By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Melanie Hagewood Willhite can never be accused of taking the easy route.

While breaking all the records for the Baylor women's golf team, including most career top-10 (21) and top-five finishes (12), the Clarksville, Tenn., native also earned a degree in mechanical engineering and developed a Mathletes program for Baylor student-athletes to help encourage elementary students with their math studies.

"When you're doing something for the community, you don't think about getting an award," said Willhite, who won the 2001 LPGA Dinah Shore Trophy that recognizes a female collegiate golfer who excels both academically and athletically while also serving the community. "I was just trying to think of a way to help encourage them to be good math students, because the stats show that if you're good at math, it helps you in other areas of school."

Willhite, part of the 2017 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame class that will be inducted Oct. 20, estimates that she averaged 2 ½ hours of sleep per night during the spring semester of her senior year.

"Coach (Sylvia Ferdon) kept telling me that math would be so much easier on you, that I'd get more time on the golf course. And looking back on it, she was so right," Willhite said. "I didn't have much of a social life, but that was my choice. I wanted to show myself that I could do it if I put my mind to it, and I loved mechanical engineering."

Far from her Tennessee roots, Willhite gravitated to Sylvia and her husband, Doug Ferdon, as her mom and dad away from home.

"My parents were really nervous about me going to Waco and being so far away," she said. "But, when they met Coach, they saw they could have complete trust in her and Doug, that they would take care of me and be like my parents down there. . . . Coach Ferdon is such an amazing person. I learned so much about life from her. But also, her golf skills and knowledge are unmatchable. I would put her up against any pro in the country."

Ferdon took a freshman core that included Willhite, Nicole Johnson and Tara Bateman and led the Bears to four straight NCAA regional berths (2000-03), the first in program history.

"She sat us down and said, 'Look, I'm building this team around you guys,''' said Willhite, a three-time all-state golfer at Montgomery Central High School. "We had great senior leadership with Ali Brewer and Sorrel Richman, and we just kind of went along behind them. I redshirted that first year, but we ended up going to regional every year, which was amazing."

As a junior, Willhite finished sixth at the Big 12 Championships and fourth at the NCAA Central Regional, becoming the first Baylor player to earn an individual berth in the NCAA Championships. In a tie for sixth at 2-under after the first two rounds, she slipped to a tie for 50th at the national tournament.

"That was an amazing opportunity to have, and a little bit disappointing at the same time, because I really wanted our team to go," she said. "I think we only missed it by a few shots. We just didn't play that well down the stretch, so that was a little tough to go by myself."

Saving her best for last, Willhite won medalist honors at the Verizon "Mo" Morial Classic, helped the Bears win four tournament titles and shot a then school-record scoring average of 74.83 to earn first-team All-Big 12 honors. She was also a two-time Academic All-American and three-time WGCA All-American Scholar and led the team in scoring in each of her last three seasons.

"That was really like a dream. We were on such a roll," she said. "Hanna-Sofia (Svenningsson) and I were trying to lead the team and get the younger players to just go out there and play golf. It was just surreal. Every time we would get in the thick of it, we would come out on top. We had such great team chemistry, we were really supportive of each other, but we were also very competitive." After playing 4 ½ years on the Duramed Futures Tour, Willhite worked as a civil engineer at O'Brien Engineering and a product test analyst for Nike Golf. The mother of 7-year-old twin daughters, Megan and Laurie, Melanie has been a stay-at-home mom, but now plans to return to the work force. "It's been such a dream to have children and watch them grow," she said. "I really, really want them to play golf, but I have not pushed them. This past fall, one of them asked me if they could play with me, so that was a dream come true. My husband (Lee) and I like to play golf, so we would take them with us and bring their sand toys and drop them off in the bunker. We would play the hole, and then we would pick them up and let them rake it and go on to the next hole. So, that's how their golf career has started." Now 37, Willhite said she started crying when she got the call about being elected to the Hall of Fame. "I knew I was nominated, but when you look at all the athletes on that Hall of Fame list, you go, 'I don't deserve to be with those people,''' she said. "I'm so honored to be a part of that list. It's such a team effort. Without Coach Ferdon and Doug, my family being so supportive, and then God giving me that opportunity to do this, I couldn't have done any of this. The first thing I thought of was, 'This should be Coach, not me.' You can't put the cart before the horse."

Joining Willhite in the 2017 Hall of Fame class are former NCAA tennis champion Benjamin Becker, Steffanie Blackmon off the 2005 women's basketball national championship team, football players Ron Francis and Bill Hicks and track stars Jeff Jackson, Bill Payne and Jennifer Jordan Washington.

Tickets to the Hall of Fame Banquet, which will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, in the Brazos Room at the Waco Convention Center, are $50 per person and may be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu. Table sponsorships (seating for eight) are also available for $750 (individual) or $1,000 (corporate).