Sierra Brooks finds her way to Gators

GAINESVILLE — Outside it is a Chamber of Commerce day in Gainesville, where a cloudless, brilliant sky illuminates the undulating terrain and stately live oaks at Mark Bostick Golf Course.

Inside the Florida Gators golf complex, Sierra Brooks’ smile lights up the room. The look is born from a sense of belonging, contentment and achievement the one-time phenom from the Orlando area had not felt in some time.

This time a year ago, Brooks endured her darkest winter, while a freshman at Wake Forest University. Recovering from wrist surgery, questioning her future and pining for home on yet another cold, overcast day in WinstonSalem, N.C., Brooks felt lost and alone.

Most of all, she missed the game she began to play as an 8-year-old.

“I was heartbroken, mainly,” Brooks recalled. “The hardest thing is being away from competition, not being able to do what you love and having to take a backseat watching all my other teammates compete … just missing that whole aspect of life. “It was hard.” Many more difficult days would lie ahead.

But once she left Wake Forest and returned to her parents’ home in Sorrento, the clouds slowly began to lift. Then one day, UF coach Emily Bastel Glaser called to let Brooks know a spot was available for her if she was interested.

Brooks delayed her plans to turn professional. After a six-month stretch spent building her body, rebuilding her game and even starting a blog to share her experiences, Brooks arrived last month at UF like a bolt of lightning.

“She’s really brought new energy to our team,” Glaser said.

The Gators, in turn, have re-energized Brooks and her golf. She enters the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge — a threeday tournament in California — as UF’s No. 1 player.

After a 15-month layoff from competition, the 19-year-old sophomore showed no signs of rust to capture the season-opening Florida Challenge Jan. 29 at Black Diamond’s Quarry Course in Lecanto.

On the final hole of the one-day, 36-hole competition, Brooks flushed a 4-hybrid from 205 yards to set up a 10- to 12-foot putt for eagle on the finishing par-5 18th. Her putt lipped out, but set up an easy birdie for a one-shot win and an impressive 6-under 138 total finish.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Brooks said. “It’s been a really long time since I had a win.”

More than two years, in fact, back in 2015 when Brooks was on a roll. That year, she won several tournaments, including the prestigious SALLY Am, finished runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Amateur and sat sixth in the rankings among women’s amateur golfers.

The battle-tested Brooks’ superb ball-striking and competitive fire were on display on the final hole two weeks ago. But Glaser, a professional during most of her 20s, was struck even more a day earlier by Brooks’ approach to the team’s practice round.

Playing Black Diamond for the first time, Brooks asked questions, took notes, plotted strategy for the next day’s rounds.

“For someone her age, I think those are qualities of someone who has played at a high level,” Glaser said. “Her golf IQ is very high. You can tell she’s seasoned, knows how to play.”