NGI: Another postseason title for Angelica Holman; Santa Clara breaks through in team race

USA Today

12-05-2025

NGI: Another postseason title for Angelica Holman; Santa Clara breaks through in team race
Despite growing up in Fort Pierce, Florida, Angelica Holman came to the desert this week and something about Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, Arizona, just seemed right to her.
'It wasn't easy – I wouldn't say it was ever easy – it just suited my eye,' said Holman, the Eastern Michigan junior who led wire-to-wire on her way to the individual title at the National Golf Invitational.
For Holman, this week marked a major breakthrough. She hasn't really felt she had a good handle on her game since last spring. But here's the crazy thing: Last spring, Holman also ended her season with a national title.
Holman spent her freshman and sophomore seasons at Daytona State College, an NJCAA Division I school in Daytona Beach, Florida. Not only did Holman win the individual title at the NJCAA Women's National Championship in May 2024, but Daytona State finished as the top team.
Holman went on to the University of Georgia from there but only spent the fall semester in Athens. She was on the roster but did not compete and transferred to play for Eastern Michigan coach Josh Brewer, who had recruited her to Georgia, at the midway point of the season.
'In the fall semester I think I just lost my swing and then it just took me so long to get it back,' she said. 'I think really relaxing and focusing on other parts of the game and more mental really helped me.'
Holman teed it up seven times with the team this spring but with only one top-10 finish. She decided to enter the transfer portal, which she said was not only a personal decision but a very hard one considering that she loved her Eastern Michigan team and coaches.
'I'm just open to going anywhere now,' Holman said, 'hopefully closer to home.'
National Golf Invitational: Final scores, standings
Holman's rounds of 69-74-73 at Southern Dunes left her at even par for the week and one shot ahead of Mercer's Katie Scheck. Holman said she felt the most nervous in Sunday's final round, but eventually that went away. She was able to overcome back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 5 and 6 and played the rest of the day in 1-under par.
'It's amazing,' she said of winning the NGI title. 'It's just been so long since my game has been put together so it's really incredible for me.'
Brewer said Holman largely found her way over the hump by herself. She's a beloved teammate and, as one of only two girls on Brewer's team who had a car on campus, was always generous to her teammates when it came to providing rides to and from practice.
'I'm happy for her because she's kind of stuck with it, kept believing and found a way to play her best golf at the end of the year,' Brewer said.
Holman was perhaps an unexpected leader for an Eastern Michigan team that was without its star player Savannah de Bock after the sophomore from Belgium qualified for an NCAA Regional as an individual – becoming the first player in program history to play an NCAA postseason event in the process. That, however, meant de Bock was ineligible to play the NGI.
Eastern Michigan started the final round in second place but 10 shots behind leader Santa Clara. By the end of the day, Brewer's squad had come within four shots of the team title.
'You want to win, but we gave ourselves at least a chance,' Brewer said, praising the resilience his team showed on Sunday as they posted a 4-over team score, the second-best team round of the day.
Santa Clara has played the NGI all three years and finished in the top 5 in each of its past two trips to Southern Dunes.
'It was good to see that we could do it under pressure and that they stuck to their gameplan,' coach Krystal Kelly said of her team's win. 'I'm just so incredibly proud of them and everything they've accomplished this week.'
At the beginning of the week, Kelly liked the plan her young team was following, and that plan didn't waiver even as Eastern Michigan attacked the course in a more aggressive way.
At No. 16, a reachable par 5, for example, Eastern Michigan players went for the green in two. Kelly continued to coach her players to lay up there. The 17th hole is a short, challenging par 3 that Santa Clara played in 1 under. The closing hole is a par 4 with water where Kelly knows anything can happen, so she really didn't take a breath until freshman Proud Sriwongngam, playing in the No. 2 spot on Sunday, finished that hole.
Kelly's consistent message to her team throughout the day was to stay patient.
'Ultimately I tell them, 'Be where your feet are,'' said Kelly, who played on the UCLA team that won the NCAA Women's Championship in 2004.
This Santa Clara team has no seniors, and Kelly loved that no player ever gave up or took the cop-out of, 'hey, my score is not going to count.' For all five, the NGI title also marks the first time they have experienced a team victory.
'Just to see the reaction on their face when they knew we had won,' Kelly said, 'There's tears streaming down their face, it makes it all very worthwhile.'
And for Kelly, there was another layer. Sunday was not only Mother's Day but her 43rd birthday. Her parents were in Arizona to cheer for their daughter's team and son Colt, 11, was at home, very much engaged with what was happening.
'He texted me yesterday, 'Go get 'em, Mom. I'm so proud of you.''