LPGA hopeful Avis Brown-Riley ready for return

For the past 20 years, Avis Brown-Riley has had a vision in which she’s walking down a fairway as friends, family, and strangers gathered outside the ropes shouting “Avis! Avis! Avis!”

Never mind the chemotherapy that left her unable to swing a club or put on her shoes. Never mind the debilitating nerve damage. Never mind the 25-year career at FedEx Express that took her far away from LPGA Q-School and the rush of competition.

Through it all, the vision remained.

And now, she knows why.

“The time has come, and the moment is now,” said the exuberant Brown-Riley, “that this vision has come to light.”

Brown-Riley, 58, will compete in the fourth edition of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open Aug. 25-28 at NCR Country Club (South Course) in Kettering, Ohio. She’ll reunite with a former college teammate and past champion Helen Alfredsson. She’ll see players she once competed against at the 1988 U.S. Women’s Open at Baltimore Country Club. She’ll angle to meet defending champion Annika Sorenstam for the first time.

Brown-Riley’s LPGA dreams never did come true, but after decades in the corporate world, she earned her LPGA Professional Class A membership in her late 50s, becoming the 12th of 13 black women to earn her teaching card. She is believed to be the first black player to qualify for the Senior Women’s Open.

“For me to have become the 12th black woman to hold an LPGA (teaching) card,” said Brown-Riley, “I was thinking wow, what has everyone been doing for 25 years while I was at FedEx?”

Brown-Riley, a mother of two and breast cancer survivor, isn’t just a visionary. She’s a natural-born motivator, and her new goal is to travel the world as a speaker and influencer, empowering and encouraging young black girls to follow their dreams.

Brown-Riley is the second youngest of five siblings born to Gordon Brown Sr., and Harriet Brown. Growing up in South Carolina, Gordon and his cousins found a few golf clubs in a garage and took to hitting balls in a nearby high school field. Gordon immediately fell in love with the game and became a fine player, honing his skills further while in the military.

“He was instrumental in breaking the color barrier so blacks could play golf in Charleston,” said Brown-Riley.

The Browns moved to San Diego before Avis was born, and by age 7, she had a club in her hand. At 10, Brown-Riley became the first black player to win the prestigious Junior World Golf Championship, and to this day…