Horizons Fall 2013

38 HORIZONS BY WALTER VILLA Taylor Collins was sworn to secrecy, and she obeyed the command. Not even her parents knew that Collins, 24, won the Golf Channel’s competition-based reality show, The Big Break , until it was televised in late July. “By that time, my parents were out of the country on vacation. I ended up watching the finale by myself,” said Collins, who, as an NSU golfer, had won three team national championships and one individual national title before grad- uating in 2011 with a degree in sports and recreation management. Collins, who plays in the develop- mental Symetra Tour, won $50,000 in cash plus another $50,000 in prizes. “For once, I’m not broke,” Collins said. “I don’t have to ask my mom for money for the movies.” Collins still has close ties to her alma mater. She lives with her parents on the Executive Course at NSU’s Grande Oaks Golf Club in Davie, and she still drops in to talk to the Sharks’ current group of golfers as often as possible. Kevin Marsh, who was Collins’ head coach at NSU, said her training while at NSU helped her win the challenges on The Big Break . “During our practices, she would take a shag bag (of balls) and hit from under a tree or hit over a tree,” Marsh said. “She would see how much she could curve the ball and shape shots at different trajectories. Those skills came into play during The Big Break .” Collins said the cash she won on the show was nice, but the biggest prize she earned was an exemption to the November 14–17 Lorena Ochoa Invita- tional in Mexico, which will be her first LPGA event. Collins earned that right by beating Tampa’s Matthew Galloway in the show’s finale. This was the 19th season of the show, and it was the first time a woman had beaten a man in an 18-hole finale. “It was more fun to beat a guy,” said Collins of the competition, which started with eight men and eight women and eliminated one contestant each week based on different golf challenges. “It’s cool to know that I’m the first woman to do it.” Collins received roughly 100 text messages on the night the finale aired. One of the messages was from Lorena Ochoa, the former top-ranked women’s player in the world and the namesake of the tournament Collins will compete in this fall. “I appreciate everyone who supported me,” Collins said. High on that list are her mother and father, Mimi and Keyron, who called from Mexico when they found out she had won. Keyron Collins, a golf pro who teaches at NSU’s Grande Oaks Golf Club, said his daughter got her start in the game by following him around the course. Wanting to improve his knowledge of the game, Keyron Collins met with different instructors until he met Boca Raton resident Bob Toski, a former pro golfer who was the leading money- winner on the PGA Tour in 1954, and who played on the Seniors Tour in the 1980s. When she was old enough, Taylor started taking lessons from Toski, who is still her teacher. Golf Pro’s LPGA Dreams Began at NSU Taylor Collins won The Big Break , then scored her first LPGA event.