Allee Rose Booten, an eight grader at Burlington Notre Dame, was the Iowa PGA Section Junior Tour Girls 13-and-under Player of the Year
Matt Levins - The Hawk Eye
DENMARK — Allee Rose Booten is a rarity.
The 14-year-old from Denmark loves golf, so much so that she is driven to be the best.
While many of her friends and classmates spent the summer vacationing, swimming or playing video games, Booten spent her summer on the golf course, either practicing or playing in Iowa PGA Section Junior Tour events.
Booten has become so proficient at the game that she earned Junior Tour Player of the Year honors for the Girls 13-and-under division.
Booten is just getting started. The eighth-grader at Notre Dame Junior High School has bigger and better things ahead of her and she is working diligently to attain them.
“My goal is to pursue it my entire life,” Booten said. “I love it so much. Golf is truly my passion. I want to pursue it through college and hopefully get some scholarships. I also want to lower my scores on the scorecard, so some real swing work next summer.”
Booten, who started playing golf at the age of eight, has been working with Spirit Hollow Golf Course PGA Head Golf Professional Brian Lorenz for the past three years to improve all aspects of her game.
Even in the cold months, Booten and Lorenz are at the Shankopotamus Toptracer range working on her game in the heated bays.Weather permitting, Booten usually can be found at an area golf course working on her game when she is not in school.
“I come out here (Spirit Hollow) for range work and putting and chipping. I got to Flint Hills and my home course is Sheaffer, which is five minutes away from my house,” Booten said. “My favorite course to practice at is Sheaffer because it’s the most affordable for me and it’s the closes for me.”
Lorenz helps Booten in all aspects of the game, from technique to mental toughness.
“Primarily we work on the fundamentals of her golf swing, to be able to address her ball flight while she’s out on the golf course on her own,” Lorenz said. “We spend a lot of our time in the summer working on short game — shipping, putting, pitching, distance control. Things that are actually going to translate into the golf and let her kind of figure her golf swing out on her own.”
Booten finished the Iowa PGA Section Junior Tour with 5,640 Player of the Year points. She appeared in 25 events on the Iowa PGA Junior Tour this season, winning 13.
She was victorious in the Iowa PGA Spring Junior Open hosted by Elmwood Country Club and Ames Golf & Country Club, Iowa PGA Junior Spring Series hosted by Muscatine Municipal Golf Course, Iowa PGA Fyre Lake Junior Classic hosted by Fyre Lake Golf Club, Cedar Valley Junior Tour Championship hosted by Pheasant Ridge Golf Course and Quad Cities Junior hosted by Palmer Hills Golf Course.
She also won the 48th Iowa Girls Junior PGA Championship hosted by Elmcrest Country Club, Iowa PGA Junior Championship hosted by A.H. Blank Golf Course, Western Illinois University Junior hosted by Harry Mussatto Golf Course, Iowa PGA Cedar Rapids Junior hosted by Gardner Golf Course, Quad Cities Junior Championship hosted by Davenport Country Club and Crow Valley Golf Club, Iowa Junior Open hosted by Blue Top Ridge, and Iowa PGA Fall Junior at Amana.
Despite all the wins, Booten said she gains knowldege from losing, as well.
“I’ve learned a lot from losing because you’re not always going to win,” Booten said. “I’ve learned from some very, very talented golfers. I’ve seen so many extraordinary shots from them and been so inspired when I see that to do that myself. I’ve had players my age and older and it’s really driven me to be better.”
Booten spent many hours in the car with her parents, which was one of the special parts of playing on the Junior Tour. And no matter where they go, Booten has her set routine before she tees off.
“I’m very, very grateful for my parents. They sacrifice so much money and so much time to bring me to these tournaments. I am so eternally grateful for it,” Booten said. “We’ve had some very, very long drives. I’ve been at the range, putting and chipping and then off to tournaments. It’s usually me and my Mom and Dad. We have to get up pretty early. I get there usually an hour-and-a-half early to prepare. We’ve been to a lot of tournaments. It’s been a really, really fun experience for me. Sometimes we get to stay in hotels if it’s really far away. It’s been a lot of great bonding, not only with my fellow players, but with my parents, too.”
Booten plans to play for Notre Dame High School in the spring of 2026 and has aspirations of playing at the college level and beyond.
She already is giving back to the sport as much as she can.
“I have applied for a Youth on Course program. It’s an organization that is trying to increase youths on the course because sometimes it’s so hard with golf courses, there are hardly and youths. It’s a program that tries to get youths on the course with junior passes and discounts. Golf is an expensive sport,” Booten said. “I also want to mentor younger golfers. Golf is intimidating. You look at the water. You look at the sand traps. You think, ‘I can’t hit out of that.’ I really want to inspire and talk younger golfers through that, try and help get more people on the course. Golf is a really underrated sport.”