Julie Gumlia (Marvel) enjoyed a competitive golf career from a young age (she was ranked 9th as a junior amateur by Golf Digest magazine in 1973), winning her first State Amateur championship in 1971 at the Minnesota Women’s State Match Play when she was just 14. Gumlia won the State Junior Girls’ Championship in 1971, and four years later, she won both the junior girls’ and the Women’s State Amateur (stroke play) championships. That fall she entered the University of Minnesota and later earned a Big Ten Co-Champion individual and team title (1978). Twice she won the Women’s State Amateur Four-Ball Championship partnering with her mother, Jody Gumlia (1973-74).
When the U.S. Women’s Open visited Hazeltine National Golf Club in 1977, Gumlia qualified but failed to make the cut. She also qualified for the women’s open two years later. That year (1979) Gumlia won her first “national” event at the prestigious North-South Amateur, and was ranked 5th as an amateur golfer in the U.S. by Golf Digest.
