Chattanoogan: Blakesly Warren Helping Lead UT On And Off Course

Baylor School graduate Blakesly Warren has been trying to improve her golf scores -- and people’s lives -- as a member of the University of Tennessee women’s golf team.
 
On the course, she recently completed her junior year with such highlights as a fourth-place finish last fall in the Mercedes-Benz Intercollegiate hosted by UT and a third in a rare head-to-head match against Auburn earlier this year. 
 
Playing as high as the No. 1 golfer on the team on occasion, she was also named SEC player of the week after tying for eighth at the 3M Augusta Invitational this year. And at the SEC tournament in April in Birmingham, she had the fourth best score among her team as Tennessee finished seventh in the team competition.
 
“I had a pretty good season individually, and we had a lot of good team finishes,” she said.
 
However, the team was unable to advance to the NCAA tournament after falling short at the NCAA Regionals at the University of Georgia Golf Course earlier this week. UT finished eighth and only six teams advanced.
 
That and the fact that the team is losing seniors Teleri Hughes of Knoxville (who briefly attended Baylor), sisters Emmie and Hannah Pietila of Michigan, and Lucia Polo of Guatemala left her a little disappointed at season’s end. She did lead the Tennessee team by tying for 17th place in the final tournament.
 
Away from the course, though, the daughter of Mitchell and Crissy Warren of the Rivermont/North Chattanooga area had an even better year, as she was named to the SEC Community Service Team.
 
The areas where she served are almost as long as the tournaments in which she played. They included working as a volunteer with the Tennessee women’s golf clinics, the MBA Grads to Golf program and First Tee of Knoxville.
 
She has also been a pen pal to local elementary school children and has been involved in the Tennessee Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. In the latter role, she helped organize the annual VOLoween event for young children over Halloween, helped provide holiday meals for needy people over Thanksgiving and Christmas, and gathered supplies for Gatlinburg wildfire victims last fall.
 
“I just like giving back to the community,” she said regarding her motivation. “Golf has given so much to me, and I help by giving back to the community. If I can help some kids, they can get to enjoy some of the opportunities I’ve had.”
 
Miss Warren is the latest in a long line of Baylor women golfers who have distinguished themselves. While playing for coach Gary Partrick, she won the TSSAA state individual title in her classification in 2012 and 2013. The team also won state titles those two years.
 
Other past Baylor individual state champions have included May Wood (1998, 1999 and 2000), Beth Felts (2001 and 2003), Brooke Pancake (2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007), and Sofia Hoglund (2008).
 
Miss Warren, who also won three Tennessee Junior titles, said she was often compared to current pro Ms. Pancake.
 
“She was a good role model for me coming up,” she said. “Going through Baylor, people always asked me, ‘Are you as good as Brooke?’ ”
 
Miss Warren grew up playing at the historic Chattanooga Golf and Country Club in Riverview, and today she still considers it her favorite course – and partly for sentimental reasons.
 
“I remember going out there with my father and grandfather and rolling around in the grass and watching them play,” she said with a laugh. “It’s always been a special place to me.”
 
She also had similarly nostalgic feelings toward the University of Tennessee, and that was part of the reason she decided to play golf there.
 
“I’ve always been a big Tennessee fan growing up,” she said. “And it’s not too far from home. It’s been the best decision I could have possibly made.”
 
Regarding the development of her game, Miss Warren said her putting and overall short game are the parts that have improved the most. That comes after Miss Warren used to have a unique superstition of sleeping with her putter for good luck.
 
She has also become stronger physically and mentally, she said. The former has come through spending time in the weight room at UT’s facilities, and the latter through the help of head coach Judi Pavon and assistant Mandy Moore.
 
Her best skill, she believes, is being able to hit the ball fairly straight. That has helped her accomplish a somewhat unusual feat of already having three holes in one in her life, despite being only 21. She enjoyed her third this past November while playing in a fund-raising tournament at the Willow Creek course in Farragut.
 
 Miss Warren – whose favorite golfer is young male pro phenom Jordan Spieth – is majoring in marketing with a collateral in entrepreneurship.
 
“I want to play golf professionally for as long as I can and then work for the PGA Tour or any kind of golf company,” she said.
 
But as a rising senior, she is focused primarily on trying to finish her UT career on a high note and trying to be one of the leaders and key contributors along with fellow top returnees Anna Newell of Tampa and Micheala Williams of Athens, Ala.
 
She hopes to get ready for it this summer by playing in such tournaments as the U.S. Women’s Open qualifying, the U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifying, the Tennessee Women’s Open and the North & South Women’s Amateur in Pinehurst, N.C.
 
“I think next year is going to be a good year for me,” she said with determination.
 
Jcshearer2@comcast.net