Julia Misemer knew going into the Women's U.S. Open qualifier last May that she was going to earn her spot to play in the prestigious tournament.
That wasn't Misemer being full of herself or cocky.
To the contrary. Misemer's personality is often understated.
Julia Misemer
So, when she took medalist honors at Gainey Ranch Golf Club in Scottsdale by shooting 8 under par, Misemer wasn't surprised. Excited, but not surprised.
It was especially sweet because the week before she hadn't shot well at the NCAA Championships, an event that took place just 12 miles away at Grayhawk Golf Club.
"I just happened to get it done that day," she said.
"It was really cool, especially after struggling in NCAAs the week before to have that bounce-back moment," Misemer continued. "I'm not very superstitious, but I do always believe that your best golf comes right after your not-so-best-golf. I had played really well at regionals a couple weeks prior to NCAAs. After (NCAAs), I was looking forward to having another shot at a tournament really, really soon, because I felt good about my game."
Misemer was the runner-up in the NCAA's Raleigh Regional, shooting back-to-back rounds of 68; those were the lowest rounds for a Wildcat at an NCAA regional in 20 years. Yet at Grayhawk she finished 14 over, for 69th place.
Even sweeter about making the U.S. Open field: It was the first women's open to be played at the hallowed grounds of Pebble Beach. She'd be walking one of golf's most beautiful courses, hugging the Northern California coastline of the Pacific Ocean, alongside her dad, Todd.
He was the current Arizona sophomore's first golf coach and would be caddying for her — something they had always talked about in those long four-hour, one-way drives nearly every Sunday to either Tulsa or Oklahoma City from Kansas City to play in tournaments.
Todd eventually started up the U.S. Kids Golf Kansas City Tour, so young golfers didn't have to travel out of state to play in tournaments.
But those car rides were some of Julia Misemer's most prized memories as a young child — spending time with her dad, talking about how one day he would be on the bag as she played in the U.S. Open — and, of course, getting ice cream.
VIDEO: Julia Misemer, a sophomore to be for the Arizona women's golf this fall who earned her way into the U.S. Women's Open field via qualifier in late May, speaks on playing famed Pebble Beach for the first time, the support system she has on the course, and more, ahead of the U.S. Women's Open, which ran July 6-9 in Pebble Beach, California. Video courtesy Buffalo Agency/USGA
Neither of them expected the moment to come this quickly. Or did they?
Support system
Coming up the ranks, Misemer was a four-time 6A individual state champion in Kansas, the 2021 runner-up at the Girls Junior PGA Championship and a member of the 2021 USA Junior Ryder Cup team. She also qualified for the 2022 U.S. Women's Amateur and defeated the No. 1-seeded golfer.
As a freshman at UA, she had the lowest round of the season (66 at the Pac-12 Preview event), and her 74.08 scoring average is one of the 12 best by a freshman in Wildcat history.
At Pebble, Misemer wasn't nervous and enjoyed the challenge of the course, despite not making the cut. A few weeks later, she played in the 2023 U.S. Women's Amateur and went deeper this time, finishing in the round of 64 and losing a close one in match play, 1 up.
While Misemer admits she is not "the most emotional person on the golf course," for the very first time her dad caddied for her at a U.S. Open, they couldn't have "dreamt of a better venue" than the Monterey Peninsula's Pebble Beach.
The moment took on even more meaning considering that her dad was diagnosed with cancer when she was in high school.
"Julia is very fortunate. She has a support system in her family really that you don't see very often," Arizona coach Laura Ianello said. "Her family really wraps their arms around her — if it's caddying for her, it's helping her, coming to tournaments. Her parents came to every tournament last year. They really support their daughters. I think just those are memories that she's going to have with her dad the rest of her life.
"She's had a lot of family trials and tribulations. I think they're also in a place in their life where they know every minute that they have together is really special because it could have been the other way. Life is hard and when you're struggling with illness like her father was, I think that gave the whole family perspective on what's really important. And it's not just winning golf tournaments, but it's making sure you spend that quality time together."
Hitting balls in the basement
Ianello and Misemer have an extra connection. Both grew up in the Midwest — Ianello in Illinois, Misemer in Kansas City. And both had to deal with not being able to play golf outside in the winter. So, their dads created indoor practice venues. Ianello's was in her basement.
"My dad would always take out pictures from Golf Digest of like Freddie Couples or Ernie Els and their golf swings and we would always have them up on the basement wall. We would watch and look at (them) while we were doing our practice indoors," Ianello said.
"It cracks me up, when we visited (Julia's) house last year, her dad had the same stuff on the wall from Golf Digest — golf swings and stuff."
For Ianello, who had a stellar golfing career of her own before becoming the Wildcats' coach, it all started with her dad, Jerry Myerscough. He taught her and her siblings the basic fundamentals of how to hold the club, weight distribution and posture, as well as ball position and alignment. And then there was the net in her unfinished basement.
"Everything originally was always for my dad because my dad is such a lover of the game that he put (up) the net — it wasn't for us. Nothing, I feel like, was ever for the kids, it was always for him, because he was going to hit golf balls," Ianello said with a laugh. "We were just a close family; we always just wanted to do what dad was doing. My little brother (Matt) and I would go down in the basement when dad was hitting golf balls and we were like, 'Let me hit some. Let me hit some.' "
