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HUSKY PROFILE / PAIGE MACKENZIE
Mackenzie got off to a
hot start in 2002 with a
third-place finish at the
season-opening New
Mexico Inviational.
54 HUSKIES Gameday
by Mason Kelley
here is nothing quite like
being out on a golf course
— few places that look as
pristine can cause so much
frustration. Golf is a game a
patience, a craft that has to be
refined with years of hard work and
expert tutelage.
Paige Mackenzie has spent much of
her life on the golf course. In fact, her
parents Hugh and Caren have been taking
Paige and her brother, fellow Husky
golfer Brock Mackenzie, out to the
course since they were toddlers.
“I got my first set of golf clubs when
I was three and I just started chipping
away with my parents,” Paige says. “My
parents are not the type of high-pressure,
overbearing sports parents,
though. If I did not feel like playing, I
would take my dolls along and play in
the cart. When I wanted to, I could
jump out for a hole or two and then I
would get bored and jump back in the
cart.”
Over time, Mackenzie reached less
for the dolls and more for the golf
clubs, eventually becoming determined
to play at the collegiate level. Her brother
made the trek to UW a year before
Paige, but that wasn’t a major factor in
her decision to become a Husky.
“I took visits to Oregon, Oregon
State, and Cal,” Mackenzie says. “The
fact that Brock was here was good, but
we weren’t very close in high school; we
didn’t get close until he left for UW. He
may have had some influence, but I just
wanted to be a Husky.”
A native of Yakima, Wash.,
Mackenzie was intimidated as much by the balance of
school and sports as she was by the transition from small
town to big city.
“My first quarter was really tough on me,” she says.
“Golf took up so much of my time that there wasn’t much
time left for school. I was a really good student in high
school and I was used to devoting as much time as I
needed to do well in school.”
Having a year under her belt has helped Mackenzie in
her development, both as a student and a golfer. Once she
developed a routine and became more comfortable with
her surroundings, it was smooth sailing.
“There has been a huge difference in her game this
year,” says head coach Mary Lou Mulflur. “The first year
is so hard. It doesn’t matter how close or how far you are
away from home. There is nothing that can prepare you
for the rigors of athletics at this level. She is a completely
different player from last year to this year.”
That is not to say that Mackenzie did not have an
impact on the team as a freshman. She competed in every
tournament and was the top Husky finisher at the NCAA
Championships at Washington National Golf Course in
Auburn, Wash.
“Paige had an immediate impact,” Mulflur says. “She
wants to be the best player on the team. She is not cocky
about it, she just wants to be the best no matter who she
is playing with.”
Now that Mackenzie has had a season to become
acclimated to her surroundings, she has been able to
draw more enjoyment from the game.
“So far this season has been awesome,” Mackenzie
says. “Our team has two second-place finishes. I am so
excited that we have such a great team this year; this season
is going to be fun. We are the deepest we have been
in a long time.”
Despite her the early success, Mackenzie remains critical
of her game. She is not over-confident and does not
allow herself the luxury of looking back at what she has
accomplished.
“It is hard to look at how far I have come because I
can only see things I need to improve on, so I haven’t
really thought about that too much,” she says. “I have so
much more to work for and so much room to improve.”
Mackenzie’s work ethic is so intense that it is even
hard for coach Mulflur to believe.
“She is a really hard worker,” Mulflur says. “I don’t
know what Caren and Hugh did with those kids but neither
one is afraid of hard work. They are not afraid to put
in the long, lonely hours on the practice green or on the
driving range that you have to put in to be successful.”
Mackenzie has come a long way in her year and a half
as a member of the Husky golf team, but has not let success
go to her head. She knows what it will take for her
to make it to the LPGA tour, and while that is still two
years away, she can’t hide her desire to make it.
“My goal right now is to turn professional after I finish
college, so I’d better be one of the top golfers in the
country,” she says. “I have to have a name that is recognizable,
or else I am not going to make it.”
With her talent and work ethic, Mackenzie is making
sure that her name is not one that will be soon forgotten.