It’s been awhile since the Monteiro sisters (now Christina Brandt and Autumn Dorini) talked about their early days of golf with the Southern Nevada Junior Golf Association. But once the memories started coming back, it’s clear those days will always be cherished. –by Bill Bowman, Las Vegas Golf Insider staff.

Now adults, the two women are both living life to the fullest as wives, mothers and full-time workers.

It’s a role they both cherish.

But once the talk about golf started, it didn’t stop.

“Our favorite thing was seeing all of our friends,” Christina said. “We played an event just about every week and saw the same kids every week. And I’ve still got a lot of those friendships now. In fact, Stephanie Keever (Louden) is still one of my best friends.”

The sisters have a lot in common to this day.

Christina is married to Nick Brandt and they have two daughters, Remingtion, age 7, and Reagan, age 5½. She is the vice president of A-1 Concrete Cutting & Demolition.

Autumn is married to Joe Dorini and has a son, Dominic, age 8, and a daughter, Montgomery, age 5. She is an Upper Cervical Chiropractor.

Another thing the sisters have in common is both used golf as a stepping stone in life, going from junior golf to high school success stories at Bonanza High School to college golf scholarships–Christina to the University of Arizona, where she was a part of the 2000 NCAA national championship team and all Pac 12 honoree. Autumn played at Hawaii and then for UNLV when the Rebels started a women’s golf program and several locals were part of the program including other SNJGA members Eric Borcherts and Tina Mabanta.

But nowadays, life has gotten in the way of playing a lot of golf, but the memories are still front and center.

“Junior golf taught me a lot of life lessons that I carry with me to this day,” Autumn said. “One thing is that it’s the No.1 sport if you are really competitive. The rush and the butterflies you get and how you control them was a great learning lesson. Another thing was you could always be competitive with your best friends and still be friends afterwards. And I made some amazing friends through junior golf.”

Christina added that now, golf isn’t as high on the priority list for her.

“In order now, it’s snow skiing and then golf probably comes in second,” she said. “I just don’t play that much anymore. I find other things to do with the family rather than spending four hours on the golf course. I like playing nine holes a lot better.”

Autumn added the sport paved the way for their future, which is now their present.

“My goal was always to be able to play Division 1 golf,” she said. “Well, actually any college golf. That way I could always say ‘I really made it’. I knew that after college I was just going to play for the fun of it.”

There was also a special bonding time for the sisters when Christina qualified for the 2000 Women’s U.S. Open. She didn’t make the cut, but it was still quite the experience.

“The whole family came including aunts, uncles and cousins,” Christina said. “They all wore T-shirts that said ‘Crusin’ with Christina’ and that was awesome.”

She also had her sister on the bag as her caddie. But there was at least one moment where that pairing almost broke down.

“The low point, but it’s funny now, was I was acting like a jerk and mad at how I was falling apart on the back nine after an even-par front nine,” Christina said. “My sister had to tell me to knock it off or she’d drop my bag right there in the fairway. It was too funny.”

Autumn, when asked about her fondest memory of that U.S. Open, came up with an amusing note. “When Christina was signing golf balls for kids who thought she was a big-time player was hilarious,” she said.