Winans looks to cap HS career on championship note

PLANO, TX – After getting a taste of the state golf tournament two years ago as a sophomore, Plano East senior Meagan Winans is heading back to Georgetown this week with her sights set on winning the whole thing.

The Lady Panthers’ star golfer is one of 72 student-athletes scheduled to hit the links Monday-Tuesday at Legacy Hills Golf Club for the Class 6A state tournament. Winans tees off early in the morning with the event’s first group at 8 a.m. Monday.

Winans booked a return trip to state after winning the Region I-6A tournament on April 19-20 in Grand Prairie. She was the only golfer in the 92-player field to card a 70 on Day One, riding that momentum to a two-day total of 144 to win the regional title by two strokes over Hebron’s Symran Shah.

It was a return to form for Winans after an otherwise uncharacteristic showing at the District 6-6A tournament one month earlier in The Colony. She finished nine strokes off the pace with a 150, needing to win a playoff against Shah to snap a tie for third place and earn a spot on the medal stand.

“I was struggling pretty good with chipping around the greens at district and didn’t play my best golf at all,” Winans said. “I just grinded on chipping and mental stuff. At regionals, I thought I played much better. I don’t think I missed a fairway the whole tournament. I felt I played solid at regionals and hope I can now take that to state.”

Winans, who already keeps a pretty strict practice regiment, said she hasn’t had to alter much in her preparations leading up to the state tournament. She’s been through the competitive golf ringer for years through traveling the country for high-profile junior events, which helps with the mental aspect of an event like state.

She also doesn’t have to look far for support from someone who has already come through on this exact stage. It’s just a text or phone call away in Norman, Okla., where Winans’ older sister, Libby, resides at The University of Oklahoma.

The junior Sooner carved her a prolific career of her own at East, becoming the first golfer in school history to win a state championship back in 2018. Meagan was just a freshman at the time.

“It was cool. I wasn’t shocked. I knew she was totally capable of doing it,” Meagan said. “We support each other a lot with that kind of stuff and we both set high expectations. I wasn’t shocked but was so proud of her. It was pretty awesome.”

Although they’re separated by a few hours up and down Interstate 35, the Winans sisters are more or less joined at the hip when Libby’s back in town.

“We’re very close. She’s at OU now but when she’s here over the summer for break, we’re pretty much together from the second we wake up until we go to bed,” Meagan said. “We’re practicing, working out, eating together, laughing — everything.”

And more often than not, golf is involved. That sport has been a common bond between the two sisters since they were young.

“My dad played for fun with friends, not professionally or in college or anything,” Meagan said. “He liked the glimpse he had of it and wanted to see if Libby and I could pick it up. I’m glad he did because it has been a fun experience.”

Meagan said that she has been playing competitively since she was 7 years old, while Libby ramped her game up around age 9. Having another high-level golfer in the family has bred plenty of competition between the two sisters, with sometimes a friendly wager at stake. Meagan admits that Libby is the more competitive of the two, whereas she’s more of the “I’m just happy for whoever wins” type, but said that they both relish that kind of competition.

They’ll get to carry that bond over onto the same team one more time, with Meagan set to join her older sister at OU next season after committing to play for the Sooners’ golf team.

“Ultimately the decision was up to me, but with [Libby] being there I definitely waited until she gave me some insight about how she liked it and how the coaches were,” Meagan said. “It was already in my top two or three schools and when she said how much she loved it, that definitely helped. It’ll be a lot more comfortable to be there with my sister for a year.”

At the moment, however, Winans has business to tend to on the high school links. She’s down to the final tournament of a four-year run on varsity, returning to state for the first time since she placed sixth as a sophomore in 2019.

“It’s different from any other high school tournament. I play around the country with a lot of juniors so you get to see all the good players reunite there,” Winans said. “There’s a social part to it and it’s fun to see all your friends and the competition there, but the course is in a retirement community so all the people who live there come out and support you. It’s a really cool event.”

Winans said she has only played at Legacy Hills one other time since — at the state preview during her junior year. That season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Winans has made up for lost time nonetheless by turning in a strong senior season. She hopes to conclude it on Tuesday with a gold medal.

“I’m hoping for it and don’t expect any less. I’m going to go out there and give it my all,” Winans said.