NASHVILLE – Three highly regarded golfers have signed National Letters of Intent to join Greg Allen’s top-five ranked Vanderbilt women’s golf program.
Jayna Choi of Collierville, Tenn., Tess Davenport of Buford, Ga., and Celina Sattelkau of Neustadt, Germany are high school seniors who will join the Commodores for the 2019-20 campaign.
Choi is an individual state champion who has helped her school to two Tennessee state titles. Davenport is a Georgia state runner-up who has guided her school to back-to-back second-place finishes at the state tournament. Sattelkau is one of Germany’s top juniors who contended for the 2018 Ladies British Open Amateur Championship and European Girls Championship.
Allen, who has his Commodores ranked third nationally after a highly successful fall campaign, is delighted about the team’s 2019 signing class.
“We are really excited about our 2019 class. Jayna, Tess, and Celina are three highly talented young ladies. We are expecting this crew to come in and make an immediate impact on our program,” Allen said. “These girls have very impressive resumes and have had chances to play all over the world. All are hard workers with a lot of character and strong morals which is exactly what we look for when we recruit. They will be a wonderful addition to the Commodore family.”
Choi has been a standout since arriving on the Tennessee prep scene in 2015. As a freshman, she captured the Tennessee state individual title while leading Houston High School to the large-school team championship. Later, she helped Houston to the 2017 state title.
Choi has plenty of USGA experience, having competing in three USGA Girls Junior Championships and an USGA Women’s Amateur Championship. In 2017, she was a member of the Tennessee squad that captured the USGA State Team Championship. A winner of the 2018 AJGA Scott Stallings Junior Championship, Choi was a former second-team Rolex Junior All-America recipient.
“Jayna has been verbally committed to us since her freshman year of high school, so it is very nice to finally make it official,” Allen said. “She is an excellent player and has been ranked as high as a top-five player in the 2019 class.”
Davenport is coming off a second-place individual finish at the Georgia 7A State Girls Championship. She has helped Mill Creek High School to runner-up finishes at the 2017 and 2018 Georgia 7A State Championship.
Davenport also is coming off a tie for fifth place at the 2018 Georgia State Girls Championship and produced two match-play wins that were instrumental in Team Georgia’s victory in the Georgia-South Carolina Junior Challenge.
“Tess has been a standout golfer at the junior and high school level. She is one of the best golfers to come out of the state of Georgia. She is very athletic, has great potential, and brings a strong work ethic to our program,” Allen said.
Sattelkau is arguably Vanderbilt’s most accomplished signee. A product of Kurpflaz Gymnasium Mannheim School in Germany, Satelkau was the country’s No. 1-ranked Under-18 junior and Europe’s 12th-ranked Under-18 junior.
In the past year, Sattelkau has won the English Girls Open Amateur Championship, finished 10th at the Ladies British Open Amateur Championship and helped Germany to a third-place team finish at the European Girls Championship.
“Celina is a world-renowned player and has had a lot of success at a really high level internationally. She had an excellent summer and we believe she is only just getting started,” Allen said.
