Cardinal by Pete Dye. Before earning her driver license, she made the short trip to the range on her bicycle, crossing busy Fleming Road to get there.
She’s an outstanding student, taking Advanced Placement classes, though limiting her homework load somewhat to allow for her countless hours on the range.
Plus, she’s a genuinely nice young woman of strong Christian faith and character raved about by her coaches and teammates.
So, Power Four Conference coaches in North Carolina and nearby states, how did Leah Edwards get away? None of the Tar Heel State’s ACC members showed any interest in adding her to their teams.
Not that Edwards is upset or ever brings up the topic — she never brought it up during an hour-long conversation — though some area high school coaches do. When asked, Edwards concedes she often hears the question herself.
Maybe her modest 5-foot-3 stature or her medium length off the tee (240-250 yards) didn’t catch their attention, though her results and her short game are elite. More likely, her mostly Carolinas playing background was a bigger reason.
Regardless, Edwards is eagerly awaiting leaving for her full scholarship at Western Kentucky University, which regularly out-punches its better-known, better-financed competitors, and has a roster of players of kindred spirits.
“They’re a team I want to be on,” Edwards said, taking a break from a stocking cap-clad session on the Cardinal range. “They all have similar values to me. They seem like people I could get along with during the time I am there.
“I really believe the Lord wants me to go there.”
Make no mistake, WKU has a strong women’s golf program, even if the athletic department’s wacky mascot “Big Red” draws more television attention than its traditionally strong ConferenceUSA football and basketball programs.
Over the summer, WKU senior Catie Craig won the prestigious North-South Amateur at Pinehurst, knocking off Wake sophomore and local star Macy Pate in the championship match.
No, WKU isn’t exactly in the wilderness either geographically or athletically. The campus is only an hour’s drive from Nashville, Tennessee.
Last spring, the Hilltoppers’ women’s golf team played in the NCAA regionals. This fall, Craig advanced through LPGA Tour Qualifying before declining the enticing opportunity to play in the 34-player Final Stage for 25 exemptions to the 2025 LPGA Tour to maintain her collegiate eligibility.
The current WKU team opened the 2024 fall season with a third-place finish out of 14 teams in a tournament hosted by the Big Ten’s Purdue, a fourth-place finish out of 15 teams at an event hosted by the ACC’s Louisville and a second-place finish among 13 teams at traditional women’s golf power Furman.
Yet, WKU doesn’t carry the local cache enjoyed by UNC, N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest. Edwards admits she was unaware of WKU until a few years ago.
“Before I started the recruiting process, I had never heard of WKU,” she recalled.
But Edwards noticed the face of WKU coach Adam Gary at several junior events. Gary eventually approached, they talked and Gary offered a visit.
She found out WKU had a modern on-campus practice facility, access to three local courses, including acclaimed The Club at Olde Stone, and a planned new 113,000 business building.
“I met the team and the coaches and got to know WKU,” said Edwards, who plans to major in business but has dreams of perhaps becoming a pilot. “It kind of checked every box.”
Edwards committed to WKU last year. She signed a letter of intent this month during the NCAA’s early signing period.
“I like her focus and her hard-work ethic,” Gary said. “She doesn’t get flustered. I think she’s going to be a rockstar.”
Edwards would seem to have an obvious big-time recruiting resume. The two high school state title victories over Myers Park’s Elizabeth Rudisill, the 2022 Class 4A winner, top the list. Plus, she’s won several other tournaments, including the 2022 Carolinas Golf Association Junior Championship.
She can take it low. Last summer, Edwards shot 66 in the first round of a Peggy Kirk Bell Tour event at Bryan Park’s tough Champions Course layout playing more than 6,000 yards.
Kip Edwards, who introduced Leah to golf, said his daughter is highly motivated for success.
“Her work ethic is off the charts,” he said. “She has a fire burning inside her.”
In the recent state high school championship at Pinehurst No. 6, Edwards shot what may look like two smooth rounds of even-par 70 to win by one stroke.
Actually, she was cruising along in the final round before making a triple-bogey at No. 12 that allowed Rudisill, who opened with 74, move into contention. Leading by only one, she saved par at 17 after driving into a bunker with a deft pitch to a front pin and a clutch 5-foot putt.
In fall 2023 she won her first state high school title by making a 12-foot birdie putt at Pinehurst No. 6 on the first playoff hole.
Edwards clearly can play with the best juniors. Rudisill is currently ranked No. 4 in the rankings on the international American Junior Golf Association tour and signed a scholarship offer with Vanderbilt. A few months ago, Rudisill played on a sponsor’s exemption in an LPGA Tour event at TPC Boston and made the cut.
In 2023, Edwards and Rudisill formed a team and qualified for at the USGA Women’s Four-Ball in Dupont, Washington, but missed the cut for match play.
Though Kip Edwards is an avid golfer, he wasn’t a high-pressure dad when it came to introducing his middle daughter to the game. When Leah was 8, Kip took her to the First Tee of the Triad to teach her about the game.
“He would always try to get to me to go out on the course,” she said.
Father and daughter started playing together at the former Pleasant Ridge Golf Course, a simple, flat layout that was ideal for kids near Piedmont Triad International Airport. She played weekly in the First Tee program.
One day when she was about 11, Kip brought her to Bryan Park to play on a day that a Peggy Kirk Bell Tour event was underway at the facility. They learned about the girls-only tour founded in 2007 by Precision Golf’s Robert Linville and the non-profit Triad Youth Golf Association and joined.
PKBGT offers events at different playing levels with a goal to allow girls to comfortably develop their games. Still, tournament golf was an adjustment. As an eighth grader, she played in her first PKBGT compeition.
“I think after I started playing sone tournaments and getting crushed I really saw I needed to put in the work to get better,” Edwards said.
So Edwards started making regular trips to The Cardinal range. When she played the course, the difficult greens complexes helped her hone her short game and course management skills.
“She’s probably the most-dedicated junior I’ve ever had,” said Cardinal pro Chris Terry, who has seen Edwards help younger players, including her younger sister, Keira, at the club. “The big schools around here who didn’t recruit her are missing out not only a good golfer, but a great person.”
Continuing up the ladder with First Tee and PKBGT, Edwards joined the team at Northwest Guilford as a freshman as the team’s top player.
The Edwards family, which includes mother Regina, eldest daughter Elaina and Keira, joined The Cardinal about five years ago. She said she has often played with friend Ellen Yu, another Greensboro standout, who signed to play next year at UNC. Yu plays out of Sedgefield Country Club, The Cardinal’s sister club with McConnell Golf.
During the past two summers, Edwards’ name emerged, boosted by the state junior title, but perhaps too late to generate a buzz from AJGA officials.
“I feel like over the summer and last summer too, my game has really started to come together and I’ve figured out how to play and how to score,” she said.
She played in four regional AJGA events in 2024, twice finishing in the top 10.
“I have had a little bit of a problem getting into them,” Edwards noted.
In preparation for WKU, Edwards said she plans to play in some amateur women’s events with college players and target some CGA events that provide winners with exemptions into USGA events.
Edwards’ instructor is Kellie Edelblut, who works at Longleaf Golf Academy in Southern Pines. Edelblut played at William & Mary and later mini tours.
Edwards hopes to adds consistency with her iron game. She considers her putting and chipping to be her biggest strengths.
“The bigger fields I get into, the better the experience,” she said. “I just want to be prepared to play. My plan is to try to play in tournaments that I think will best prepare me for playing at WKU. As soon as I get there, I want to make the lineup and travel with the team.”
If there’s a drawback to playing at WKU it’s the distance from home — about 7 1/2 hours by car.
“That was the only thing that I was a little bit worried about,” Edwards said. “I figured if that’s what God wants me to do, that will be all right.”
