Polar Bear Spotlight: Women’s Golf’s Grace Honigford
By Wes Mayberry
ADA — Junior Grace Honigford (West Chester/Lakota East) has solidified herself as one of the best to ever play for the Ohio Northern women's golf program. Her status as a 12-time medalist and owner of several program records is proof of that. But there is much more to her than golf, and Ohio Northern has offered her the perfect blend of athletic and academic opportunities.
"I came to ONU because it offered everything that I wanted: small class sizes so I had the opportunity to build relationships with my professors, a good engineering program with a good reputation and high job-placement rate, the opportunity to play golf at the college level for a competitive team and a pretty and widespread campus along with the new engineering building," she said.
Honigford, a mechanical engineering major, has also enjoyed the friendly nature of the ONU community.
"My favorite part has been the relationships I have built throughout my time here so far," she said. "Every time I walk through campus, I am always seeing someone I know and getting a wave hello or stopping to have a conversation. And all of my professors are really understanding about times when we have to miss class and often like to hear about how we played. The culture here is great and is one of the reasons that I am proud to be a Polar Bear."
Throughout her time in Ada, Honigford has succeeded both in the classroom and on the golf course. She is a two-time Women's Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar, and she earned Academic All-Ohio Athletic Conference honors as a sophomore. Being a true student-athlete is something she takes seriously.
It is definitely something that is important to me to put academics before golf," she said. "Sometimes it can be hard to do because I would rather be out on the golf course than inside studying for a big exam, but every student athlete has to make sacrifices in order to play the sport they love."
While the engineering field can seem intimidating to some, it has interested Honigford since early on in high school.
"We had the option to take engineering-related classes each year of high school, and I enjoyed the design aspect of the classes, so I decided I would major in engineering," she said. "I had also really enjoyed my math and science classes as well as a computer science class that all helped to point out a career in engineering for me."
Honigford hasn't yet decided where her engineering degree will take her and is keeping her options open.
"I am considering maybe going to grad school and getting my master's degree or going for an entry-level position in engineering," she said. "There are so many types of engineering jobs from manufacturing to consulting to aerospace that it is tough to narrow it down."
Balancing engineering coursework and a collegiate golf career keeps her busy, but she has also carved out time to join the ONU chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the College of Engineering's peer mentoring program. As an AIAA member, she helps design, test and build a radio-controlled model airplane for the annual SAE Aero Design competition.
How does she manage to fit all of those responsibilities into her schedule? It's all about staying organized.
"I make a lot of lists for myself to keep track of due dates, meeting times and exams as well as important dates and tasks for things outside of school," she said. "That has helped me to not procrastinate as much and not forget about any work."
On the golf course, Honigford has starred at ONU ever since her freshman year when she won the OAC Championships with a 54-hole school-record score of 236 and tied for 28th at the NCAA Division III Championships. She set the program's single-season record with a 79.3-stroke average that year and bested that with a 78.8 as a sophomore.
Honigford posted another 236 and was co-champion in last season's OAC Championships to cap off another stellar year in which she was a six-time medalist and four-time OAC Women's Golfer of the Week honoree.
Over the course of her first two seasons, she posted 23 top-10 finishes in 25 tournaments, earning medalist honors in 12 of them, and 18 rounds with a score in the 70s. In addition to holding the 54-hole school record, she also owns record scores for 18 holes (71) and 36 holes (143) and is a member of the Polar Bear squads that posted record scores of 314 for 18 holes, 639 for 36 holes and 976 for 54 holes.
However, winning tournaments was somewhat of a new development for Honigford upon her arrival in Ada.
"I think my senior year of high school was the first time that I individually won an 18-hole tournament," she said. "I had been medalist in nine-hole matches before, but I don't think I had ever actually won a tournament."
Honigford credits much of her success to maintaining a focus on having fun on the course.
"I fell in love with the game and love to practice and play golf whenever I have the chance," she said. "I have found that one of the most important things is to keep it light when out on the golf course competing. I play my best golf when I am relaxed and feeling good. That can be a lot harder to do when playing under pressure or under nerves but is something that I have been trying to work on. If I wasn't having fun on the golf course, I probably would not be playing golf. I love to smile when I hit a good shot and just laugh off a bad one. I have hit lots of bad shots before, and I have found to just take it as a new challenge for my next shot."
It's that challenge and the ever-changing nature of the competition that she likes most about the game of golf.
"You will never hit the same shot twice, which is really cool to think about," she said. "Something will always be different, whether it is the lie, the yardage, the weather, the course or whatever, it is always a fun challenge."
Honigford started playing competitive golf in seventh grade after her father introduced her to the sport. Following in the footsteps of her older brother, Nate, she played golf in high school and reached the Division 1 State Championships three times where she got to play at Ohio State University's Gray Course. Coached by one of the top PGA teaching professionals in Gene Powell and current University of Dayton head women's golf coach Ali Green, Honigford capped her high school career by tying for seventh individually as her team placed third at the State Championships.
Now at ONU, she has been under the tutelage of head coach Chad Bucci, who has helped her continue to improve her golfing skills.
"I like how Coach Bucci has encouraged me to try new things," Honigford said. "Last spring, he suggested I switch putters from a blade to a mallet-style putter and also change up my putting grip. That has really helped me to become more consistent with my putting. He also noticed an issue with my grip and helped me fix that, which helped me gain more distance with my clubs."
Throughout all of her success at ONU, her favorite memory has been playing in the 2021 NCAA Championships at Michigan State's Forest Akers West Course.
"The setup was very cool because they had each participating team's flag surrounding the putting green, NCAA tee markers, NCAA hole signs and a large NCAA logo painted in the grass on hole 9. They also gifted us logoed golf balls, a pullover and other goodies for being a participant," Honigford said. "The environment and setup was unlike any other tournament I have played in before, and it was fun to get to play with teams from other states."
There has also been heartbreak, though, as the Polar Bears fell to Otterbein in a playoff at last season's OAC Championships after rallying from an 11-stroke deficit and shooting an event record score of 974.
"Going into the last day of that tournament was probably the most nervous I had been before a round of golf. I actually triple bogeyed the first hole of the final day, but I ended up settling in shortly after that and played really good golf on the back nine. I knew we had to be getting pretty close to back to even with Otterbein because I outplayed the Otterbein opponent paired with me by eight or nine strokes on the back nine alone, and I knew my teammates would fight hard and make up a few more strokes, which they did," Honigford said. "It was really disappointing to be so close to another OAC championship and trip to nationals. I was the only returning player to our starting lineup, and I knew how eager the others were to have a chance to experience nationals for the first time. We had one senior on last year's OAC team, and we were really disappointed that we couldn't give her a finish at nationals."
The Polar Bears have rebounded nicely, though, starting this season with a second-place finish at the Olivet (Mich.) Fall Invitational and winning the Heidelberg Fall Clash. Honigford placed third and tied for second, respectively, in those events.
As the success continues, there's still more Honigford wants to accomplish.
"My main goal is to perform well in OACs and win it as a team, and two more trips to nationals for my junior and senior year sounds pretty nice to me," she said. "I hope to leave a positive legacy on the program and one of hard work and optimism as well. Just know that you can be successful by growing and getting a little bit better each day."
More about Grace
Fun Fact: Grace loves watching movies and is currently working through her goal of watching the top 100 movies of all time. She has watched 13 of those 100.
Top ONU Professor: Grace enjoyed her thermodynamics and advanced thermodynamics courses with Dr. David Sawyers. "I like his teaching strategy, which is to learn by doing," she said. "He does not lecture the entire class time but instead allows time for us to work problems ourselves and ask questions."
Hometown Tidbit: You can complete a donut trail that includes stops at 13 different donut shops throughout Butler County, including multiple stops in West Chester.
Grace's Favorites
Food: Tacos
Restaurant: Chipotle
TV Show: Breaking Bad
Movie: Interstellar
Sport (other than golf): Football
Pro Sports Team: Cincinnati Bengals
Pro Athlete: Rory McIlroy
Music Genre: Country
Singer: Zach Bryan
Place She's Traveled To: Washington, D.C.