Pioneer junior Mia McKaig made history Saturday by becoming the first Lady Panther golfer to reach the IHSAA State Finals.
McKaig shot an 8-over par 80 to advance at Saturday’s Lake Central Regional at Sandy Pines Golf Club.
She placed fourth overall at the regional among all individuals and second among golfers on a non-advancing team to advance to state.
“I’m just excited. I’m still in shock,” McKaig said. “I just started golfing a little over two years ago and I never really dreamed that this would be possible. Now it is. I’m just really excited for the opportunity to go and see what I can do.”
McKaig just started golfing her freshman season for the Panthers.
“I started playing because my cousin Ashlynn Brooke was playing and I needed something to do,” she said. “I wanted to play another sport and I didn’t really want to play volleyball anymore, so I decided to try it just for fun. I never really imagined I’d be here.”
McKaig is a quick study in the sport but that isn’t necessarily a surprise considering she seems to be a quick study in every subject.
Her older brother Drew was the valedictorian at Pioneer this past school year. Mia said she’s posting similar if not better grades in the classroom than her brother.
She has a GPA of 4.194 on an unweighted scale, which is not easy to do.
“I just have a lot of A-pluses and I’ve never really had an A-minus,” she said. “I work really hard on it. That’s always my goal going into a class is to get an A-plus.”
She also has posted a perfect score of 1600 on her SAT.
Like her brother, Mia might end up studying pre-med in college. Drew is now a student at Taylor University, which could be a destination for Mia in the future.
With her recent ascent in golf, she could end up being a college golfer as well.
“I want to go to a small college anyway, so if I could also play golf as well that would be awesome,” she said.
McKaig comes from a basketball family but has made a choice to pursue a college golf career in the offseason.
“This past summer I chose to play in golf tournaments instead of playing AAU basketball, and that’s when I really made the decision,” she said.
She also drove to Hamilton County at least once a week in the summer to work with swing coach Mike Abbott at The Bridgewater Club in Carmel.
McKaig won’t be one of the biggest hitters in the state field at Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel. She said she hits her drives “about 200 yards on a good one.”
“Keep it straight. And my short game’s pretty good,” she said. “I would say by my putting and my ability to get up and down really saved me on these long holes.”
She’s hoping to add distance to her game as she gets more experienced in the sport.
“I have a swing coach and our first goal was getting me to hit it more consistently, but I think now he can probably help me add yardage to my swing and I think that would just help me go to the next level,” she said.
McKaig had a good start at the regional and was able to make it to state with three shots to spare.
“I would just say I was consistent,” she said. “My first six holes were really good. I was 1-under through my first six holes. I had a chip-in birdie and another birdie, and after that I was just kind of surviving until the end of the round. I got tired after the first six holes, but I just kept going, kept hitting the greens. My putting was really good. I think I only three-putted once. And then my drives were all so good. I hit every fairway but one. I was never really playing out of the rough. I think that really helped me gain strokes on the rest of the girls. I think I was just consistent.”
She also did a good job of navigating the wind.
“I was prepared for it because I knew it would be windy and I tended to just club up on all my shots and make sure I hit it far enough, really pay attention to the wind. I think that also helped me,” she said.
She is hoping to have a good showing at her first State Finals with one more full year of high school golf left.
“I want to just not be close to last. I want to prove that I belong there and just put up a good score so I can feel confident,” she said. “I don’t want to feel like an impostor, like I wasn’t supposed to be there because I just had a great round and then I made it. So I just want to show that I belong there.”
McKaig tees off on the front nine with the first grouping at 8:30 a.m. Friday in Carmel. Round 1 is Friday and Round 2 is Saturday. All golfers play both rounds.
