One Step At A Time

By Elizabeth Zaremba
Athletics Media Relations Student Assistant

Analyze every round. Work on my short game. Stay one pace ahead.

Lady Rebel golfer Katherine Jones has a lot on her mind as the team progresses in their fall season. The senior has been here before and is experienced in playing in collegiate tournaments, but this year is different. She sees more confidence in her team and herself.

She owes a lot of that to new head coach, Michele Drinkard, voted a Top 50 teacher by Golf for Women three years in a row from 2005-07. Drinkard was also named the 2006 Dixie Section PGA Teacher of the Year (first ever female to receive the award for the Dixie Section).

"She's very organized," Jones said. "She knows so much about the game. She brings a lot to the table. We're already lowering our stroke average by about 10 strokes."

Drinkard joined the Rebels in May, and the team is already benefiting from her unique way of evaluating each round and targeting each player's weakness.

"She came in, and we organized all of our stats on a website called Shot by Shot," Jones said. "It charts what we need to work on, what's improving, and what needs to improve. That way she can go in and work on that one person's weakness and pull them up, and make that weakness their strength."

So far this season, the two-time Big South Coach of the Year has done just that. The Lady Rebels placed 18th out of 20 at the Cougar Invitational, but in their next tournament, received their first top 10 finish of the year as they placed 9th out of 18 at the Ron Moore Women's Intercollegiate.

If there were any doubts about how the team would handle the transition of a new coach, those were put to rest quickly.

"Everybody's doing really well," said Jones, who is a member of Chi Omega Sorority, as well as being a leader in FCA and the President of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. "Coach Drinkard is a very good motivator and encourager."

Playing since she was five, Jones has constantly been challenged with improving her game. While at Jackson Academy, Jones earned three American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) top-5 finishes and five top-10 efforts, while winning back-to-back Mississippi Junior Girl's Amateurs in 2000 and 2001. She credits her father, Roy Jones, for striking her interest in golf.

"I would tag along with him on the golf course, and he told me he would get me clubs. The more I played, the more I grew into it."

Though Jones is a fifth generation Rebel, Ole Miss was not her first choice.

"I wanted to go away either to Virginia or South Carolina, but I took a visit here and immediately fell in love with Ole Miss all over again and decided that this is where I'm going."

Since joining the Lady Rebels, Jones has gradually improved her stroke average, finishing third on the team last year. Jones also recorded the first ever hole-in-one by a Lady Rebel on the third hole of the second round at the 2006 Jeannine McHaney Intercollegiate. Despite her improvement over the years, she feels that the most progress has come in the past two months with Coach Drinkard.

"She's really helped me with my strategy on the course and from the mental aspect of the game," Jones said. "I would give anything to play for her for four years."

With the tough competition of the SEC, Jones is confident in the Lady Rebels' chances of improving and competing with the best in the nation.

"Our goal this year is to make it to the NCAA Regionals," she said. "We set a realistic stroke average that we feel we need to make in order to make it to NCAA's. The SEC is by far the best conference for women's golf, and that's good for us, because competing against these teams all season makes us better."

Though the team is constantly traveling and not competing in Oxford, Jones gives fans a reason to keep up with this group of ladies.

"We're the best looking team in the SEC," she joked. "Seriously, we have a lot of energy and good chemistry. We all love golf and Ole Miss, so we want to play well for our school."

Taking it one tournament at a time, one round at a time, the newly revived Lady Rebels are staying one pace ahead.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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