Jessica Hauser: State’s Top-Ranked Girl Sticks to Game Plan 

BY HOWARD WARD

Jessica Lynn Hauser is a typical teen-ager in a lot of ways. She loves music, including attending concerts by Creed, enjoys hanging out with her best friend Allison, and doesn’t care much for math.

She’s tall (5-foot-9) blonde, pretty and personable. She plays the piano and the saxophone. She’s a drum major in the school band at South Stokes High School in Walnut Cove and was president of the junior class this year. She carries a 4.0 grade point average and a 1 handicap.

Obviously, Jessica is a very busy young lady. But instead of looking for a place to crash at her home in Germanton when she’s finished all the daily routines, she heads for the golf course.

Hauser is listed No. 1 in the Carolinas Golf Association’s N.C. Junior Girls rankings and while she can play a mean sax, she’s more interested in breaking par.

“In my priorities, family is first, school is second and golf is third,” Hauser said during an interview between rounds in the North Carolina Junior Championships being held at PineCrest Country Club in Lumberton. “But golf is my love and I’m hoping to play four years of college golf for someone.”

Odds of that happening are pretty strong. She’s already been contacted by several schools and the combination of course skills in both golf and scholastics can only be an asset.

Steve Harris, teaching professional at the Learning Center at Greensboro National, has been working with Hauser for the past four years. He thinks her potential is unlimited.

“Jesscia’s work ethics and practice habits are very good,” Harris said. “She comes out on weekends and in the heat to work on her game. She works hard and she doesn’t mind grinding it out when things aren’t going well. She’s a good athlete with a good build for golf. She’s not too tall, not too short and she’s in very good shape.

 “We don’t have a Tiger Woods-Butch Harmon relationship, and when she goes out to play she’s on her own. But she does come to me for check-ups and we work on her swing plane.”

“She loves the game, too, and that goes a long way. She has a lot going for her, but the thing I’m most impressed with is her work habits. She balances her time well.”

That balance of time is no accident. Hauser plans every day and sticks to that plan.

“I write out a list of stuff to do every day,” she said, “and I check things off as I do them. I know it sounds as if I’m really busy, but I don’t like to just sit around. Allison and I have been best friends since we were born and we go out a lot. She doesn’t play golf, but she keeps a schedule of the tournaments and she calls when I’m not playing.”

Both of Hauser’s parents, Wanda and Rodney, work. Her father is course superintendent at Stonewall Golf Course in Germanton.

“They’re just great,” she said. “Without them, I wouldn’t be able to play the junior tournaments. Mom schedules everything for me. I may not even know the events I’m playing, but she keeps a calendar of everything. And Dad comes out and watches me hit balls for hours and he knows how to help me when I’m struggling with some part of my game.”

Hauser competes on the men’s team at South Stokes High and had a top-20 finish in the recent conference championship. But she is envious of the distance her male counterparts drive the ball off the tee.

“The short game is my strength right now,” she said. “I’m not that long off the tee; I hit my driver about 225-230 and the guys are always way ahead of me. It makes it tough when they’re hitting 9-irons into greens and I’m hitting 3-woods.”

While golf is her love, it’s not a consuming thing for Hauser.

“I have friends in school and I have friends in golf,” she said. “Most of the talking I do about golf is with my mom and dad and we don’t sit around the dinner table and talk about it. A lot of people don’t play golf and don’t understand about tournaments and what goes on – how tough it is.”

Hauser is goal oriented, but not in terms of winning certain events.

“I’ve set goals the last two years of hitting fairways and greens,” she said. “I can’t get ahead of myself. I know that you can’t win a golf tournament on the first day, but I sure know you can lose it. My goal is just not to shoot myself in the foot on the first day.

“I’ve learned to control my emotions better over the past couple of years, too. I used to get angry with myself, but now I know you just have to roll with the punches. You’re not going to hit it perfect every day.”