The emotional reason this U.S. Women's Amateur finalist plays a yellow golf ball

USA Today

a day ago

(Editor's note: Golfweek's Cameron Jourdan is following all the action from Bandon Dunes. Check out his updates from the semifinals here.)
BANDON, Ore. — When Brooke Biermann blasts her tee shot down the first fairway at Bandon Dunes on Sunday, she'll do so with a yellow golf ball. And to her, it's a lot more than just a color.
Biermann is one of the finalists at the 2025 U.S. Women's Amateur and will face world No. 11 Megha Ganne in the 36-hole championship match Sunday on Oregon's Pacific Coast. The 22-year-old, who recently graduated from Michigan State, took down rising Kansas junior Lyla Louderbaugh in the semifinals on Saturday to punch her ticket to the championship match.
And she'll use a yellow golf ball when she plays, just like she has since her first tournament.
The reason? Her grandfather, Bill, gifted her a dozen Callaway Chrome Soft yellow golf balls when she first started playing tournament golf. A couple weeks later, Bill died.
Playing in her third tournament after his passing at Yorktown Golf Course, a par-3 layout in Illinois, Biermann made a hole-in-one using a 7-iron from 100 yards away. It was with one of those yellow balls, which she called "goldies."
"That is a sign that I'm going to play with a yellow ball and he's gonna be by my side every single round," Biermann said. "I know it's a little different and unique, but I've actually grown to like it a lot because you can always tell whose ball is whose."
Biermann still has that hole-in-one golf ball. Although she won't use it Sunday, it'll be a yellow ball as a sentimental reminder throughout her round of one of the reasons she's in this position at Bandon Dunes.
And Bill will have a front-row seat to watch his granddaughter chase history.