Former Franklin golfer Ellie Beavins enjoyed a successful fall season for Taylor.
Submitted photo
Ellie Beavins is walking the back nine of her college career, meaning she is the embodiment of been there, done that.
All the same, Beavins, a junior starter for NAIA No. 13 Taylor University, isn’t going to allow her game or attitude to hit cruise control anytime soon.
Adversity will do that.
After sitting out the spring season of her freshman year due to injury, Beavins, the former Franklin player who holds down the No. 4 spot in the Trojans’ lineup, hopes to be part of something special by the time the NAIA national tournament commences in May.
“I had an injury the fall of my freshman season. It was difficult,” said Beavins, who had a torn left labrum. “Obviously, I had been looking forward to playing that spring, but because of my shoulder injury, I couldn’t.”
Beavins was also diagnosed with having Thoracic outlet syndrome, a compression of nerves, which in her case were in her neck. That created numbness in her left arm and fingers, requiring surgery in April 2022.
The recovery time was supposed to be six months, but Beavins made it back in three, putting her in position to battle for a spot in the starting lineup for the fall and spring seasons over the 2022-23 school year.
Statistically, Beavins picked up where she left off.
Playing the No. 2 spot in the lineup as a freshman, Beavins played in six events, netting an average 18-hole average score of 79.54. As a sophomore, she carded a pair of top-10 finishes, averaging 79.6 during the fall portion of Taylor’s season and an 81.1 while playing 11 rounds in the spring.
Taylor prevailed in two of its September events this season and concluded fall play by winning the six-team Red Wolves Fall Invitational in Muncie last weekend. Beavins finished an impressive seventh individually, recovering from a first-round 85 with a 77.
“I would say by the beginning of my sophomore year, I was pretty much playing without pain,” said Beavins, who majors in sport management, minors in journalism and maintains a 3.68 grade-point average.
“Coming into this year, I was focused on making our top five and playing smart.”
Over the summer, Beavins worked as a rules official for the IGA/PGA. The experience, while valuable, didn’t allow her to work on her game as much as she would have liked.
She nonetheless pieced together a solid fall season.
“When I think of Ellie, I think of her golf IQ. She’s really smart about her game,” Taylor coach Lorne Oke said. “You go back to some of the things she’s had to deal with, but she’s pretty determined.
“We really feel Ellie is where she needs to be. It’s just a matter of golf being golf. It’s hard to keep a clean scorecard, but she’s hitting the ball well.”
Once Taylor’s spring season gets underway, her goal is to be hitting it even better.
