The wind suddenly picked up on the Arizona golf course during a tournament last year.
“If you hit (the ball) stray, you’re done,” coach Carrie Forsyth recalled. “Everybody was falling apart.”
Forsyth became worried about Sydnee Michaels, currently the lone senior on the Bruin team, because of her high ball flight.
“I just told her to just keep it together,” Forsyth said. “All she said was “˜OK, coach, OK.'”
Michaels didn’t just do OK. She went on to shoot the lowest score of the team in the tournament.
“When she wants to prove a point, she’ll do it,” Forsyth said. “You can’t count her out of any situation.”
Her role as a leader is something that Michaels has always tried to downplay during her career as a member of the UCLA women’s golf team. For four years she has quietly and efficiently gone about her business, not drawing attention to herself.
She displays a concentration on the team aspect that has been the foundation for the Bruins’ success this year. With some key veterans departing from last year’s squad, Michaels has been thrust into the situation of being the sole senior on a young Bruin golf team.
In a game that is individual in nature, Michaels has emerged as a unifier, leading and guiding a youthful group that is now in position to contend for a national championship.
Michaels, a graduate of Linfield Christian High School in Temecula, has always had dreams of competing on the biggest of stages. But her road to the NCAA has not gone without its fair share of challenges, even at an early age.
“I was on the boys’ varsity team my freshman year in high school,” Michaels said. “But for conference championships, they wouldn’t let me play as an individual because I was a girl. But in my senior year, I went on to win the individual title for my league.”
This drive to be the best when something stands in her way has helped define Michaels’ style of play, according to Forsyth, her coach of four years. Golf is a sport that demands routine and consistency, and while Michaels has both, she chooses not to follow the norm and to go with a more natural approach.
“She has her own style of doing things, which is very unorthodox,” Forsyth said. “It’s not typical of a lot of players. Most players are note takers and write down info, but Sydnee is more visual and looks and commits things to memory. … She’s not as meticulous on the outside, but she is on the inside. … She feels it out.”
Michaels has always been looking to push herself competitively, and her pedigree as an amateur speaks to her ability.
“I was ranked (No. 2) in the country coming into college, and I made the cut in a major (Kraft Nabisco Championship) and played in the U.S. Open,” Michaels said. “I knew that I had to kick up my game to another level to be really competitive.”
While she is at her core a feel player, Michaels began a total reconstruction of her golf game and has been constantly tweaking facets of her swing since her freshman year.
“It’s been very up and down (with my swing pattern), but I’m really grateful to have the opportunity to make these changes because I know when I move on and turn pro, it’s going to benefit me so much,” Michaels said. “I won’t have to do those anymore. … I’ve been there and done that.”
While golf and the world of collegiate athletics can be a daunting one, Michaels still finds time in between her busy schedule to relax.
She has taken to the guitar and is even writing some original material that dates back to her childhood love of singing and dancing. She also finds time to get the occasional shopping spree in, and apparently, it’s serious business for her.
“I shop like it’s my job,” Michaels said.
As the only senior on the team this year, Michaels has emerged as a leader and source of experience for a young squad. With five of the nine players on the 2010 roster being underclassmen, the Bruins have looked to Michaels’ experience as a major part of their success this year.
“She is such a hard worker,” said redshirt junior Lalita Boonnopporkul, who came to UCLA in the same recruiting class as Michaels. “When you see someone like that working so hard, it just makes you want to push yourself even harder.”
Boonnoppornkul and Michaels have been together through the ups and downs of their games and have become good friends in the process. But Boonnopporkul stressed that Michaels also understands that the team must have a competitive edge if they want to succeed.
This has led to Michaels arranging team meetings to address concerns and help those with questions.
“She knows how to talk to people and not be intimidating,” Boonnoppornkul said. “If someone is slacking off she will push them into shape.”
This group atmosphere that Michaels has helped create has been one of her biggest contributions to the team this year, according to Forsyth.
But Michaels seems to think of it as just being part of a team.
“We all have a lot of fun. I have been so lucky, because my teams for all four years have been incredible,” Michaels said. “Our team chemistry and cohesiveness this year has just been incredible. … They’re like my sisters. … It’s been really cool to experience that.”
Michaels remains humble when talking about her leadership role but knows that she has to have an impact in her last season if the Bruins are to make any noise in the NCAA Championships.
So far in the 2010 season, she has been the anchor the team needed and has notched six top-20 finishes, placing in the top 10 four times. Her best individual finish of the season to date was a tie for second place at the Mason Rudolph Invitational earlier this year.
And what’s up next for Michaels?
Hopefully, a deep run into the golf championship season. But even further beyond that, she will pursue a professional golf career.
“It’s what I have been working toward,” Michaels said. “I can’t think of (professional golf) as some major do-or-die thing, it’s just another tournament. I’m just playing golf,”
With her senior year now coming to an end, Michaels’ legacy at UCLA will certainly stand out. Her leadership and experience have paid dividends so far for the young squad, and that’s an impact that won’t be easily forgotten.
“At the end of the day, if they don’t see me as a leader out on the golf course, I just hope I brought something to (my teammates’) lives,” Michaels said. “Whether it was a laugh or something, I just hope I impacted their lives in some way.”