Caraline Oakley Overcomes Adversity To Win First Ever Collegiate Golf Tournament

There isn’t much that can keep Caraline Oakley down. Not even a worldwide pandemic.

Despite only having one full day to practice outdoors, Oakley, who graduated from Southampton High School in 2020, and now attends Washington University in St. Louis, where she plays on the women’s golf team, won her first ever collegiate tournament, the Dechert Classic hosted by Millikin University at the Red Tail Run Golf Course in Decatur, Illinois, on March 13-14.

Oakley was placed into a two-week quarantine in late February after her roommate tested positive for COVID-19 — she herself eventually tested negative. The 2018 Suffolk County girls golf champion and two-time All-State honoree was finally released from quarantine on March 10, just two days prior to the start of the Dechert Classic, but the very next day was put into another quarantine after one of her Washington University teammates tested positive.

Thankfully, for Oakley anyway, it was only a one-day quarantine — the rest of the team, including head coach Mary Swanson, had to fully quarantine — but it still only left one day for Oakley to practice her game outdoors, which she did. With the rest of her team back in St. Louis, Oakley was the only WashU player who made the trip to Illinois to compete in the tournament, along with assistant coach Dave Reinhardt.

Oakley led the 63-player field by four strokes after shooting a three-over 75 at the completion of the first day of competition. She then tallied two birdies and 10 pars to finish the second round with a 76 for a two-day total of seven-under 151 to win it all. Overall, she finished the weekend with four birdies and 21 pars.

​Oakley said she had no idea she had won the tournament until Reinhardt told her she was leading after she finished her final hole. Minutes later she found out she had actually won after a few other players had finished.

“I was beyond proud of myself, knowing mentally all that it took to prepare for. I was so happy and proud of myself,” Oakley said about her initial reaction. “I was worried about being in quarantine and how it was going to affect my performance, so it just felt so great to win.

“Right when I found out, I called my parents,” she added. “They asked me, ‘How’d you do?’ And I said, ‘I won!’ I could tell they were so happy and proud of me. And even though my teammates weren’t there, I saw they were following along in the group chat that we have and they were all so happy for me, so it really was just a great feeling.”

On top of being quarantined just days before the tournament, Coach Swanson pointed out that it had been months since the last time Oakley had actually played 18 holes, and even then it was for practice not in a competitive setting, making her victory even that much more impressive. All of WashU’s fall tournaments were canceled due to COVID.

“The thing about Caraline is that about 95 percent of the time she’s so optimistic and positive and grateful, even in these circumstances,” Swanson said. “Someone else would find a way not to perform and say, ‘I didn’t have enough time to prepare,’ but she was resolute. She could not stop being optimistic about the opportunity to play, and we were relatively conservative on how she wanted to perform. She just went out there, she took care of business, she wasn’t perfect as we reviewed her play, but every shot for her was a fresh opportunity and she never let go of that optimism for 36 hours.”

Because she couldn’t practice in a conventional way outdoors, Oakley, with help from Swanson, had to formulate a strategy on how she would attack the course on the mental side of the game rather than the physical part. And although she did have a putting mat, some golf balls and a putter in her room, which she did utilize, most of the time was spent going over the mental part of the game and utilizing other means, such as Google Earth to map out the course.

“I played the course mentally a few times in my head, and I was able to utilize my yard books and how I was going to compete and everything,” Oakley explained. “I had the course completely mapped out in my head. I ran through the course a few times and figured out every club I was going to use and how and what my execution was going to be, and that was something new for me. Of course I had thought about the strategy of the game before, but I never saw the need to actually go through everything like that mentally before, and I’ve never had to. But that helped a lot to mentally prepare while I was in quarantine.

“I’m definitely going to continue to implement writing everything down beforehand, envisioning myself playing well,” she added. “I’m definitely going keep my yardage book, which I do that regardless, it is a helpful strategy, but I am definitely not taking any of this for granted. I was very thankful for the opportunity I was given since I wasn’t able to compete for so long. I am honestly blessed to be here and I’m not taking anything for granted and I’m definitely going to keep an open mindset.”

Swanson obviously doesn’t expect her new freshman to win every tournament and isn’t placing lofty goals on Oakley going forward. The two have worked together to set forth some obtainable goals for the upcoming season, such as having a season score average of 76 or lower and finishing top five in half of the tournaments she competes in.

But Swanson said one thing is for sure — she got exactly who she thought she was getting when she recruited Oakley out of Southampton.

“You always hope you get the person you recruited and I know I certainly got the person I expected to get,” she said. “[Oakley] has certainly stepped up, earlier than anticipated, but to no surprise. As I learn more about her, I get to see why and how she has accomplished so much already, such as being the first female caddy at Shinnecock. She’s such an amazing person.”