Coming full circle

Taylor Babcock’s path to Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Virginia, can only be described as circuitous.
Turns out that hasn’t been such a bad thing for Babcock, the head golf professional at Farmington, an upscale private club with more than 2,800 members.
Rewind to her teenage years growing up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where Babcock was a three-sport athlete, excelling in basketball, volleyball and golf. She regularly played golf at Lake Oswego Country Club, but she admits that the game was not her first passion.
That all changed one summer when, as a prep, she revamped her swing with the help of Jerry Mowlds, the director of instruction at nearby Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. It was a transformative experience; the ever-driven Babcock lowered her handicap from 15 to nearly scratch.

Babcock won, in her words, “five or six” tournaments as a junior in high school and began competing in high-level Oregon State Golf Association events. She credits her parents with enthusiastically allowing her to pursue her dreams.
Still, her consi...