FAYETTVILLE, Ark. – Sierra Brooks felt like she needed a seatbelt Monday at Blessings Golf Club.
Seven birdies.
Three bogeys.
A pair of doubles.
Just six pars.
It was the quintessential roller-coaster day, and the University of Florida junior spent much of it holding on as the round – and her game – continually got away from her only to come right back.
“What is happening?” Brooks asked herself at one point on the back nine.
“It was so hard to watch, just because I knew she was a bit off,” said Brooks’ father, Brent. “It felt like a mistake was right around the corner. But every time she’d make a mistake, she’d come right back with a birdie and right the ship.”
Brooks battled all morning in gusty conditions around one of the toughest tests in NCAA Women’s Championship history to earn an even-par 73 and 4-under total in the shortened 54-hole stroke-play competition. Brooks’ wild 73 followed a sparkling second-round 67, and it marked the second straight score of par or better for Brooks at nationals after she failed to break par in each of her first four rounds.
And speaking of ships: Brooks was the clubhouse leader in the race for the NCAA individual title as she waited to see what Arkansas senior Maria Fassi would do in the afternoon.
“She knows that it’s never over,” Brent Brooks said. “She keeps fighting and coming at it, and I’m so proud of her fight today. To make seven birdies out there was phenomenal.”
NCAA Women’s Golf Championship: Individual
Brent Brooks has seen his daughter mature greatly in the past few years, as Sierra’s ability to handle adversity was strengthened by a series of hurdles. First came the left-wrist injury that required surgery in December 2016 and kept the former U.S. Women’s Amateur runner-up out of the lineup for most of her freshman season at Wake Forest. Then came the decision to leave Wake and return home to the Orlando, Fla., area, followed by burgeoning aspirations to turn pro while continuing to rehab a wrist injury that wouldn’t seem to go away.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever play golf pain-free again,” Sierra would tell her dad.
But Brooks forged her way back. She got healthy, rediscovered her game and set her sights on Q-School. Then came the phone call.
“I didn’t think she’d be interested,” said Brent, who fielded the call from Florida head coach Emily Glaser, who was inquiring on whether Sierra, who originally committed at the Gators at 14 years old, would like to return to college golf.
After a few days, Sierra was on board. Following a failed attempt to make it through Q-School, she accepted a scholarship and packed her bags for Gainesville.
In her first start as a Gator, Brooks won Florida’s spring opener. Since then, she’s won two more times and was an All-American honorable mention as a sophomore.
“I feel like I’ve hit the bottom a couple of times and I’ve had to make my way back up from there,” Brooks said, “so I definitely feel like I’ve toughened up and am ready for whatever can come at me.”
Like the first hole Monday, where Brooks tugged her drive into the penalty area and made an opening bogey. She made birdie two holes later, on the par-3 third, her first of three birdies on par 3s in the final round.
Or the 10th hole, where she bogeyed to snap a run of three birdies in four holes. She responded by wedging to 3 feet from the rough at the difficult par-4 11th and making birdie.
Or the double bogeys on Nos. 12 and 14, both on three-putts. She birdied Nos. 13 and 15.
“That’s the great thing about Sierra is she sticks to her plan and trusts it,” said Florida associate coach Janice Olivencia, who walked all 18 holes with Brooks on Monday. “She has a pretty unbelievable way of getting back. She has this ability to rebound so well – and quickly – just because she’s mentally tough and keeps grinding.”