As has been her custom while at Holy Innocents' Episcopal School and on the golf courses, rising senior Haven Ward keeps coming up all fairways and greens.
 
Perhaps her latest honor, however, made even the fairways unnecessary as her latest hole-in-one occurred when the TOUR Championship announced its 2022 HOPE Tee Shot honorees, when First Tee recently named her as one of two to hit the opening tee shot on Thursday morning of the upcoming TOUR championship in late August. 
 
The event will feature the top-30 best players and will be held at East Lake Golf Club. 
 
Haven will tee off August 25 at 11:15 a.m. on the first hole. She and one other were named after an intense selection process that consisted of a golf competition, an essay and interviews with tournament leadership.
 
If this isn't enough, in March, the TOUR Championship announced and created the HOPE Tee Shot Scholarship, that consists of $5,000 awarded to Haven on behalf of the tournament.
 
To be clear, Haven is more than golf rounds of eagles, pars and birdies, as she maintains a 3.8-grade point average while also being a leader among her teammates. She has been a member of First Tee – Metro Atlanta for 11 years and was also given the honor competing in the First Tee's Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach last fall. She was recently featured in a video for Home Course Advantage, an NBC miniseries which spotlights promising young golfers looking for opportunities to prove their excellence alongside typically more thoroughly-funded competition. 
 
From the TOUR website, "She has exhibited an ability to balance her golfing aspirations with her schoolwork." She looks up to top pros Rory McIlroy and Cameron Champ as two of her idols. And a final note, Haven, like many superstitious athletes, enjoys her own unique ritual of dining at Waffle House before big events. 
 
Haven is preparing to start her senior year at HIES in August 2022. 

– Dunn Neugebauer