Headed to U.S. Women’s Open
Boca teen Dana Williams prepares to play.
BOCARATON— It’s a goal golfers can work toward for decades, butDanaWilliams made qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open Championship look easy.
Williams shot rounds of 5-under-par 67 and 72 in the oneday, 36-hole event last month at BallenIsles in Palm Beach Gardens to win the qualifier by five shots and earn a trip to the most prestigious tournament inwomen’s golf.
And the 16-year-old amateur fromBoca Raton, whose career-best round is a 66, did it while playing in the pouring rainandcarrying her own golf bag.
“I was playing really well and thingswere just goingmyway,” said Williams, who recently completed her sophomore year at West Boca High School and has already committed to play golf for AuburnUniversity. “The putts were dropping, so everythingwas good.
“I’m having a pretty good year so far and Iwanted to keep it going, so Iwas pretty happy.”
Among her 2017 highlights is winning the Florida State Golf Association Women’s Four-Ball Championship in mid-March. Williams and her partner, 13-year-old ElleNachmannof Boca, shot 69-71 for a 4-under 140 total and a one-shot victory.
But the greatest highlight of Williams’s young career will be playing in her country’s national championship, which is ThursdaySunday at Trump National Bedminster inNewJersey.
“It’s my biggest tournament yet. I’m looking forward to it,” said Williams, who has set straightforward goals: “To make the cut and do the best I can. If I play theway I played at the qualifier, things should gowell.”
Her teacher, Bobby Impaglia, who is the director of golf and instruction at Boca Raton Municipal Golf Course, saidWilliams has the ability and themindset to dowell at the Open.
Her classic, effortless swing produces long, accurate drives, which Impaglia said is her biggest asset.
Slim and fit with a long brown ponytail and wearing a white Auburn polo shirt, Williams averaged 250 yards off the tee during a recent practice session with Impaglia on a rain-soaked Boca Municipal. Teacher and student also worked on hitting the high, soft pitches that Open courses demand and on her putting.
“My ball-striking is really good,” Williams said. “I can get it close to the pin, it’s all about dropping the putts. If I drop the putts, I can go as lowas Iwant.”
In 35 years of teaching, Impaglia saidWilliams “is one of the best, if not the best” he’s everworkedwith.
“Dana is a fierce competitor, but a really good person, and she balances thatwell,” Impaglia said. “She’s the complete package. She’s a very hardworker, she thinkswell on the golf course and I think she’s got a tremendous future.”
Williams has another factor in her favor at the Open: She’s playing practice rounds with LPGA star Lexi Thompson of Delray Beach, who knows what it’s like for a young amateur to play in the tournament. Thompson first qualified for theOpen at age12.
“I played with her before a while back at Eagle Trace [in Coral Springs] and it was definitely a good experience,” said Williams, who plans to pick Thompson’s brain about the golf course and the tournament while they practice. “I’m definitely excited to play with her again.”
Her parents, Donna and John, will be at the tournament to support her, along with her two older sisters and their boyfriends and a host of friends and family.
“We’re extremely proud and excited,” John Williams said. “We can’twait to go.”
John Williams used to play golf on weekends and introduced his daughter to the game when she was 6.
“She took a few group lessons andwe put her inU.S. KidsGolf,” he said. “She won a trophy her first time out, and she thought that that was the epitome of golf and that was it. And then she said, ‘OK Daddy, I’m done. I want to play soccer and baseball and other things.’”
“I’ve always been into sports,” Williams said. “I remember when my aunt came to watch me play, it wasmy first tournament ever and I won the trophy and I was like, ‘I’m done.’ After that I got into other stuff.”
When she was 9, Williams decided to give up those team sports, which she excelled at, and play golf again. She was so good, her father stopped playing golf so he could take her to junior tournaments.
“I don’t know, I just wanted to get back into it,” saidWilliams, who wants to play on the LPGA Tour after college. “Itwas just something Iwent after.
“I was like maybe if you stick with it, see where it can go. And it’s gotten me some pretty good places.”
swaters@ sunsentinel.com; Twitter @WatersOutdoors