UW senior golfer Camille Boyd ‘dialed in’ as NCAA tournament nears

Camille Boyd said she is playing the best golf of her life, and it certainly has come at a good time for the Washington senior and her Husky women’s golf team, because there is just one tournament before the postseason begins.

Boyd tied for first in a field of 77 players at the Juli Inkster Invitational in Northern California early this month. She then just missed becoming the first Husky to win back-to-back events in 18 years, finishing second (one shot behind the winner) in a field of 95 at the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational in Hawaii.

Boyd has shot in the 60s in her past five rounds and has been under par in her past six. She has moved up to No. 84 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

“She has just been dialed in lately,” UW coach Mary Lou Mulflur said. “She is averaging under par for her last 20 rounds. It’s fun to watch when a player gets rolling, and she’s been working super hard, as has the rest of the team. I think that’s really made a difference for us.”

Boyd, who became one of 14 Huskies to win at least two events in their college careers when she won the Inkster Invitational for a second time, credits being more diligent with her practice routine and visualization for her recent hot streak.

“With turning pro after the season is over, it kind of dawned on me, ‘I’m going to do this as my career so I better start working at it hard,’ ” said Boyd, who began golfing at 10.

When it comes to visualization, it was something Boyd had experimented with before, but she has taken it to a new level after working with mental game coaches Bo Watson and Shannon Shuskey, who began working with UW before the start of the spring season.

“I am envisioning myself playing the course, hole by hole, in the week leading up to [a tournament], and it’s just imagining possible outcomes so nothing fazes me,” she said. “They also taught breathing techniques and having a strong connection with my target and less focus on swing thoughts.

“I think the biggest impact has been in my ball striking — getting back to playing with more freedom and thinking less about swing mechanics. Then just with this last tournament [in Hawaii] I’ve been implementing it with putting and taking less time over the ball and just becoming more reactive to the putt rather than kind of calculating everything.”

Mulflur said she doesn’t believe it’s a coincidence that Boyd and the team have improved after working with Watson and Shuskey, and the coach said new swing coach Peter Murphy has been a big help.

The Huskies didn’t finish better than seventh during three fall events. But they opened the spring season with a fifth-place finish in the Pac-12 Preview, followed by second-place finishes in the Inkster Invitational (just three shots behind top-ranked Stanford) and the Hawaii event.

“I think this is definitely the most talented team that I’ve seen since I’ve been at UW,” said Boyd, who is finishing her degree in economics with a minor in business this quarter. “The freshmen, they really want to work hard, so they’re pushing [the seniors] to get better as well. And I think it’s a really good environment at practice.”

When the Huskies won the national title in 2016, the team had five freshmen and two seniors. Mulflur said the makeup of this year’s team reminds her of that title squad.

“I think this team is a little more talented,” Mulflur said. “The work ethic has been definitely the same.”

This year’s team is certainly deeper than the 2016 team. Boyd leads the Huskies with stroke average of 72.18, but the entire nine-player roster is within four strokes of her, and each has played in at least three events.

Mulflur said it makes for competitive rounds when the players try to qualify to be one of five scoring players at a tournament.

“It’s hard to be good when only some of you are good,” Mulflur said. “They know that their way of getting better is by pushing their teammates. When we have qualifying, I want them all to beat each other’s brains in, and then we can go out for a nice dinner and there’s no hard feelings. … That definitely has created some competitiveness that we frankly haven’t had in a while.”

Boyd has been the star of the resurgence. No one questions her talent.

As a sophomore she won the Inkster Invitational by shooting a team-record 14 under par, defeating Stanford’s Rose Zhang, who was the world’s top amateur and now an LPGA star, by three shots.

It took two years for Boyd to win again.

“I didn’t expect it to take us two years to win another tournament, but I’m happy with the way that I’m playing now,” she said.

Boyd and the Huskies return to action April 8 in the Silverado Showdown in Napa, Calif., before playing in the Pac-12 Championships in Pullman.

Boyd said she would love for her team to give Mulflur, in her 41st season, her first Pac-12 title. Boyd said the Huskies can compete with anyone when they are playing well.

With Boyd at the top of her game, the Huskies look like a team that can contend.

“I’m definitely trying to stay present and enjoy my last tournaments in college,” she said. “Because I definitely am going to miss it.”