Valery Plata

Plata first got into golf when she was in primary school, around the age of eight, when she decided to tag along with her brother who played a six-hole course. When her dad realize she was interested signed her up for summer golf camp.
In 2020, she earned Big Ten Player of the Year honors and reached the semifinals of the U.S. Women's Amateur, losing to eventual runner-up Gabriela Ruffels. Plata was Big Ten Player of the Year in 2019-20, and a quarterfinalist at the 2018 U.S. Girls Junior Championship.
As a junior in 2020-21, Plata earned her second collegiate win in the Indiana Invitational, qualified for the NCAA Women's Championships, and earned First Team All-Big Ten honors. Over the summer of 2021, she reached the second round of match play in the U.S. Women's Amateur and made the cut in the Meijer LPGA Classic finishing T-70th.
The native of Floridablanca, Colombia, won the 2021 Women's Amateur Latin America in Argentina by a shot over fellow countrywoman Maria Jose Marin. The win got her exemptions into the 2022 AIG Women ́s Open and the 2022 Amundi Evian Championship. After she and Maria were part of the winning Colombian team in the South America Women's Amateur Team Championship in Chile, the Michigan State senior closed her year with a three-shot triumph in the Patriot All-America Invitational in Arizona.
2022 Notes: She was T-4th in the Florida Gators Invitational and 2nd in the Lady Buckeye Invitational, six shots back of winner Emily Price. At the Augusta National Women's Amateur Championship she missed the cut with rounds of 80-76. In the Big-ten Championship she was T-14th.