By RICHIE HALL
They may have been behind after the first day and playing against the wind, but Brette Hanavan and the Grace College women’s golf team kept calm and carried on.
By doing that, the Lancers took control of the leaderboard during the next two days of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Women’s National Championship, which took place this week at Hammock Beach Resort in Plam Coast, Fla. In the end, Grace College won the team championship with a three-day score of 320-315-315=950 to claim its second national title.
In addition, Hanavan won individual medalist honors. The 2022 Westfield graduate and current Lancers junior also came from behind to score that victory, finished with a three-day round of 79-74-79=232. Hanavan finished three strokes ahead of second place.
Hanavan was tied for sixth place after the first round, five strokes back from the lead. But Hanavan turned it on in the second round with a 74, the low score of the second day. Her two-round total was 153, just one behind Bethel’s Aynslee Myer, who totaled 152.
Hanavan pulled ahead of Myer in Wednesday’s third round with another 79. She drained five birdies for the tournament, making three in the second round and one each in the first and third rounds.
“My mental game was really strong throughout the tournament,” said Hanavan. “I think my putting won the tournament for me.” Hanavan said she followed an old golf rule: “Drive for show, but you putt for dough.”
“It worked in this context because my putting did amazing,” said Hanavan.
A strong mental game helped the entire Grace College team as well. The Lancers were in second place after the first round with their score of 320. Bethel was the leader with 309, so Grace College was down by a daunting 11 strokes.
“I think it’s amazing that we could come back and win,” said Hanavan. “It’s tough to be back by 11 strokes after the first day.”
Nothing to lose
But Hanavan said everyone on the team had each other’s back, which made it “a lot better going into the next two days.”
“As a team, we had nothing to lose, because we were already in a losing position, so we could just be very calm going into the next two days,” said Hanavan.
The Lancers improved five strokes for their second day score by totaling 315. That brought them into a winning position, as they were only five down going into the third round. In that final round, Grace outdueled Bethel 315-326 to soar to the win.
“I think we played great,” said Hanavan. She said the conditions were very tough “because the course is on the ocean.”
The championship was played on the Hammock Beach Resort’s Ocean Course, and there is no messing around: several of the course’s holes are right on the Atlantic Ocean. (Hammock Beach is located a little over an hour south of Jacksonville.) Since those holes are by the ocean and its waves, “the wind made it pretty tough.”
“Our team just did a good job of staying in the moment and grinding through those tough conditions and making sure every shot mattered,” said Hanavan.
The Lancers have built a solid golf tradition. Grace won its first national championship in 2019, while Summer Stillson won the individual championship in 2022. Hanavan has been on the Lancers team since her freshman year; she said she’s made some of her best friends at Grace and “couldn’t have asked for a better team.”
“I love Grace,” said Hanavan, who is majoring in accounting and plans to get a master’s in business administration. “It’s definitely where I’m meant to be. Coach (Denny) Duncan is an amazing coach.”
Westfield coach Josh Bryant said that Hanavan is the “consummate amateur professional” and is very proud of her accomplishments.
“It doesn’t surprise me to see that she’s won, although it’s an amazing accomplishment,” said Bryant. “Her mental attitude, the strength of her character bleeds into her golf.”
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