Times-Union's First Coast girls golf player of the year: Nancy Cox dominates postseason

Nancy Cox may one day be able to point to the past two years as the turning point for a late bloomer.

She branched out from the North Florida Junior Foundation to the Florida Junior Tour and posted seven top-10 finishes and three top-fives in 2022.

She got her first hole-in-one in 2021, in tournament conditions, and on her first swing of the day, playing with her father, PGA Tour rules official Stephen Cox, in the first round of the Florida State Golf Association Parent-Child Tournament at the Celebration Golf Course in Kissimmee.

A shotgun start put them on the par-3 third hole and she knocked a 7-iron into the jar from 143 yards out.

"I was a little flustered the rest of the day," she said.

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But not for long. They finished tied for fifth.

That just set the stage for this fall. Cox, a junior at Ponte Vedra High School, led the Sharks to 74-shot victory in the District 3-2A tournament when she carded a 70 for a five-shot margin in winning the individual title; then fired a career-low 67 at Quail Heights for a four-shot victory as Ponte Vedra won the Region 1-2A tournament by 36 shots.

In the Class 2A state tournament at the Mission Inn Resort Las Colinas Course, Cox and the Sharks closed fast after a difficult opening round to finish second to Plantation American Heritage by seven shots. Cox had the low round of the day with a 68 and finished solo fifth at 3-over-par 147, the best state tournament performance by a First Coast girls player in any classification.

Cox averaged 71.0 in the postseason and finished first among all Class 2A golfers in the state's iWanamaker individual rankings for 18-hole tournaments, ninth for nine-hole tournaments and was 18th in the state overall (and first among First Coast players) in all classifications for 18-hole events.

The combination of season-long consistency and peaking for the post-season earned Cox the Florida Times-Union's First Coast player of the year in girls golf.

100 percent about golf

After beginning competitive golf in her early teens, Cox has turned into the total package. Her strength is off the tee, both from a length and accuracy standpoint, and her putting is getting better all the time.

Her short game is stout, the product of hours of practice with the Ponte Vedra boys team at the TPC Sawgrass.

And Ponte Vedra coach Adrienne Siewert said Cox's progression in the last two years has been a reflection of tempering her passion for golf with the realization that one shot, good or bad, doesn't define a round or even the hole.

"She's always been 100 percent about golf," Siewert said. "Last year and this year have been her most consistent years. I had never seen a freshman so serious about the game but she has relaxed a little bit. She's gotten better at not letting one bad hole turn into another one. Instead, she uses a bad shot or bad hole as motivation to get better."

Stephen Cox said his daughter demands a lot out of herself and there have been times he's had to counsel patience.

He said it could very well be a case of like father, like daughter. An accomplished amateur golfer in England before going into tournament administration and then coming to America when Nancy was 3 years old to work for the PGA Tour, Cox said he was guilty at times of letting his emotions boil over on the course.

"At times I've had to sit her down and tell her, 'I get it ... it's a very frustrating game,'" he said. "When I was playing I ran a little warm sometimes. Her expectations are very high. But she's developed more of a calmness about her. She bounces back from adversity better than I ever did."

Nancy said it all boils down to her passion for the game.

"I enjoy competing, love it, love practicing with my friends," she said. "Golf is different. There's no one to blame but yourself when things go wrong."

Born to a golfing family

Nancy Cox is the middle child of three sisters and the only one who has played golf on a regular basis. After a brief time in competitive gymnastics, she's been strictly about golf since she was 11 years and old after taking lessons and playing at The First Tee.

She discovered an additional layer to the sport: playing on a team. She joined the Landrum Middle School team and began playing more with the North Florida Junior Foundation.

"I was a late bloomer, didn't play a lot until I was 15," Stephen Cox said. "She started competing when she was about 14 and started putting some nice scores together."

The sport is steeped in her family, going back to when her father and her mother Jill grew up together living near the Woodhole Spa Resort, about 150 miles north of London.

Stephen and Jill Cox met as children on the golf course. When they grew into adulthood and decided to get married Stephen Cox was among one of the top amateur golfers in Great Britain and his wife was a single-digit handicapper. But he came to grips one day with the fact that his game was not advancing to the next level.

"I loved the game but I was a realist," he said. "A lot of my friends were turning pro but barely making cuts at the amateur level. How was I going to make it at the pro level?"

In the mid-1990s, he got a job offer to help run PGA tournaments in Great Britain and Ireland, which led to working in rules and competitions for the Open Championship and the U.S. majors. He met veteran PGA Tour rules officials Mark Russell and Slugger White, who told him they wanted to have more rules officials from outside the U.S.

"They wanted to broaden the reach and diversity of the rules staff and at the time, the only non-American was Steven Rintoul [from Australia]," Cox said.

Cox headed to FAU

The job meant moving to America with three daughters, all 3 years old or younger. Cox said they were so young it was no trouble adapting to their new country.

Nancy Cox and her sisters are still British citizens. She's lost her accent but said she can bring it out on demand.

"Just joking around," she said.

Siewert said the love of golf has crossed over the Atlantic Ocean and stayed with Nancy.

"Golf has always been in her family," Siewert said. "Her parents had a strong golf background but you also need the talent for it and you need to love it. Nancy has both."

Her future in the game includes more junior and amateur events and one more year of high school. Cox has verbally committed to Florida Atlantic, where she plans to play for former LPGA winner and 1997 NCAA individual champion Heather Bowie Young.

Cox also added another title in December — winning the JAGA Family Championship with her father. The pair birdied the first five holes and shot 62 at the Jacksonville Beach Golf Club.

"She carried us," her father said.

Nancy said making a few birdies for her father is the least she can do.

"He got me into the game, coached me my whole life," she said. "He's my role model. I've always wanted to be as good as him."

That day is coming soon, if not already here. And no one is prouder than Dad.

Nancy Cox profile

• Favorite player: Rory McIlroy.

• Dream foursome: Stephen Cox (her father), Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods.

• Favorite club: 64-degree wedge.

• Career low: 67, Quail Heights, Lake City.

• Hole-in-one: Has one, at the 2021 FSGA Parent-Child Tournament at Celebration Golf Club in Kissimmee, third hole, 7-iron, 143 yards.

• What's in the bag: Driver, Titleist TS2, 10-degrees; 3-wood, 15-degrees; 4- and 5-hybrid; irons, 5-9-iron; wedges, 50, 54, 58, 64; putter, Scotty Cameron Newport2; ball, Titleist Pro-V1X.

Florida Times-Union All First Coast girls golf

First team

Second team: Shanya Arasu (senior), Nease; Madison Balaskiewicz (senior), Bolles; Lauren Barned (freshman), Ponte Vedra; Danielle Dailey (freshman) St. Joseph's Academy; Veona Osborne (senior) Lake City Columbia.

Third team: Sadaly Campbell (sophomore), Fernandina Beach; Alexandra Drum (junior), Ponte Vedra; Stella Moritz (freshman), Ponte Vedra; Maddie Rathjen (junior), Beachside; Addy Vogt (sophomore), St. Johns Country Day.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ponte Vedra's Nancy Cox goes on postseason tear to earn golfer of year