How an Augusta competitor and aspiring lawyer found her identity outside the game

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Phoebe Brinker’s typical day doesn’t look quite like that of her 70 fellow competitors at this week’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur. As a paralegal for Ropes & Gray, a law firm in Boston, Brinker, 23, handles a lot of administrative tasks, like getting pages signed for important deals and handling paperwork for the formation of new businesses. All the while, Brinker is studying for the LSAT so she can apply to law schools in the fall.

It's the beginning of a career for Brinker, just not necessarily the one you’d expect from a three-time All-American. Brinker graduated from Duke in 2024 with a stellar collegiate record, including the 2022 ACC individual title, two top-10 finishes in the NCAA Championship and the ninth-best scoring average program history. For many, it would seem a near formality to turn professional and pursue what would very possibly manifest into a career on the LPGA Tour.

For many, yes, but not for Brinker, who decided during her senior year that she wouldn’t turn professional and instead become a lawyer. Like fellow 2024 classmate and 2021 NCAA individual champion Rachel Heck, who opted not to turn professional, Brinker craved something more than golf. It was a realization several years in the making.

During her freshman year at Duke, “I siloed myself into just golf, and then I was not as happy,” says Brinker, who is making her fourth appearance at the ANWA, having competed in 2022, 2023 and 2024. “I was, like, I need something else. Just school and golf gets old after four years, so I tried to get involved in different things to take advantage of the opportunity of being at Duke.”

In addition to managing the workload of her English major and Division I golf at the highest level, Brinker worked as an editor for Uncut, a student-run organization that helps student-athletes tell their stories. Those stories during the pandemic often dealt with serious topics, like mental health. For Brinker, the work was meaningful. She was also part of Duke’s ACE program, a service-oriented group that travels and provides help to communities around the country and world.

But even with her involvements outside of golf, she continued to excel on the course. After all, the game runs deep in Brinker’s family. Her aunt, Suzy Whaley, played on the LPGA Tour in the early 1990s, qualified for the PGA Tour’s 2003 Greater Hartford Open (now the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship) and in 2018 became the first woman to serve as the president of the PGA of America.

During summers growing up, Brinker would leave her home in Delaware and spend a few months living and training with Whaley in Connecticut at TPC River Highlands. Those summers formed a close relationship between Brinker and Whaley, who considers her niece “my third daughter.”

Brinker’s talent and calm demeanor were always present, but perhaps never more so than at the PGA Junior League National Championship in Atlanta, when she was 12. Representing Whaley’s Connecticut team, Brinker was the first to tee off. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, please let her hit the ball.’ She didn't just hit it, she striped it,” recalls Whaley, who is caddieing for Brinker this week at the ANWA. “Her teammates were screaming, and the boys she was playing against were, like, ‘holy cow.’ … She just looked at me, like, ‘That's what I was supposed to do.’”

Then came the AJGA First Team Rolex Junior All-American honors. Then the ACC individual title and NCAA success, leading Whaley to be confident that Brinker had a long, successful career ahead on the LPGA Tour.

In deciding whether or not to turn pro, Brinker consulted with friends who had played professionally and spent time reflecting. “I knew myself, and I loved school. I just wanted different lifestyle,” she says. “I’m not a homebody, but I didn't love the idea of traveling all the time. I've always loved golf, but it's just been one thing I do, not my job.”

“I was bummed,” Whaley says of her initial reaction to Brinker’s decision not to turn pro. “The only reason why I was bummed is because I know how talented she is. Watching her grow up and watching her achievements, I felt there was so much more left on the table that could be accomplished.

“But that’s how I felt, that’s not how she felt. After the moment of, oh my gosh, thinking about the things that could have been, I thought of the things that would be because she made this decision for herself, and that made me incredibly proud.”

Which leads us back to this week in Augusta, where 71 of the best women amateurs in the world will compete for two rounds at Champions Retreat, beginning Wednesday, before the top 30 and ties will play the final round at Augusta National on Saturday. Brinker has yet to make the cut, so is still seeking to play her first competitive round on the Masters course.

Since a T-10 finish at the NCAA Championship last spring, Brinker estimates she’s played only 10 or 15 times. Other than an occasional simulator session and a weekend trip to Florida, Brinker hasn’t practiced much. Boston winters don’t help. Neither does a job at a law firm and studying for the LSATs.

How do you explain to your manager that you need to take PTO to go play Augusta National? “They were so shocked. They were so supportive,” Brinker says, even if her colleagues are just now realizing what she means by “play Augusta.”

“We did a fun fact on the first day and mine was that I had played Augusta, but I don’t think that they really understood,” she says. “But then at a happy hour at this indoor simulator, I brought them all there and taught them how to play golf, and I think then they realized when they saw me hit.”

And that’s absolutely fine for Brinker, whose identity lies not in her golfing skills, but her soft-spoken personality that has always craved something more than a low score.

“In the short term, you can be only focused on golf and play well, but inevitably you're going to hit a hump,” she says. “You're going to get injured, or something in your life is going to happen that's going to make you rethink your identity and think that you need more.”