According to Hayley Milbourn ’11, she was on the golf course as soon as she could walk. “My dad would take me out on the course with him, and I’d build sand castles in the sand trap.”
Milbourn’s father, Gene Milbourn, was a major influence on the first-year’s decision to pursue golf seriously. An avid golfer, he worked with Milbourn throughout her youth, helping her to perfect her game and even staying inside on beautiful sunny days to watch instructional videos with her. Milbourn’s mother Elizabeth supports her golf, but she is not nearly as avid a golfer as Gene.
The other big golfer in the family is Eric, Milbourn’s 17-year-old brother, who attends St. Paul’s School for Boys in Brooklandville, Md., where he plays on the golf team. Milbourn said that the sibling rivalry has extended to the course ever since they started playing in the same tournaments (though in separate divisions).
“Whenever I would score lower at a tournament, he’d always say it was because I was hitting from so much closer than he was,” she said. While this was little more than siblings bickering, it’s a sentiment that Milbourn has experienced on a number of occasions. “During club tournaments where the women would compete with the men, I would get teased for playing back with the men. Most of the time that I get teased, its usually because the guy I’m playing with is afraid I’m going to beat him.” After experiencing similar things multiple times, Milbourn even wrote her senior speech on what it is like to be a female athlete in a male-dominated sport.
Many people wonder why a young woman of her talent-level is playing golf at the Div. III level. “I wanted to play Div. III golf because I wanted to be able to have a life off of the course, which as I know from many of my friends going Div. I, is not so easy to do [there],” explained Milbourn. “Also, [Head] Coach Morgan has a lot of passion about the team, and I liked going to a school where I could have time for friends and studies but still play under a serious coach like I would have in Div. I.”
Also an avid squash player (and a high-ranking player on Amherst’s team), Milbourn knew that coming here would allow her to play both golf and squash. Playing the two sports helped to ease her transition to Amherst, as each team immediately functioned as a family away from home.
“I was at the same all girls school for 13 years prior to Amherst and we became like a family,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect entering a co-ed environment, and additionally I knew that Amherst was a great school and so I thought everyone would be very serious. Luckily, that wasn’t the case, as everyone I met when I got here was really nice and I was able to find a great group of friends.”
Milbourn entered Amherst with a solid foundation in the classroom. “I had a pretty good work ethic in high school,” she said. “I always did my homework in high school and I never missed class. If I had missed class, I would’ve gotten suspended, so that may have had something to do with it.”
For Amherst’s women’s golf team, Milbourn is nothing short of a star. Her competitive nature drives her through weekends and has led her to win five tournaments this year. Milbourn has finished outside of the top-10 only once.
“Hayley competes hard each weekend, and in virtually every tournament she played this spring, she improved on the second day,” said Coach Jim Plumer, “She is a consistent player, and probably her best trait is her touch around the greens.”
Not once shooting in the 90s, and only once shooting over 85 (her very first round of the spring was an 86), Milbourn has been ideally consistent as the top player for the Lord Jeffs. Despite all of her success, however, her teammates still enjoy how relaxed and laid back she is. Senior captain Ali Berman says of Milbourn, “Playing golf with Hayley proves that you don’t have to be overly, intensely serious to be a good golfer. She always seems pretty relaxed, easy-going and just lets her golf game do the talking. She makes it look easy.”
Milbourn says that her favorite part about playing in the NESCAC is the sense of community. “I’ve gotten to know the top girls from Williams and Middlebury pretty well,” she says, “I like the fact that I run into the same people at these tournaments, as opposed to national tournaments that I played when I was younger, where I wouldn’t know anybody.”
Having played for so long, Milbourn’s golf memories are almost innumerable. Some, however, standout. For instance, while still in high school, she won the first flight of the Maryland Amateur, sinking a 20-foot. putt to win a state match between Maryland and Virginia. She also shot a 44 on nine holes in pouring rain as a 10-year old to win a tournament.
The fondest memory, however, and the reason she loves to play, is more personal. “My best friends and I from when we were growing up would just go out in the morning and not come home until it was dark. We would play all day. That’s the most fun for me. I love just going out and walking the course.”