The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Longhorn Hall of Honor: Heather Bowie Young
11.10.2011 | Texas Athletics
Nov. 10, 2011
Natalie England, TexasSports.com
The golf swing is like a finger print -- distinct and unique to its owner. In the case of Heather Bowie Young, it's a picture of balance, crafted by hands that feel and shape every shot, just as her eyes see it.
Without ever taking a formal lesson, Bowie Young developed a golf game that matched her natural competitive nature. She practiced with purpose and competed with quiet focus -- see target, hit target.
An NCAA individual champion and National Player of the Year, Bowie Young dominated the collegiate scene during her senior season. Her 1997 national title, won on Ohio State University's Scarlet Course, was UT's second individual championship in a five-year span, and cemented Bowie Young as one of the top golfers in school history.
"I'm not technical, I just play golf athletically. I play by feel," Bowie Young says. "I never really felt like I had a bad day on the golf course."
Bowie Young joined the Longhorns after spending her first two seasons at Arizona State, where she earned first-team All-America honors in both her freshman and sophomore seasons. Pacing the Sun Devils to a pair of NCAA team titles, Bowie Young also touted the nation's No. 2 scoring average as a sophomore in 1995.
Though she grew up on the East Coast, Bowie Young's family moved to Oklahoma City during her high school years, and she learned to love the friendly nature of the people. She decided to transfer to the Longhorns in 1996 in part because she wanted to be back in that congenial atmosphere.
It also helped that then golf coach Susan Watkins, known for her observant and simple approach to the golf swing, was shaping the Longhorns into a national power. Charlotta Sorenstam became UT's first NCAA individual champion in 1993, when UT also finished second as a team at the national championship.
"I liked the athletic orientation of the Texas atmosphere. 'The Eyes of Texas' and 'Texas Fight' -- I really was drawn to the spirit and passion," Bowie Young said. "My first week I was on campus, I was shocked at how powerful it was. I had thought it was just stuff you saw on TV."
She claimed second-team All-America honors as a junior in 1996, as the Longhorns won the final Southwest Conference team championship and placed third at the NCAA Championships. In her triumphant senior season, Bowie Young won three of her nine college tournament titles, including a wire-to-wire win at the Big 12 Championship.
Bowie Young finished the four-day, 72-hole NCAA Championship with a 3-under total, boosted by a third-round 69 that gave her a one-shot lead entering the final day of competition.
"She was such a creative golfer, and could really just see the shots and work the ball like nobody's business," Watkins said. "She painted the picture before she ever executed the shot. She practiced the way she played, with eyes so full of focus."
Bowie Young was introduced to golf by her father when she was 11 years old. He was the only coach she had growing up, and Bowie Young crafted her game at a local junior clinic. Five days a week after school, Bowie Young practiced and played with boys who were older and taller.
"I played from their tees," Bowie Young said. "It was a good environment to grow in, because you learned to just go out and play the course. I was longer than many of them off the tee, and that always drove them nuts."
She received the Honda Broderick Award as the Collegiate Female Golfer of the Year and was a co-recipient of the Marilyn Smith Award as the National Senior Female Golfer of the Year in 1997, after her two-shot victory at the NCAA Championship. Bowie Young, who led UT to the first-ever team title in the Big 12's history, earned first-team All-America and Big 12 Conference Player of the Year accolades as a senior.
"I don't think I really had to do too much," Watkins said. "It was easy to just give her that pat on the back, and her confidence came alive. During the NCAA Championship, she was in such a zone and so focused. I just enjoyed watching it."
A member of the LPGA since 2000, Bowie Young won the 2005 Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic and has totaled more than $3 million in career earnings.
Bowie Young graduated from UT in 1997 with a finance degree and now lives in Fort Worth with her husband, Jeremy.
