When Joe got home that night, he told Jenny: "You should have seen her swing. It was like she had this natural swing." He kept repeating it, not believing his own words. Joe was just beginning to play himself and taking lessons with an instructor named Matt Acuff.
The head of instruction at Palmbrook Country Club in Sun City, Arizona, Acuff agreed to teach Amy as well, adopting an approach to coaching her he holds six years later: He treats her like any other golfer.
Acuff told Joe and Jenny early on that Amy was "more capable than you think." Joe's goal at first was for Amy to learn so she could play golf with the family on Sundays.
"We had no expectations, zero expectations of her playing competitively, or being part of a team or anything like that," Joe said. "That was just not on our radar."
Then Dustin Riley, a physical education teacher at Amy's school, organized a golf club when sports ended for the year in eighth grade. Armed with lessons, Amy joined. During one round, she hit the pin on a drive. Riley went nuts.
"I honestly probably haven't cheered so hard for one of my players in my life," he said.
After nine holes one practice, Riley told Jenny he thought Amy could play high school golf. He reached out to Greg Rice, the freshman coach at Sandra Day O'Connor High School, where Amy was headed the next year.
Tryouts were on the second day of school. Rice said he was skeptical at first.
"How are we going to do this?" he thought.
Then he saw Amy swing.
"My mouth just dropped," Rice said. "She hit that ball and I was like, 'Wow.' I could not believe that she could swing a golf club like that."
Amy made the team her freshman season but didn't play in a tournament. She would play practice holes behind the varsity, getting in about five holes every round.
She played in two tournaments the following season.
Joe and Acuff knew a regular spot on varsity was waiting. But some of the effects of Down syndrome are having low muscle tone and strength, which made playing nine or 18 holes, particularly in the heat, difficult for Amy. Acuff started taking Amy out for full-round practices. She would get lightheaded, dehydrated and nauseous. She'd vomit.
Keeping Amy's stamina up during her college tournaments is essentially a full-time responsibility for her parents. They have a food and hydration plan for each tournament, giving her drinks, energy gels, sandwiches and fruit throughout the day. They continually talk to Amy to keep her focused. They also keep a watchful eye for attention or physical drops.
And to help with Amy's stamina, her push cart comes with a seat that drops down so she can rest after every shot.
She played with Girls Golf of Phoenix the summer going into her junior year, preparing for the rigors of high school golf -- longer courses and 18 holes. Joe started caddying for her and taught her the rules. Either he or Acuff has caddied for Amy ever since.
On the putting green, Joe often uses the flagstick to line up her shot. He gives her pointers like "accelerate through" or "straight back, straight through" or "stay tall." He makes sure Amy's feet are lined up or she's standing the right distance from the ball. He reminds her to hit the grass on a practice swing.
She calls him Dude. He responds by calling her Dudette.
"Some of the most fun days of my life are caddying for her," Joe said.
Amy made the varsity rotation as a high school junior and played in nine tournaments by fending off those trying to unseat her.
But when the season ended, Joe and Jenny weren't sure if she was going to play as a senior. They started to prepare for the next phase of Amy's life. But golf wasn't done with her yet.
There was a scoring mix-up. A team that had qualified for the Arizona high school state golf tournament was bumped and Sandra Day O'Connor, Amy's school, was named as its replacement.
Amy was going to state.
A story about Amy came out in The Arizona Republic on the morning of the second round.
It sparked a buzz and a gallery started to form to watch Amy. Parents started approaching Joe and Jenny to tell them how they admired them.
"She loved it," Jenny said. "She had fun. She gets excited by the attention, and people were coming up to meet her and to say hello to us.
"Suddenly you're being looked at, and we're used to being looked at because people with Down syndrome look differently. And we're used to getting looks, but it was different. It was just a different level."
As a senior, Amy again qualified for the state tournament, but this time as an individual after a season in which she was scoring career bests. Her nine-hole low was 45 -- down from the 60s she was shooting as a freshman.
The state tournament that year was played in Tucson, about two hours south of Phoenix. Because the team had to stay overnight, the girls hung out in the hotel and Baker, their coach, made them breakfast, which, he remembered Amy loving.
"She wants to be with the girls," Lindsey said. "She wants everybody to laugh and I think she's probably learned that if somebody is laughing, it's because they're having a good time and so it's all about having a good time."
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