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Decision to take the long route pays off for Ewart
There were times when Jodi Ewart thought about packing it all in and heading home.
That America was too tough a nut to crack. That the Ladies European Tour would offer her a safer passage to the life she dreams of as a leading women’s golfer.
But with characteristic defiance and a small sprinkling of Yorkshire grit, the Middleham teenager opted to knuckle down and stick with it.
University is a big step for any 18-year-old, but when that giant stride towards adulthood is taken in the tough, winning-is-everything Collegiate system of the United States, then it is an even greater venture into the unknown.
So there was no surprise last weekend when she allowed herself a huge pat on the back for comfortably negotiating the minefield of Qualifying School to reach the LPGA Tour and justify her decision to stay.
Her arrival at the very top table of women’s golf was five-and-a- half years in the making.
Four years spent at the University of New Mexico that were filled with the highs of being voted onto the All American team and named the Conference player of the year in each season; and the lows of being a young girl away from home.
“At 18 I was very dependent on my parents and I was really homesick that first semester,” she says of her move from Middleham to New Mexico.
“There was also a time in the second year when I struggled. They call it the ‘sophomore slump’. I wasn’t playing that well and I was starting to think it wasn’t for me, that I should return to my coach and my family and turn pro early.
“But I stuck at it and my final two years were much better.
“Once I was out on the golf course, everything settled down.
“In the end it was the right decision to make.”
Renowned as one of the best college players in the US, Ewart turned professional after graduating in May 2010 and immediately took up residence on the Futures Tour. A moderately successful spell on the circuit directly below the LPGA got her to Q School last year, but she failed to secure her card as the nerves overcame her.
She did get a couple of invites into LPGA events in 2011, which meant that was referred to by the category-happy American commentators as her debut year.
But it will be 2012 when she gets her first, full-time crack at the top level of women’s golf thanks to rounds of 70, 73, 74, 70 and 70 at Daytona Beach, Florida, last week.
“You have to manage your emotions at Q School, take it one shot at a time,” Ewart said this week from her home in Sarasota, Florida. “The key is to get over the bad holes quickly, you cannot dwell on bad shots.
“What I learnt from last year is that every shot is important.
“I played really steady. Every single round was played in winds of about 15mph, but because I’m used to it in New Mexico where it’s exposed, and of course Yorkshire, it didn’t affect me.
“I’d been hitting the ball really well and putting ok, and I just told myself to take it really steady.
“I was probably more nervous before the last round than I had been the entire week, but I got off to the steady start I wanted and that settled me down.”
Ewart’s minimum ambition for next year is to finish inside the top 80 to retain her LPGA Tour card.
“Top 50 would be nice,” she adds. “But to be honest it’s all just sinking in and I haven’t really set any concrete goals.
“I hope to qualify for all the majors but the British Open is still the one I want to get into most.”
Her pride in her roots is obvious. The Women’s British Open may be the most storied major within reach but she will also attempt next month to qualify for the Ladies European Tour, because the LPGA equivalent has a number of gaps in the schedule that she can fill on her home continent.
Ewart gets home as often as she can and despite all the work she did in New Mexico, her coach is still the former Catterick professional Andy Marshall.
“He came out about a month ago and we had an intense six days working on every facet of my game,” she says.
“I wouldn’t have got onto the LPGA Tour if it wasn’t for him.
“Andy’s been my coach since I was eight and although there’s an ocean between us, he knows my swing like the back of his hand and I just have to text him something along the lines of ‘hitting it left’ and he’ll come straight back to me with how I should fix it.”
Though Ewart’s is a success story for the young male or female golfer considering honing their skills in the American Collegiate system, it is not all plain sailing.
In the past, household names like Colin Montgomerie have almost been derailed on their route to glory by a troubled spell in an American university.
But Ewart says: “I would definitely recommend it. Particualrly if you get to a college with a great coaching staff and a great team.
“I’ve spoken to girls who haven’t enjoyed it, but I loved it. It’s the best way to get onto the LPGA.
“The initial decision is key. I was recruited by a lot of different colleges. I loved the coaches at New Mexico. I also looked at the University of Southern California, but that was in downtown Los Angeles. I’m from the middle of nowhere in North Yorkshire and New Mexico is exactly the same, so it suited me better.
“College and the Futures Tour have prepared me for what is a big step up next year. That’s why a lot of Europeans struggle when they come over, because it’s such a vast difference.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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