Hips and wrists injuries kept senior Janie Jackson from having a complete 2014-15 season, but now the Alabama women’s golfer said she has felt better than she has in over a year.
For her, it was important to get back for her last season at Alabama, to leave the program on a high note. The beginning of that final season begins Friday at Mason Rudolph Championship in Franklin, Tennessee.
“In May at nationals, I tore a ligament in my wrist and sat out for about two months this summer,” Jackson said. “I started playing again at the end of July and I feel good for the most part.”
Jackson went on to play for the U.S. Open qualifier in Atlanta before nationals. She went on to shoot 5-under par, but just missed a place among the top two spots by one stroke. Jackson served as an alternate.
Coach Mic Potter was very pleased with her performance, but then her wrist injury put her out until she had a chance to go to Q-school in August.
“It was a good experience, getting to go out there and see what it was like, but like I said its just a process trying to get better,” Jackson said. “I think I’m in a good place now to start the fall season.”
Jackson is one of two seniors on the team. She and All-American Emma Talley have the responsibility behind Potter of leading the team. The two have been friends since they were 13, and both said that they want their last season together to be a memorable one.
“We have a relationship where we are super competitive,” Talley said. “She will come out here and tell me she is going to squish me like a bug, and she definitely makes me better each and every day whether that’s on the course or off the course.”
The two friends, however, did not start at the same college. Jackson left Huntsville and began her college career at the University of Arizona. She only spent one year there before she moved back to her home state to play at Alabama.
“She’s always been an Alabama girl, her father went here and her mother went here, but moved to Birmingham and went to UAB to graduate,” Potter said. “They are Alabama through and through. So I think it was a pretty easy decision for her.”
Talley said she was excited when Jackson announced her transfer. Jackson is glad to be back for a full season to play with Talley and her teammates for the first time in a while, and Potter believes it can be a breakout year for Jackson now that she is finally healthy.
“I think potentially [she can be] player of the year, first team All-American. She can do all those things. She is that good,” Potter said. “Whether she aspires to that is the main question. She’s as good as anybody I’ve ever coached, but it is the kind of game that you have to build a passion for it. If that’s there and it has kind of seemed to be this fall so far, she can do anything she wants to do.”
