by Craig Morgan, TheSunDevils.com writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- John F. Kennedy used the expression, 'A rising tide lifts all the boats,' to explain how various projects or initiatives would benefit the nation.
Sun Devils women's golf coach Missy Farr-Kaye has appropriated the phrase to describe Olivia Mehaffey's impact on her team.
"That is her to a T," Farr-Kaye said. "Olivia is a rising tide! She makes everyone better."
Farr-Kaye said Mehaffey does it in a way that often lacks self-interest.
"She lacks a selfishness that most good players have," Farr-Kaye said. "Elite athletes have to be a little selfish no matter what your sport is, but she sees it as 'we're all in it together.' Her attitude is, 'we're all going to get better and I'm going to help push you.
"She's a good friend. She gives what she gets, tenfold."
Mehaffey has given a lot in her sophomore season. In 10 tournaments, she has posted seven top-10 finishes, including a win at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in February. She also posted the low score (68) in a one-round dual meet with the University of Denver.
Heading into the Pac-12 Tournament Sunday through Tuesday in Seattle, Mehaffey is ranked No. 17 in the world amateur golf rankings and feeling good about the state of her game.
"I talked with my coach in Ireland (Donal Scott) and we went through the data from this time last year to now and it was crazy," Mehaffey said. "I'm hitting it a lot further, I'm hitting it closer, my bunker shots are better, my short game is better, my putting is better. It's really nice for me to look and see how everything is getting better; trending in the right direction."
Farr-Kaye expected that sort of play from Mehaffey after scouting her. The bigger challenge she laid at Mehaffey's feet came in December when junior Linnea Strom unexpectedly announced she was turning pro and leaving the team midway through its season.
The Sun Devils had already lost senior and NCAA individual champion Monica Vaughn to graduation. Strom's loss left the defending national champs with just five players under scholarship. It also left a huge leadership void.
Farr-Kaye intimated at the start of the second semester that Mehaffey would be the player to fill that void. Mehaffey never flinched.
"It's actually been fine because I view myself as a leader anyway," she said. "It's part of my personality. It's who I am so I feel really comfortable stepping into that role."
Farr-Kaye caught a glimpse of those qualities when Mehaffey requested the leadoff spot in ASU's lineup for match play at the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois last spring.
"There is a lot that is asked of them this time of year with Pac-12s and regionals and the NCAA," Farr-Kaye said. "You find out what you can handle in those stressful situations, but that is what she thrives on."
While Mehaffey takes a ribbing from teammates for the assassin's expression she wears on the course, she is the life of the party off it. When the team arrives in Seattle, Mehaffey has requested they visit the famous gum wall downtown.
"I'm obsessed," she said. "I have to do it. I've seen pictures and I'm thinking, 'oh, this looks like so much fun.' I'm like a little child. I want to go to the gum wall!"
It's moments like this that have convinced Mehaffey to stay at ASU all four years, rather than turn pro early.
"Before I came to college, I thought maybe two years," she said. "Now that I am here, I love the place and I don't want to let my team down. I can play pro whenever. I won't get these four years back so I definitely want to stay here and finish it out. My senior year, we're going to host nationals. I don't want miss that."
While it is early, Mehaffey admits she thinks about her place in Sun Devil history.
"Part of the reason I came here was because of the players that played before me like Anna [Nordqvist] and Carlota [Ciganda]," she said. "There are so many legends that played at ASU. I said, 'if a program can produce this many players, I want to be a part of that program.'
"When I finish in four years I want to be one of those girls that the younger girls are looking up to and saying, 'I want to go there because Olivia Mehaffey played there.' It would be a privilege to be in the same sentence as some of those players that came before me."
To earn that privilege, Mehaffey will have to produce, starting with the conference tournament where she is hoping for a little hometown weather.
"I'm hoping for rain and wind and everything -- fire it all at me," she said, laughing. "I'm ready. I grew up playing in the worst weather. People joke that 'now you're an Arizona girl.' I'm like, 'no, I'm from Ireland. You can't take that out of me.'"
Farr-Kaye knows that luck plays as large a role as anything in these big events, but she is convinced that Mehaffey is ready to contend.
"She never got ahead of herself," Farr-Kaye said. "Her journey is right on the path that it needs to be. It's been great to watch."
TEMPE, Ariz. -- John F. Kennedy used the expression, 'A rising tide lifts all the boats,' to explain how various projects or initiatives would benefit the nation.
Sun Devils women's golf coach Missy Farr-Kaye has appropriated the phrase to describe Olivia Mehaffey's impact on her team.
"That is her to a T," Farr-Kaye said. "Olivia is a rising tide! She makes everyone better."
Farr-Kaye said Mehaffey does it in a way that often lacks self-interest.
"She lacks a selfishness that most good players have," Farr-Kaye said. "Elite athletes have to be a little selfish no matter what your sport is, but she sees it as 'we're all in it together.' Her attitude is, 'we're all going to get better and I'm going to help push you.
"She's a good friend. She gives what she gets, tenfold."
Mehaffey has given a lot in her sophomore season. In 10 tournaments, she has posted seven top-10 finishes, including a win at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in February. She also posted the low score (68) in a one-round dual meet with the University of Denver.
Heading into the Pac-12 Tournament Sunday through Tuesday in Seattle, Mehaffey is ranked No. 17 in the world amateur golf rankings and feeling good about the state of her game.
"I talked with my coach in Ireland (Donal Scott) and we went through the data from this time last year to now and it was crazy," Mehaffey said. "I'm hitting it a lot further, I'm hitting it closer, my bunker shots are better, my short game is better, my putting is better. It's really nice for me to look and see how everything is getting better; trending in the right direction."
Farr-Kaye expected that sort of play from Mehaffey after scouting her. The bigger challenge she laid at Mehaffey's feet came in December when junior Linnea Strom unexpectedly announced she was turning pro and leaving the team midway through its season.
The Sun Devils had already lost senior and NCAA individual champion Monica Vaughn to graduation. Strom's loss left the defending national champs with just five players under scholarship. It also left a huge leadership void.
Farr-Kaye intimated at the start of the second semester that Mehaffey would be the player to fill that void. Mehaffey never flinched.
"It's actually been fine because I view myself as a leader anyway," she said. "It's part of my personality. It's who I am so I feel really comfortable stepping into that role."
Farr-Kaye caught a glimpse of those qualities when Mehaffey requested the leadoff spot in ASU's lineup for match play at the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois last spring.
"There is a lot that is asked of them this time of year with Pac-12s and regionals and the NCAA," Farr-Kaye said. "You find out what you can handle in those stressful situations, but that is what she thrives on."
While Mehaffey takes a ribbing from teammates for the assassin's expression she wears on the course, she is the life of the party off it. When the team arrives in Seattle, Mehaffey has requested they visit the famous gum wall downtown.
"I'm obsessed," she said. "I have to do it. I've seen pictures and I'm thinking, 'oh, this looks like so much fun.' I'm like a little child. I want to go to the gum wall!"
It's moments like this that have convinced Mehaffey to stay at ASU all four years, rather than turn pro early.
"Before I came to college, I thought maybe two years," she said. "Now that I am here, I love the place and I don't want to let my team down. I can play pro whenever. I won't get these four years back so I definitely want to stay here and finish it out. My senior year, we're going to host nationals. I don't want miss that."
While it is early, Mehaffey admits she thinks about her place in Sun Devil history.
"Part of the reason I came here was because of the players that played before me like Anna [Nordqvist] and Carlota [Ciganda]," she said. "There are so many legends that played at ASU. I said, 'if a program can produce this many players, I want to be a part of that program.'
"When I finish in four years I want to be one of those girls that the younger girls are looking up to and saying, 'I want to go there because Olivia Mehaffey played there.' It would be a privilege to be in the same sentence as some of those players that came before me."
To earn that privilege, Mehaffey will have to produce, starting with the conference tournament where she is hoping for a little hometown weather.
"I'm hoping for rain and wind and everything -- fire it all at me," she said, laughing. "I'm ready. I grew up playing in the worst weather. People joke that 'now you're an Arizona girl.' I'm like, 'no, I'm from Ireland. You can't take that out of me.'"
Farr-Kaye knows that luck plays as large a role as anything in these big events, but she is convinced that Mehaffey is ready to contend.
"She never got ahead of herself," Farr-Kaye said. "Her journey is right on the path that it needs to be. It's been great to watch."