It was just about a year ago when high school seniors in the Wisconsin.Golf girls Class of 2025 state rankings were sent into the college ranks with the not-so-bold prediction that their best golf was ahead of them.
Who knew that Mukwonago’s Elizabeth Vanderhei — of all people — would be among the shiniest of examples of someone who took that decree to heart?
Elizabeth Vanderhei, UW-Whitewater
UW-Whitewater photo
Vanderhei was a three-time WIAA Division 1 sectional qualifier for the Indians and earned first-team all-Classic 8 Conference honors as a senior. She was considered for a spot among the top 50 in her class, but ultimately passed over for golfers with a more extensive summer tournament resume.
So what is the UW-Whitewater freshman doing going from nowhere to No. 12 in the final Wisconsin.Golf rankings for the girls Class of 2025? While she is still a long way from Whitefish Bay’s Daniella Honkamp and Kaukauna’s McKenna Lowe — the Nos. 1 and 2 golfers, respectively, in the final ranking — Vanderhei showed that, especially for this class of low-mileage golfers, it’s never too late to make an impact in college, a top criteria in the final evaluation for a class.
Vanderhei, who was planning to compete for the Warhawks women’s bowling team, reached out to Whitewater women’s golf coach Andrea Wieland during the summer about playing golf, too. Wieland, who was being encouraged to carry 12 golfers for Title IX reasons, was at 11 when the call came so she encouraged Vanderhei to play a WPGA Junior Tour event or two “just to be ready.”
After shooting 86 on her home course at Edgewood Golf Course in Big Bend in a one-day WPGA Junior Tour event Aug. 6, Vanderhei began her college career three weeks later at the Firebird Fall Classic at Ives Grove GL in Sturtevant where she shot 95-81 and finished T-60 out of 90 golfers. She would tee it up in five of the seven events on the Warhawks’ fall schedule, competing as an individual or with the “B” team and averaging 86.8 in 11 rounds with a T-37 finish at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships.
“I wasn’t expecting much, but, man, she takes coaching well; she’s just very raw,” Wieland said. “She has some talent. She can hit the ball. Now that she knows where it’s going most of the time, she has some major promise.
“I look for her to potentially be in my top five in the next couple years. I do think she’s good enough.”
More than 30 golfers in the final top 50 competed at the college level this past fall — a staggering amount considering how little competitive golf the group played as a whole this summer. Only three golfers competed in the Wisconsin State Women’s Open in June, eight played in the Wisconsin State Women’s Amateur in July and no more than a dozen girls from the Class of 2025 teed it up in any of the seven multi-day championships on the WPGA Players Tour.
The journey to Middlebury … and college golf
Whitefish Bay’s Daniella Honkamp knew she would have to be ready to compete for playing time this fall as a freshman at NCAA Division III power Middlebury (Vt.) so she upped her summer schedule and shared with Wisconsin.Golf what those experiences were like:
Wisconsin State Women’s Open (La Crosse CC-Onalaska): “For the State Open, I remember really enjoying La Crosse CC. My goal for that event was to make the cut. I came up one shot short, but it was encouraging to know that I was so close. It was a reminder for me to keep working on my game, but also to recognize my improvement.” Result: Missed cut (84-80)
Wisconsin State Women’s Amateur (Maple Bluff CC-Madison): “The State Am was brutal, and it taught me the importance of maintaining a strong headspace. I remember feeling like the round was just out of my control, but in those moments, I realized the importance of making light of it and trying to keep the game enjoyable even if the scorecard didn’t look pretty.” Result: T-38 (84-86-88)
Wisconsin State Women’s Match Play (Old Hickory CC-Beaver Dam): “It’s difficult to remember the Women’s Match Play. I knew one of my college events was match play, so I really wanted to get better at that format. I think I was struggling with some part of my game during the qualifier, and I was disappointed to miss the championship flight. Even without my A-game, I was super proud to win my first match the next day. I had never won a match before, and this gave me confidence for the future.” Result: Qualified for Presidents Flight with an 86 and went 1-1
Wisconsin Junior Girls Championship (Hartford GC): “One of the highlights of my season was my finish at the Wisconsin Junior Girls (a match-play event). My past finishes in the event were never strong. I found match play difficult for me because I needed to stay patient to close out a match. Honestly, I was considering not competing in the event, but I knew I needed to improve at the format for my college event. After getting some experience at the Women’s Match Play, I really focused on my mental game for the girls event. I was very proud to win two matches on the first day, and I attribute this to concentrating on my patience. I knew facing McKenna Nelson (in the third round) would be tough, and I went in with the mindset to keep the match going for as long as possible. In all my matches, I recall trying not to focus on the score, which helped me stay present in the moment. My goal was to focus on what I could control, which was put to the test in my final match. Overall, it was a great experience and a good setting to test my mental game.” Result: Qualified for Championship Flight with a 74 and went 2-1
Sherri Steinhauer Girls Championship (Blackhawk CC & Nakoma GC-Madison): “Along with the girls match play, the Sherri was another event that always tested me. Again, I considered not competing, or at least go into the event with no expectations. Instead, I played a practice round at Blackhawk and broke 80 the first day. I never thought it would be possible to do at Blackhawk, so it was validating to see I could play well at such a challenging course.” Result: T-10 (75-81-82)
When it came to tournament volume, Daniella Honkamp was the exception in her class and that’s why the freshman at NCAA Division III power Middlebury (Vt.) College was the clear choice at No. 1. The final ranking of a class combines summer activity ahead of golfers’ freshman seasons at the college level with the statistical and team impact once they arrived on campus.
For Honkamp, that was not easy. Her Panthers team is ranked 12th among NCAA Division III schools and she was one of four freshmen on the roster, which also featured three seniors, two juniors and two sophomores.
That’s a big reason why Honkamp was the only golfer in her class to play the State Women’s Open, the State Women’s Amateur and the State Women’s Match Play. She also played in five of the seven multi-day junior events and two WPGA Players Tour events — a heavy workload that earned her starts in two match-play events and two stroke-play events in the fall at Middlebury.
“I definitely built my summer schedule with my first college season in mind,” Honkamp wrote via email with Wisconsin.Golf. “I knew the girls on my team were talented since they had just won the NESCAC (title) and competed at (NCAA Division III) nationals. I felt like I was somewhat behind. Because of this, my goal was to compete in as many summer tournaments as possible and improve as much as possible before leaving for college. I’m glad I chose to do this because I showed up more prepared than some of the other girls.
“Many of the girls didn’t compete as much over the summer and I came into the first qualifier strong. Our coach seeds us for tournaments solely on qualifying scores, so when I finished second in qualifying, I got to play at the No. 2 seed. My main goal this fall was to compete in and contribute in all of our tournaments, so being prepared coming into the season helped.”
After a tough start at the Ann Batchelder Match Play Championship, Honkamp led the Middlebury “B” Team at its home invitational and sat out the next event before returning for the fall finale. She shot 79-79 at the Polar Bear Shootout in Brunswick, Maine, and finished 40th out 86 golfers, but still ranked sixth for the Panthers, who finished fifth out of 14 teams.
“To be honest, I’m not sure what my role on the team is yet,” wrote Honkamp, one of four Middlebury golfers to have logged enough rounds to be ranked nationally (177th), but the only one of the four outside the top 75. “While I played in most of the events, I wasn’t a major contributor yet. I’m proud that I started and ended the season strong. I was dissatisfied with my performance in the middle of the season, and I had to work hard to get out of a slump. But it was rewarding to qualify for the last tournament and break 80 both days.”
Nonetheless, Honkamp — a very popular target among NCAA Division I, II and III schools closer to home — gained an appreciation for how seriously top programs like Middlebury take their golf. The Panthers edged Bowdoin by five strokes last spring to win the NESCAC title and then finished T-6 at the NCAA Division III Championship after coming into the postseason ranked 16th.
“I’ve learned that not every program is built the same way, and you can’t really generalize,” Honkamp wrote. “For example, some DIII programs have players doing 6 a.m. lifts every day during the season while others do them only once a week. Some teams prioritize competing as much as possible while others play much fewer rounds. I think, from a recruiting standpoint, it’s easy to make assumptions, but it’s important to ask questions about what the day-to-day looks like as an athlete at that school and if that matches with your goals and values.”
That might explain the varying degrees of activity among golfers in her class during the summer.
Lowe, one of just two Class of 2025 golfers from Wisconsin on NCAA Division I rosters, finished two strokes behind Honkamp at the State Women’s Am and matched her T-10 finish at the Sherri Steinhauer Girls Championship in her only multi-day starts of the summer. But that didn’t keep her from earning a spot in the lineup at Southern Indiana, a 4-year-old Division I program with seven golfers on its roster that is ranked 264th out of 285 teams.
The less-is-more approach also worked for No. 4 Talia Schlindwein of Wausau and No. 5 Sarah Chaffee of Chippewa Falls. Schlindwein finished T-7 for UW-Eau Claire at the WIAC Championship and earned WIAC freshman of the year honors while Chaffee finished ninth for UW-Stout, which ended Whitewater’s eight-year hold on the WIAC title and will play at the NCAA Division III Championships in Palm Desert, Calif., for the first time since 2017.
On the other hand, Teckla Wahlstrand of Eau Claire used the experience of competing in the Women’s State Open and Women’s State Am as well as four junior majors to get ready for her freshman year at Division III Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.). She played her way into the No. 2 position on the team for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Championships and finished 25th.
There is no right or wrong when it comes to summer scheduling, but Honkamp wishes she would have done more sooner to prepare for where he is now.
“I wish I knew more about preparing for the recruiting process and had started competing earlier in the 36-hole tournaments,” Honkamp wrote. “I also didn’t realize how important it was to gain points for the Player of the Year (standings) to get a spot on the (Wisconsin/Minnesota Junior) Cup team. I think I was close to making the team last year and, since it was one of my goals, I was a little disappointed (not to make it).
“But when I started playing in these events in middle school, I never considered playing college golf or even breaking 90. Then I finished my last junior season with several personal-best finishes. Reflecting on my journey, a lot of success was due to the work I put in. And I grew as a person and as a golfer by pushing through my challenges and working toward my goals.”
Vanderhei, by the way, is doing great things on the Whitewater bowling team this winter, according to her golf coach.
She missed the keglers’ season-opener in October because it conflicted with the WIAC Championships, but has led the Warhawks in their last three tournaments of the fall. She has a 199 average in 15 games.
“I talked to the bowling coach (Becca Hagerman) and she’s like ‘She’s an awesome kid. I don’t think it would be too much,'” Wieland said. “It’s like when we’re off, they’re on. They’re pretty much late October to April 1.
“It kind of works out really well.”
