When Jacqueline Bendrick wasn’t in the lab conducting skin cancer research or getting the kind of grades that qualify for induction into Phi Beta Kappa, she was helping the Furman women’s golf team to a top 10 national ranking. That’s just as hard as it sounds.

“We don’t get class preferences,” Jacqueline says, “so it’s really challenging trying to work classes and labs around golf.”

Being a biology major and playing college golf at the highest level were both pleasant surprises for Bendrick, who didn’t take up the sport until high school, didn’t break 80 until two years after that, and walked on at Furman as a long-hitting work in progress before earning a scholarship. She also planned to be a chemistry major until biology professor Adi D. Dubash showed her how “exciting” research could be.

On the course, Jacqueline and her teammates have returned the golf program to the excellence it experienced under legendary alums Betsy King ’77, Beth Daniel ’78 and Dottie Pepper ’87. The Paladins are currently ranked No. 7 in the nation and are attempting to advance to the NCAA Championship for a third consecutive year.

Jacqueline’s immediate plans after graduation are to try and qualify for the LPGA Tour, but a career as a college biology professor is a distinct possibility, too. Either way, Furman proved to be just the place for an aspiring golfer who didn’t mind hitting the books.

“You come to Furman’s campus and it’s just gorgeous, and the golf course is right there across the lake,” she says. “It’s all I could have asked for.”