Maddi Olson won the individual Class 4A State Golf Championship in May, after dominating the high school season in her freshmen year at Wylie.
“It was always something I wanted to do,” she said of winning State. “But I didn’t know if I could do it. I thought it would be cool to win state all four years. It was crazy when I won. I was like, ‘Wow, one year down.’ ”
Maddi, who has been playing golf since she was about 11, was absolutely dominant in her freshman year, leading her high school team to a District Championship and shooting under par in at least one round of the District, Regional and State tournaments. She won the individual medal at District by 31 strokes, and she won the Regional Championship by four strokes. She shot a five under 66 in the first round of the District Tournament.
But Maddi said her high school season performance was just as big a surprise to her as it was to those who watched her all season.
“My major success just happened this year,” she said. “I had never broken par before. I never even shot par before. It all kind of fell into place.”
At State, Maddi shot a 70 on the first day to the take the lead and then fought through some adversity on the second day to finish with a 74 and a one stroke win.
“I didn’t know how close it was until I finished,” she said. “It’s just crazy. I wasn’t having my best day that second day. I fought through.”
Maddi is the daughter of Billy and Stephanie Olson. Her father is a World Champion and Olympic pole-vaulter, so she has athleticism in her genes. She tried all different kinds of sports growing up, including pole vaulting. But she didn’t find anything she enjoyed.
She tried golf at the urging of her dad.
“I was pretty good at it, but I didn’t really like it,” she said. “I thought it was boring.”
However, she did like the individual nature of the game, and the format proved to be perfect for her. She suffers from ADHD, and she was able to focus while playing golf, something that was difficult in other sports. She started playing West Texas Junior Golf tournaments and then moved to more difficult tournaments.
So when she started Wylie’s high school program, she had plenty of tournament experience. But she didn’t have a lot of wins and no under pars.
“I was never really last but I didn’t win a lot,” she said. “My short game was not very good.”
When she finally broke par for the first time, it inspired her to work even harder.
“I started working 10 times harder,” she said. “I started thinking, if I want to get to the point that I want to be at, I have to put my all in it.”
Maddi hopes to eventually earn a college scholarship and perhaps even play professional golf. But first she has three more years of high school, and she has set the bar as high as it can go.
“There’s going to be some competition on my back next year,” she said. “But I’m going to be ready for it. I’m going to work hard over the summer and hopefully do it again.”
Maddi has loved the fact that high school golf means playing with a team. She said she wants to take them to state with her next year.
The team won district and finished 5th at regionals with a team that did not have a single senior.
“The team has really grown leaps and bounds,” Maddi said. “They worked hard. I couldn’t do this without my team. I think next year is going to be our year. I’m ready to go to the state tournament with my team.