Ackerson, Wadhwa Honored By DFW Links

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Ackerson, Wadhwa Honored By DFW Links
Senior Named Women's Amateur of the Year; Incoming Frosh Named

By Alex Blair
DFW Links

The amazing thing about SMU golfer Kate Ackerson's year wasn't that she played well enough to be named DFW Links' Women's Amateur of the Year. It's that she could even play at all.

While playing in a tournament in February, Ackerson hit her ball into a fairway bunker, where it came to rest right against the lip. She decided to go after it at full speed, and when her club thudded against the ground she heard a pop in her left wrist.


"I physically could not grip the club," Ackerson said.

She took two months off in the hopes that rehab and rest it would make it better. But when Ackerson came back, it hurt even worse. The X-rays and MRIs failed to discover the source of the pain. She made the decision to play through it. It was almost impossible.

"I would play nine holes one day and nine holes the next day," Ackerson said. "I could not get through a full, 18-hole round. The pain would start at a seven and end up at a 10. It hurt with every swing. As the round went on, I would lose all strength in my left arm. I couldn't physically do anything."

Finally, a bone scan revealed an entrapped nerve that ran the length of Ackerson's arm. Doctors said that it would eventually get better. Ackerson learned to deal with the pain, but she would still take off three or four days before playing to rest her wrist. And forget practicing. Ackerson was forced to limit herself to less than 10 balls before trying to gut out a round. She missed most of her spring season, but nonetheless played well enough in her scattered appearances to earn second-team all-conference honors.

"I didn't know if I was going to be able to play in the summer," Ackerson said. "I really wanted to."

For a college golfer, summer is kind of like final exams. You take what you've learned during the whole year and apply it in the most prestigious invitationals, qualifiers and national championships. Again, she would have to play through the pain. Perhaps the worst was the mental aspect. During the round she was constantly reminded of her limitations.

"When I'm out there playing, I try not to think about it," Ackerson said. "The more I think about it, the angrier I get. When I'm in the rough I know I can't hit it. Or when I'm in the bunkers, definitely, and especially around the green."

Ever since she dropped swimming and picked up the game at age 14, Ackerson has always loved hitting balls. A session on the range is similar to swimming laps. Everything else in your world just kind of falls away. Only with golf, you don't have to worry about jumping into chilly water in those early morning practices.

But with the injury, Ackerson was robbed of that. She set her sight on qualifying for the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links at Erin Hills Golf Course in Erin, Wis. It promised to be a historic championship. Erin Hills is only two years old but has already been awarded two USGA championships: the WAPL and the 2011 U.S. Amateur. Many consider it a future U.S. Open venue.

She didn't hit a single shot for three months in preparation.

She claimed one of three qualifying spots at Canyon Creek in Richardson with a 77. In the first round on June 16, she shot another 77. Then, a breakthrough. She carded five birdies and only a single bogey and shot a championship-low 69 to finish only two behind the medalist.

"My irons were really on that day," Ackerson said. "The course was really open and long, and the strongest part of my game is the long game. I love it when you can bust out your driver. I had a lot of short irons into greens."

Ackerson bowed out in her first match 2 and 1, but considering the stage, the field and the pain, her 69 has to be one of the best rounds of the year for any Dallas-area golfer. Ackerson also qualified for the U.S. Women's Amateur at Eugene Country Club in Oregon, but when she saw the layout she knew it would be difficult.

"The course was a little narrower than I would have liked with much thicker rough that in Wisconsin," Ackerson said. "By the last nine holes I was just trying to get through the day. My wrist was really killing me."

Ackerson finished at 11-over and missed the cut by three.

At the start of the fall campaign at SMU, Ackerson was playing well. She had a top 5 finish and was in contention the next week before she again aggravated her injury and was forced to withdraw. She hopes to be able to tee it up for the Mustangs again in January.

"It's really frustrating," Ackerson said, "but you know that it will get better."

College golf better look out when it does.

--

Alot of junior golfers' friends are surprised when they choose golf as their pastime.

Even in the Tiger era, it's still not the most vogue sport.

But Tanya Wadhwa's friends weren't just startled about her playing golf. They were surprised about her playing any sport, period.

"In India, a lot of girls don't play any sports," Wadhwa said. "A lot of people hardly know what golf is."

But Wadhwa's family knew golf very well. Both her father, Ravi, and her brother, Varun, played when she grew up in New Delhi. It wasn't long until a seven-year-old Tanya wasn't content to just watch them hit balls. She wanted to take some swings.

She got serious enough for a problem to present itself: Where would she play? There was no junior golf competition in India.

"When I got started in India, I wasn't only the only girl playing... I was the only junior," Wadhwa said.

So the Wadhwa family went to the United States. It was a fateful decision, but it paid off. Six years later, Wadhwa became the youngest ever winner of the Texas Women's Open, was junior medalist at the Women's Trans-National Amateur and was low amateur at the European Tour's Emaar-MGF Ladies Masters, as well as the Indian Women's Open on the Ladies Asian Tour.

She is DFW Links' Girls Junior Golfer of the Year.

Wadhwa went to an American school in New Delhi, so English wasn't a major hurdle when she moved to the U.S. But everything else was an adjustment. She was away from her friends in a new country with a different culture.

"In India, I was a pretty outgoing person," she said. "But when I moved here, my personality changed, and I became completely shy. Everything was different."

Almost right away Wadhwa's game needed no translation. She won her division in the Doral Junior, the World Junior Championship at Torrey Pines and the U.S. Kids Junior Golf Championship. The wins made her a pseudo-celebrity in India, with newspapers there calling it a "Grand Slam."

She went to school at the Leadbetter Academy in Florida, which merged golf with schoolwork. Wadhwa played in AJGA events and was doing well. In 2006 she made it the quarterfinals of the U.S. Girls Junior. Despite this, she wasn't satisfied with how her swing was developing. When Wadhwa visited Dallas to play in the Kathy Whitworth Invitational, a friend of her father introduced her to Steve Johnson, an instructor at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch at Vista Ridge.

"In Florida, I had good competition, but my swing wasn't where I wanted it to be," she said. "I decided to switch to the Hank Haney swing, especially after Tiger changed to that swing. Now my swing plane is a lot more consistent. At Leadbetter, I felt there was a lot of movement, a lot of different things happening at once. This feels more natural."

Wadhwa cut back on junior competitions and focused more on local events after moving to Dallas. But being one of the upand- comers of Indian golf, she also received some irresistible invitations to international events.

In December 2007, Wadhwa went back to India to play in the Emaar-MGF Ladies Masters, one of the premiere events on the Ladies European Tour. Laura Davies and other members of the European Solheim Cup team were competing. Wadhwa finished tied for 23rd, the low amateur and the low Indian golfer. She also traveled back to India in March of 2008 to play in the Indian Women's Open, where she finished 19th.

But her big win of 2008 came at Eastern Hills Country Club at the Texas Women's Open, against some of the best amateurs and pros in Texas. Before the tournament, Wadhwa expected the worst.

"I was struggling with my swing," Wadhwa said. "I thought playing would be a waste of time since I was hitting it really bad. Then the night before my dad told me, `It doesn't matter how you play, it doesn't matter what you shoot. Just don't give up.'"

So she put her concerns out of her head and shot a 2-over-par 72, good for fourth. Then in the final round, it all came together.

"The putts were falling in," she said.

Wadhwa came to the last hole with a one-shot lead at even-par over Mabank pro Adrienne McDonald. On 18, McDonald hit her approach to 3 feet. Wadhwa was just outside at 6 feet. She knew she had to make her putt to avoid a playoff.

"I told myself that if it's my time to win I'll make it," Wadhwa said. "I really committed to the line and sure enough it went in."

Wadhwa shot a final-round 67 to win by one shot; she was the only golfer under par and the youngest winner in Texas Women's Open history. She'll have another chance to defend her title, too, as Wadhwa decided to stay in state for college. She accepted a scholarship to play at SMU starting this year.

A little over 10 years ago, another Indian golfer played college golf in Texas. That golfer, Jeev Milkha Singh, went on to become the first Indian to play in the Masters.

It will be fun to watch what Wadhwa does next.