Bailey Tardy

She began playing golf around age 11 and credits her dad for introducing her to the sport. She played on a traveling soccer team during most of her youth, but when her team broke up she quit and picked up tennis. She ended up playing every sport across the board and fell in love with golf in the end.
Has had an extremely successful junior golf career that really took off in 2013. After playing on the AJGA Tour since 2011 and collecting a couple of top-10 finishes, Tardy had a great 2013. Captured four victories and was a medalist at the U.S. Girls' Junior after shooting consecutive 69s. Won the AJGA Arrowhead Junior with rounds of 70-74-72 and the Georgia State Golf Association Girls Championship shortly after. Went on to win the Big I National Championship and the Golfweek Junior East Coast Invitational with scores of 69-72. Received an exemption into the 2013 Symetra Tour Championship in Daytona Beach. After the first two rounds of stroke play, she didn't think she was going to make the cut, so she left and started to drive home. She got as far as Jacksonville and saw she kept moving up the leaderboard, so they stopped for ice cream and waited for the final results. She ended up making the cut, so she turned around and drove back to Daytona Beach, and Tardy finished the tournament T-27th. In 2014, she kept her level of play up with finishes of 6th at the AJGA Annika Invitational, 2nd at the Kathy Whitworth Invitational, and a runner-up finish at the AJGA Thunderbird Invitational, where she carded scores of 77-68-70. In the USGA championship competition, she did not make the cut at the 2014 U.S. Women's Open but advanced to match play in the 2014 and 2015 U.S. Women's Amateur. Reached the round of 64 in 2014 and the round of 16 in 2015. Tardy also qualified for the U.S. Girls' Junior four times, in 2010, 2012-2014. She missed the cut for match play in 2010 but did three times. In 2012, she lost in the round of 64 and advanced to the round of 32 in 2013 and 2014.
Finished runner-up in AJGA Thunderbird and the Under Armour/Hunter Mahan Championship in 2015. She won the 113th North and South Amateur and was in top 10 in the Polo/AJGA Ranking when she signed a letter of intent. She also competed in the Wyndham Cup in 2013-2015 and was AJGA Rolex All-American three times.
Freshman season (2015-2016) notes: Tardy was a WGCA All-American and SEC Freshman of the Year. She finished the year ranked 5th nationally by Golfweek and Sagarin Performance Index and 9th by Golfstat. She notched eight top-10 finishes and 10 inside the top 20 with two victories. Won the Windy City Collegiate and the NCAA Bryan Regional. In early June, she was a member of the 2016 USA Curtis Cup Team, going 3-2.
Sophomore season (2016-2017) notes: Named honorable mention All-America by the WGCA and second-team All-SEC. Tallied eight Top-20 and four Top-10 finishes. She finished 2nd at the Windy City Collegiate Classic, T-3rd ANNIKA Intercollegiate, 4th Cardinal Kickoff
8th at Bryan National Collegiate and T-19th NCAA Athens Regional.
Credits those closest to her for pushing her to practice and better her skills. When she's not playing golf, she likes to go fishing, wakeboarding, or doing anything outside. She enjoys babysitting and helping at the Special Olympics and Relay for Life. She likes to use a quarter as her ball marker. Her father, Bob, works in Commercial Real Estate. Mother, Kim, works in Residential Real Estate. She has two older brothers, Montgomery and Peyton.
Tardy turned professional following the fall semester in 2018 after she earned Epson Tour membership at LPGA Q-Series, but did remain in school to graduate from UGA in May 2019.
2019 Notes: Played in 21 Epson Tour events making seven cuts. Had two top-10 finishes of T-10th at the Zimmer Biomet Championship and The Forsyth Classic Finished 88th on the money list with earnings of $13,714
2020 Notes: Played in 10 Epson Events making seven cuts. She had four top-10 finishes including a season-best runner-up finish at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship She finished sixth on the 2020 money list with $41,380, narrowly missing out on LPGA Tour promotion by just $343.
2021 Notes: Played in 18 Epson Tour events making 11 cuts. She had four top-10 finishes including a 3 shot win at the Copper Rock Championship. Unfortunely she was 12th on the money list with earnings of $68,659 but she again missed out on promotion, as only 10 cards on offer.
2022 Notes:Played in 21 Epson Tour events making 12 cuts. She had four top-five finishes on the Epson Tour including a season-best runner-up at the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout. She was 11th on the money list with earnings of $76,846 which was $1,765 out of the 10th on the money list for the last LPGA card for 2023. After the season, she finished 2nd in LPGA Q Series to earn her LPGA card for 2023. She finished two shots back of medalist Hae Ran Ryu after shooting a final-round 65.
2023 Notes: In her rookie season on the LPGA Tour, she held the second round lead at the 2023 U.S. Women's Open before finishing T-4th, collecting $482,136. She was six shots back of winner Allisen Corpuz. Tardy opened with rounds of 69-68 to lead after 36 holes and then shot 75-73 on the weekend to fall back.