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Rylee Salome, three-time state champion golfer, announces college choice
Rylee Salome practices at the driving range at Isleta Golf Club on July 2. Salome is the top girls high school golfer in the state.
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Rylee Salome, the top-rated girls golfer in New Mexico, has committed to the New Mexico State women’s golf team.
Salome, who will be seeking a fourth-straight state title as a senior this year, would join the Aggies in fall 2025.
“It really wasn’t that hard deciding where to go — it’s where my heart is,” Salome told the Journal.
The home-schooled Salome, who lives in Tome and competes for Belen High School, has been a force on the course for years.
She won the New Mexico Women’s Amateur Match Play tournament when she was 11 and last year won all 10 high school tournaments that she competed in.
Salome, ranked No. 253 on the Junior Golf Scoreboard, receives instruction from her coach and father, Pat Salome, and uncle Anton Salome, who both attended NMSU. Anton played golf for the Aggies.
“We’d go down for Aggie basketball, football games all the time,” Rylee said. “I felt like I always knew I was going to go there, but I needed to go through the recruiting process.”
Among the other college programs Salome said showed interest were UTEP, Abilene Christian, Kansas, Illinois and Sam Houston State.
In the end, it was NMSU and head coach Danny Bowen who won out.
Bowen has been in contact with the Salome family since he took over the Aggie program four years ago.
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“He treats all his players like family,” Rylee said.
This year’s Aggie squad is led by junior Emma Bunch, a native of Denmark who has won six of the last seven college tournaments she has competed in and is on the watch list for the best female golfer in the NCAA.
Salome said she’s had a chance to play with Bunch and the rest of the Aggie golfers and is excited to suit up for the team next year. She plans to major in business.
