by Craig Morgan, theSunDevils.com writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- To tell the story of Monica Vaughn's rise to the top of the women's collegiate golf world, it's best to start with her own words.
"I went from the lowest low to the highest high," said Vaughn, who captured the NCAA individual title last week at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois, and then led the Sun Devils to their NCAA-best eighth national title. "What I'm most proud of is not just the winning, but that I never gave up."
The thought crossed her mind a year ago. Coming off a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championship her sophomore year, the stars were aligned for Vaughn as a junior. She posted six top-10 finishes in seven tournaments, she rose as high as No. 6 on Golfstat.com's rankings and the NCAA Championship was set for Eugene Country Club in Oregon, a short drive from her hometown of Reedsport.
The stage was set to produce a star, but Vaughn never arrived to claim the spotlight. A disastrous performance at regionals left her and all of the Sun Devils, except freshman Linnea Strom, on the outside looking in at the tournament for a second straight season.
"It was devastating not making it to nationals in my home state," Vaughn said. "That was the lowest I have ever been in my entire life. I really thought it was the end for me. I felt like I had let my team down, let my coaches down and let all my supporters back home down. I thought people looked at me as kind of a failure."
The residuals of that disappointment carried into this season.
"She was really struggling this fall," coach Missy Farr-Kaye said. "She said 'I don't know if I want to turn pro; I'm not sure if I really love to play golf.'
"Finally, this spring, I said 'you know what? I will tell you that if you don't really try to enjoy it and embrace every moment of it, you're going to look back at it and regret it.' She and I have spent four years together with a lot of ups and downs and I said 'I really want you to enjoy the ride. I've been on the other side. I've done this for so long. I want you to enjoy every single minute.'"
Farr-Kaye's words carry weight with her players. Not only did she play for ASU in 1990 when it won its first NCAA title under then-coach Linda Vollstedt, she has endured immense hardship.
Farr-Kaye is a two-time breast cancer survivor who was first diagnosed with the disease in 1998, and then had a recurrence in 2008. She underwent four surgeries in six months after the original diagnosis, including a bilateral mastectomy. She underwent more surgeries in 2008 to remove the cancerous mass, followed by radiation and chemotherapy.
Her sister, LPGA star and ASU alumna Heather Farr, was diagnosed with the disease in 1989. Her heroic four-year battle became national news and her death in 1993 became a rallying cry, with Missy and her mother, Sharon Farr, at the forefront.
"Missy has gone through hell and back a few times and is probably the strongest person I know," Vaughn said. "She doesn't let it get her down. I know there are days that are harder than others for her, and we've had personal conversations about that. She can't be strong all the time but she never shuts us out and she is always open to talking about it. She knows she has kids to support and a team to hold up and she never lets us down."
This spring, Vaughn adopted the same approach. Instead of worrying about her own results and beating herself up, she started focusing solely on what she could do to support her team. The Sun Devils knew they had the talent to win a national championship this season with three players (Vaughn, Strom and Olivia Mehaffey) among the world amateur rankings top 15. When they faltered at the Pac-12 championships, finishing sixth, they brushed it off as a bad week and reaffirmed their commitment to one another.
"Our practices the next couple weeks were so focused and so structured," Mehaffey said. "We didn't want to miss nationals again. We had a purpose and I think it showed in the results."
Vaughn led the way in a dominant performance at the Lubbock (Texas) Regional, winning the individual title while the Sun Devils torched the nearest school by 21 strokes for the team title. Her focus was so bent on winning the team title at the NCAA Championship that when she walked off the green after sinking her final putt, she had no idea she had won the individual title. There were no leaderboards and she figured she was no better than top three, until her teammates informed her and then doused her with water.
"I saw Missy crying and then I started crying," she said. "I was almost in disbelief. It had been so much about the team all week that I hadn't even thought about what it would feel like to be an individual champion."
Vaughn had less than a day to enjoy it before it was time to start the match play portion of team competition. ASU rolled over Florida, 5-0, in the quarterfinals, but in the semifinals, Stanford banked two matches and Cardinal freshman Albane Valenzuela was 1 up on Vaughn in the fairway on the par-5 18th hole when ASU elected to halt play due to darkness.
"l told Missy, 'it's your call, I'm fine to keep playing,' but as soon as she called it I knew it was the right decision," Vaughn said "There was way too much at stake and thinking back on it, I was so tired and so nervous and I had this negative energy that was only going to hurt me. It was the smartest decision we made all week."
When Vaughn came back out the next morning to resume a hole she had to win to keep ASU's hopes alive, tournament officials informed her there would be a 20-minute delay because the Golf Channel was not ready to broadcast. All of America missed Vaughn's pre-shot preparation.
"I'm a very emotional, nervous player and you can see it in my game so I did everything I could to keep my mind occupied," Vaughn said, laughing. "I was running up and down the fairway; doing jumping jacks.
"I've never been so nervous over a 3-wood in my life. I was shaking, my hands were shaking and I told myself, 'you're either going to hit this absolutely pure or chunk it in the hazard and you'll be done.'"
As Farr-Kaye noted, Vaughn nuked the shot, setting up a birdie putt that energized her mind, energized Strom behind her to rally and win her match, and launch the Sun Devils on a remarkable rally that ran roughshod over Northwestern in the final.
Vaughn became the first player to win individual and team titles in the same year since USC's Annie Park in 2013.
"There is no better way to finish my career at ASU and there is no better feeling," Vaughn said. "I couldn't ask for a better experience for four years at ASU. I couldn't ask for better coaches or better teammates. It felt like the planets were aligned. It felt like fate; that it was meant to be. We never gave up all week and we earned it."
Vaughn hasn't decided yet if she will turn pro. She is currently competing at the U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Golf Championship at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She'll also take part in the U.S. Open qualifier, she has an exemption to play in the LPGA Marathon Classic in July, and she'll play in the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.
"I'd like to finish my summer as an amateur and enjoy myself; relax and have some fun before I make a decision," she said. "I wouldn't say it's 50-50 whether I turn pro because it's probably a little less than that."
Wherever Vaughn goes from here, her name will remain an indelible part of Sun Devil history.
"She's irreplaceable," Farr-Kaye said. "I'm thrilled for how she is ending her career at Arizona State. It's one of the best careers we have had, but more than that, I'm so happy I had the chance to coach her."
TEMPE, Ariz. -- To tell the story of Monica Vaughn's rise to the top of the women's collegiate golf world, it's best to start with her own words.
"I went from the lowest low to the highest high," said Vaughn, who captured the NCAA individual title last week at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois, and then led the Sun Devils to their NCAA-best eighth national title. "What I'm most proud of is not just the winning, but that I never gave up."
The thought crossed her mind a year ago. Coming off a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championship her sophomore year, the stars were aligned for Vaughn as a junior. She posted six top-10 finishes in seven tournaments, she rose as high as No. 6 on Golfstat.com's rankings and the NCAA Championship was set for Eugene Country Club in Oregon, a short drive from her hometown of Reedsport.
The stage was set to produce a star, but Vaughn never arrived to claim the spotlight. A disastrous performance at regionals left her and all of the Sun Devils, except freshman Linnea Strom, on the outside looking in at the tournament for a second straight season.
"It was devastating not making it to nationals in my home state," Vaughn said. "That was the lowest I have ever been in my entire life. I really thought it was the end for me. I felt like I had let my team down, let my coaches down and let all my supporters back home down. I thought people looked at me as kind of a failure."
The residuals of that disappointment carried into this season.
"She was really struggling this fall," coach Missy Farr-Kaye said. "She said 'I don't know if I want to turn pro; I'm not sure if I really love to play golf.'
"Finally, this spring, I said 'you know what? I will tell you that if you don't really try to enjoy it and embrace every moment of it, you're going to look back at it and regret it.' She and I have spent four years together with a lot of ups and downs and I said 'I really want you to enjoy the ride. I've been on the other side. I've done this for so long. I want you to enjoy every single minute.'"
Farr-Kaye's words carry weight with her players. Not only did she play for ASU in 1990 when it won its first NCAA title under then-coach Linda Vollstedt, she has endured immense hardship.
Farr-Kaye is a two-time breast cancer survivor who was first diagnosed with the disease in 1998, and then had a recurrence in 2008. She underwent four surgeries in six months after the original diagnosis, including a bilateral mastectomy. She underwent more surgeries in 2008 to remove the cancerous mass, followed by radiation and chemotherapy.
Her sister, LPGA star and ASU alumna Heather Farr, was diagnosed with the disease in 1989. Her heroic four-year battle became national news and her death in 1993 became a rallying cry, with Missy and her mother, Sharon Farr, at the forefront.
"Missy has gone through hell and back a few times and is probably the strongest person I know," Vaughn said. "She doesn't let it get her down. I know there are days that are harder than others for her, and we've had personal conversations about that. She can't be strong all the time but she never shuts us out and she is always open to talking about it. She knows she has kids to support and a team to hold up and she never lets us down."
This spring, Vaughn adopted the same approach. Instead of worrying about her own results and beating herself up, she started focusing solely on what she could do to support her team. The Sun Devils knew they had the talent to win a national championship this season with three players (Vaughn, Strom and Olivia Mehaffey) among the world amateur rankings top 15. When they faltered at the Pac-12 championships, finishing sixth, they brushed it off as a bad week and reaffirmed their commitment to one another.
"Our practices the next couple weeks were so focused and so structured," Mehaffey said. "We didn't want to miss nationals again. We had a purpose and I think it showed in the results."
Vaughn led the way in a dominant performance at the Lubbock (Texas) Regional, winning the individual title while the Sun Devils torched the nearest school by 21 strokes for the team title. Her focus was so bent on winning the team title at the NCAA Championship that when she walked off the green after sinking her final putt, she had no idea she had won the individual title. There were no leaderboards and she figured she was no better than top three, until her teammates informed her and then doused her with water.
"I saw Missy crying and then I started crying," she said. "I was almost in disbelief. It had been so much about the team all week that I hadn't even thought about what it would feel like to be an individual champion."
Vaughn had less than a day to enjoy it before it was time to start the match play portion of team competition. ASU rolled over Florida, 5-0, in the quarterfinals, but in the semifinals, Stanford banked two matches and Cardinal freshman Albane Valenzuela was 1 up on Vaughn in the fairway on the par-5 18th hole when ASU elected to halt play due to darkness.
"l told Missy, 'it's your call, I'm fine to keep playing,' but as soon as she called it I knew it was the right decision," Vaughn said "There was way too much at stake and thinking back on it, I was so tired and so nervous and I had this negative energy that was only going to hurt me. It was the smartest decision we made all week."
When Vaughn came back out the next morning to resume a hole she had to win to keep ASU's hopes alive, tournament officials informed her there would be a 20-minute delay because the Golf Channel was not ready to broadcast. All of America missed Vaughn's pre-shot preparation.
"I'm a very emotional, nervous player and you can see it in my game so I did everything I could to keep my mind occupied," Vaughn said, laughing. "I was running up and down the fairway; doing jumping jacks.
"I've never been so nervous over a 3-wood in my life. I was shaking, my hands were shaking and I told myself, 'you're either going to hit this absolutely pure or chunk it in the hazard and you'll be done.'"
As Farr-Kaye noted, Vaughn nuked the shot, setting up a birdie putt that energized her mind, energized Strom behind her to rally and win her match, and launch the Sun Devils on a remarkable rally that ran roughshod over Northwestern in the final.
Vaughn became the first player to win individual and team titles in the same year since USC's Annie Park in 2013.
"There is no better way to finish my career at ASU and there is no better feeling," Vaughn said. "I couldn't ask for a better experience for four years at ASU. I couldn't ask for better coaches or better teammates. It felt like the planets were aligned. It felt like fate; that it was meant to be. We never gave up all week and we earned it."
Vaughn hasn't decided yet if she will turn pro. She is currently competing at the U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Golf Championship at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She'll also take part in the U.S. Open qualifier, she has an exemption to play in the LPGA Marathon Classic in July, and she'll play in the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.
"I'd like to finish my summer as an amateur and enjoy myself; relax and have some fun before I make a decision," she said. "I wouldn't say it's 50-50 whether I turn pro because it's probably a little less than that."
Wherever Vaughn goes from here, her name will remain an indelible part of Sun Devil history.
"She's irreplaceable," Farr-Kaye said. "I'm thrilled for how she is ending her career at Arizona State. It's one of the best careers we have had, but more than that, I'm so happy I had the chance to coach her."