2009 photo submitted by Bob Steinhagen
After competing in last year’s Duramed Tour event at RCC, Amanda Steinhagen hopes the experience pays dividends in the Greater Richmond Golf Classic this August.

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Teenage golfer Amanda Steinhagen has been hotter than the weather in recent weeks. Will she continue to sizzle when competing against the next generation of LPGA professionals?

  Steinhagen, an 18-year-old amateur from Oak Hill, has accepted an invitation to compete in next month’s $100,000 Greater Richmond Golf Classic at Richmond Country Club. Her presence adds a splash of regional interest to the Duramed Futures Tour’s annual visit to the 6,278-yard course on west Patterson Avenue.

  “She’s having an unbelievable summer and you’d have to say the sky’s the limit for her, absolutely,” said tournament director/RCC golf pro Matthew Schulze. “I think she’s got all the potential in the world.”

  Graduate of Oakton High School, won the Virginia State Golf Association women’s amateur championship earlier this month. She defeated Lauren Greenlief, a rising junior at the University of Virginia, 2 and 1 in a stirring championship match at Glenmore Country Club in Keswick. Last week, she won the VSGA junior girls championship at Indian Creek Yacht and Country Club in Kilmarnock.

  She is the first golfer in 30 years to simultaneously hold both titles.

  Steinhagen, who will attend and play golf at Longwood University in the fall, recently stepped away from competition for more than a month. She returned refreshed and refocused at the VSGA women’s amateur.

  “I took time off to try to get back to the basics of the game,” she told reporters after her victory over Greenlief. “I worked on simple things and tried not to make everything so complicated.”

  Steinhagen is familiar with RCC and the Duramed Tour. She earned an amateur slot in last year’s event by winning a 36-hole qualifying tournament. She went on to shoot rounds of 80 and 77.

  “She certainly has the length to play with [Duramed Tour regulars],” Schulze said. “So ability won’t be an issue. The only question is: How will she respond to the setting? Last year, I think she was a little bit overwhelmed. It’ll be interesting to see how she responds this year, now that she’s seen it once before. So many of the things that were unknowns last year shouldn’t bother her this time around.”

  This year’s area amateur representative was chosen by invitation instead of competition because of an NCAA rules interpretation that has discouraged participation by high school- and college-age players. The Duramed Tour believes the NCAA rule requires an amateur qualifier to pay a $500 entry fee — the same as Tour regulars — or risk compromising her college eligibility.

  Said Schulze: “Apparently there’s a feeling that [a waived entry fee] could be misconstrued as a gift or an improper benefit” to a current or future college student-athlete.

  The Greater Richmond Golf Classic, presented by Eagle Construction, will pay the winner $14,000. The Duramed Tour’s top performers are rewarded at year’s end with LPGA playing privileges for the upcoming season.

Vic Dorr Jr. is a staff writer for the Richmond Times Dispatch.

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