The RoundHouse | 4/17/2023 3:54:00 PM

 By Paul Suellentrop
 
About three weeks ago, Mackenzie Wilson divided her golfing life into two spreadsheets.
 
"Just so I don't forget anything and everything is perfect," she said. "I have my practice schedule all laid out. Sleep. Drinking water. Lifting. What to pack."
 
Wilson, a freshman from Hobart, Australia, felt held back by a lack of preparation. Before she picked up a golf club to fix her issues, she designed the spreadsheets to provide the foundation in practice, classes, diet and conditioning.
 
Roommate and teammate Lauren Thiele sees that organized side of Wilson every time she enters their room in Shocker Hall. Wilson is detail-oriented in the way she keeps up her dorm room and her golf game.
 
"That's her whole personality," Thiele said. "The little steps are going to lead to the bigger steps. I've never heard of somebody using a spreadsheet before to plan their golf game. It is definitely paying off for her."
 
The payoff is a great freshman season.
 
Wilson enters this week's American Athletic Conference Championship leading Wichita State with a 74.85 stroke average, a tournament win and two top-five finishes. On Monday, she finished the first round of the conference tournament tied for 20th with teammate Kenni Henson and four others at 1-over-par 73. The tournament continues Tuesday and Wednesday in Brooksville, Fla.
 
Wilson tied for medalist honors in last fall's Ozarks National Invitational and topped the Shocker leaderboard in eight tournaments in 2022-23. She entered the conference tournament after finishing in a tie for eighth in the 12-team field at the ORU Spring Invitational in Tulsa.
 
"Her mindset is really what separates her," Wichita State assistant coach Alejandra Heinen said. "She has a goal and what she does really well is that she plans how she's going to get there. She's really, really specific with everything she does, and she does it really well."
 
While Wilson played well, she wasn't satisfied with her game earlier in the spring. In Australia, her personal coaches in Australia reminded her to maintain good habits. In college, she wanted to do more of that on her own.
 
Wilson looked at her statistics and decided she needed to work on putting from 10-15 feet and chipping from 20-30 yards. She considered diet - three bottles of water a day at a minimum – and rest. She evaluated her practice drills and strength training.
 
"It gives me more confidence – having a 10-foot putt and thinking I've holed a lot of these in practice, so I can hole it," she said.
 
Wilson's organizational skills help her practice the right way on the right things.
 
"You can spend a lot of time working on the wrong things," Heinen said. "She is very smart with how she practices. If she's there for two hours, it's going to be two really solid hours working on things she actually needs to work on."
 
Away from golf, Wilson is also motivated and organized. She majors in economics and considering a career that meshes that field with her environmental concerns. Australia bans single-use plastic in seven of its eight states and territories, an example of policies she thinks can help.
 
"Australian culture, especially my generation, is very worried about the environment and the climate," she said. "We see the ocean. We hear about the Great Barrier Reef dying. The fires in Australia and the floods."
 
Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.