Boca Raton golfer Dana Williams currently in ‘process’ of reaching goal of going pro
Dana Williams has big dreams.
A 17-year-old golfer from Boca Raton, Williams has gotten a taste of the big stage by qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open the past two years. She’s gotten to know local LPGA star Lexi Thompson over the past few years, and she’s trying to emulate Thompson’s playing style and success.
Williams is unabashed about it. She wants to be in the LPGA.
Before that, though, there’s another step along Williams’ journey.
“First, it’s gonna be college,” Williams said. “I have to get through that for a little bit. And then I just have to work really hard. I know, everybody tells me how much it takes, and it’s a lot, so it’s hard to realize. But it takes a lot, and I just have to work hard.”
Williams will attend Auburn in 2019, joining a program that has won eight SEC Championships and holds an 854-167-13 record since 1999.
Already, the Tigers’ coaches have been working with Williams, attending tournaments and critiquing videos of her swing.
“It’s benefited me a lot,” Williams said of the extra coaching. “It gives me more insight on what I can improve, and there’s always room to improve.”
Much of Williams’ other coaching comes from Bobby Impaglia, a PGA Pro in his own right.
Impaglia has been coaching Williams personally over the past few years. He’s witnessed her grow from a young teenager to playing on the biggest stages in women’s golf. That maturing process has allowed Impaglia to put more on her plate.
Now, he sees the drive in Williams that he believes will allow her to go far.
“It’s a building process, we always call it,” Impaglia said. “It’s the process, because it is. I mean you can’t give them any more than they can handle, and now she can handle an awful lot. So she’s become an excellent player. She’s got great heart for the game. I always believed that a lot of times the game comes to you, but when you go to the game, that’s when it all begins. And she has very much gone to the game at this point.”
Of course the path to a goal is never easy.
Williams just returned from the U.S. Girls Junior in Pebble Beach, Calif., where she made the cut but fell in the first round of match play. Next week, the U.S. Girls’ Amateur will begin, but Williams won’t be there, because she lost in a playoff in her last qualifying opportunity.
So even though some facets of Williams’ game are stronger than usual for a girl her age, her growing isn’t done yet, at least not if she wants to reach her LPGA goal.
Her drives are big, and her short game is strong, Impaglia says, but he’s trying to get Williams to manage the game better, meaning a more firm knowledge of which clubs and shots she should hit in a given situation.
That’s why, less than a week after returning from California — where she says she likes the weather better — Williams and Impaglia and Williams’ mother, Donna, get in a golf cart at Boca Raton Municipal Golf Course and drive to the backside of the driving range.
It’s a more private setting than the usual tee boxes of the range, and Impaglia prefers the grass back here to the turf in the tee boxes. He says he wants his players to feel the grass.
Impaglia gives small instructions as Williams pounds ball after ball into the air. She finishes with a few drives that are mostly straight and far. Williams laughs and tells Impaglia she could have used some of those last week.
It’s all part of the process that Impaglia talked about, and Williams understands that.
“Never give up,” Williams said. “There’s always room to improve and just never give up.”