EAST LANSING, Mich. – Maggie Williams had been struggling with her swing going into the NCAA Division III national tournament, held at Forest Akers on May 11–14.
After struggling in the first round, she rebounded to move up 76 spots over the next two days and finished with an overall 318 to tie for 21st, helping Methodist University capture its first national championship since 2012 and 26th overall.
“It was quite impressive, I think, for a freshman in her first national championship,” Methodist coach Tom Inczauskis said. “I’m sure there were nerves being on the big stage, but she rebounded quite well and helped propel us to the championship the next three rounds.”
After struggling to an 89 in the opening round, Williams went back to the hotel room to look at some old video of her swing.
“The first round, (I was) a little nervous,” she said. “But I knew that I was not striking the ball how I was used to. So I just struggled the first day. I don’t know what exactly happened, but every single hole just compounded.
“Our team knew that we didn’t play that well the first day. So I just went back to the hotel room and looked at some old swing videos, just trying to figure out what was going wrong and what was different. I could feel myself getting lost in the swing and I just wasn’t comfortable over the ball. I just didn’t have control over the club face.”
Williams saw some things with her grip and her approach and worked on them with her coaches on the driving range the next morning.
It worked. The freshman from Mount Vernon High School fired a 74 in the second round and followed up with a 76 and a 79 to finish out the tournament.
“That’s kind of crazy,” Williams said of her movement up the leaderboard. “I just finally felt like I was back where I was supposed to be.”
Jillian Drinkard and Ingrid Steingrimsen shot identical 307 scores to lead the Monarchs, and Paige Church followed with a 310. Drinkard and Steingrimsen finished tied for third and Church was tied for ninth.
Inczauskis knew that Williams would make an immediate impact for Methodist. She passed a playing ability test last summer as a part of Methodist's PGA management program.
“To have a freshman in the lineup on a nationally ranked team — you don’t see a ton of that,” Inczauskis said. “We knew what kind of player was coming, plus I got a chance to watch her a couple of times. I kept saying to our two veterans — Jillian and Paige, our two captains — ‘Maggie’s going to help.’ I knew she could help us; and sure enough, it came in just the way I expected it.”
Inczauskis noted Williams’ short game as her biggest strength.
“She has an amazing short game,” he said. “When you have a short game as good as hers, if you’re not hitting the ball that great, you can always get it up and down. To have a freshman in the lineup with a short game like (hers) — we’re super-excited.”
Williams attributes her success around the hole to Mount Vernon coach Anthony Savage.
“Just from playing on the boys team in high school, in order to score, I had to be pretty good around the greens and on the greens because there were a lot of holes where I couldn’t reach the green in two (shots),” she said. “I attribute how well everyone says my short game is to my high school coach, Coach Savage. That was a big part of practice every day — chipping and putting.”
