SOMETHING IN THE WATER

Banquet Registration

This is the seventh in a series of stories profiling this year's inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame and Wall of Honor, which will be posted every week at BaylorBears.com.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Former Baylor golfer Hannah Burke says "there must be something in the water" in her hometown of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, England.

Located 20 miles north of London, the community of Welwyn Garden City also produced Sir Nick Faldo, a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee who won six majors; and Tom Lewis, a two-time winner on the European Tour who shared the first-round lead as an amateur at the 2011 British Open with Thomas Bjorn.

"I don't really know him; he was kind of in a different era than me," Burke said of Faldo, "but his family lived there in Welwyn Garden City for a long time."

Burke, the 2007 Big 12 Freshman of the Year and two-time All-Big 12 pick (2009-10), adds her name to that esteemed list of golfers with her selection to the 2025 class for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame that will be honored at the Nov. 14 Hall of Fame Banquet.

"Huge, huge honor," she said. "My time at Baylor was incredibly special and definitely shaped me into who I am today. I loved my 4 ½ years there. Four years playing on the golf team, I absolutely loved it. People will ask me if I would do it again. Yes, I would do it again. it was the most fun time of my life. Now, I have to adult. When you're in college, everything is done for you."

Growing up, Hannah said she played "all kinds of sports . . . took my hand to everything." That included football – well, soccer – "where you actually kick a round ball with your foot." But she started taking golf more seriously "probably from around 14 or 15 and became more focused in on that."

"My older brother and my dad played, so I ended up just going along with them and giving it a go," she said. "Me and my brother used to go on a Saturday morning to our local municipal club and play in all the junior competitions. And it just kind of grew from there, really."

Hannah said she "totally fell in love" when she visited the Baylor campus and "really got on well with the coach, Sylvia Ferdon, and the team that was around her."

"I kind of knew from the get-go," she said. "I got home from my visit and accepted the offer fairly quickly."

Making an immediate impact, Hannah broke the school's then-freshman-record with a 75.00-stroke average, was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and helped the Bears make the first of three NCAA regional appearances.

"I jumped straight in. I was ready to play," said Burke, who had three top-10 finishes that year, placing eighth at the Big 12 Championship. "I think with it being so competitive – I'm a highly competitive person – it kind of suited me to dive straight in, start producing scores as soon as possible and representing Baylor the best that I could."

After representing Great Britain in the University Games that summer in Thailand, Hannah won medalist honors at the inaugural Challenge at Wolfdancer in Bastrop, Texas, with a 1-over 217 total, shooting a course-record 5-under 67 in the final round.

Highlighted by a runner-up finish as a senior in 2010, Hannah was named to the Big 12 All-Tournament team three times. Fifteen years later, she is still tied for second all-time in career top-10 (21) and top-five (13) finishes and was top 25 in all but eight of her 46 collegiate tournaments.

"I feel like there were so many (memories)," she said, "not necessarily just the wins, but the fun trips that we had. Coach (Ferdon) would always put fun excursions in at the same time. It wasn't all golf-focused, which I feel like has helped, especially since turning pro and playing golf for a living."

Since making the Ladies' European Tour in 2012, Hannah has earned more than $700,000 in her career, tying for 17^th at the Women's British Open in 2015 and winning the Tipsports Golf Masters the following week.

"(The British Open) was at Turnberry, too, and the weather was probably some of the worst weather I've ever played in," she said. "And to play some of the best golf I've ever played . . . I had a lot of my family there. That was incredible to be able to play well with a lot of people watching. I won the next week at the Czech Open, so I had a bit of a good spell there."

While still hoping to return to pro golf, Hannah's "priorities have changed a little bit" with the birth of her daughter, Maggie, who was one pound, four ounces when she was born three months premature. Because Maggie is still in the hospital, Hannah won't be able to make it to Waco for the Hall of Fame Banquet.

"The nurses have taken to calling her Mighty Maggie," Hannah said. "She decided to make an appearance more than three months early, so she still has a bit of growing to do. My priorities are here at the moment, watching her sleep and grow and changing a lot of diapers – all the fun stuff that mums do.

"We were hoping to be home by about this time, but we had a couple of setbacks. The plan was, if the baby had been home for a month, I'd have been able to come out. But we're still here (at the hospital). Hopefully next year, I'll maybe get out and get to celebrate at a different time."

Joining Burke in the 2025 Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame class are Bryce Petty, Cyril Richardson and Derek Turner from football, equestrian's Samantha Schaefer, Taylor Ormond from women's tennis, LaceDarius Dunn from men's basketball and baseball player Chris Durbin. Former football manager Dusty Sanderson will be added to the "B" Association Wall of Honor.

The 2025 Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, in the Hurd Welcome Center Grand Ballroom on the Baylor University campus. Registration is available here.

SOMETHING IN THE WATER

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