Practice makes perfect for golfer Danielle Owens | Observer Preps

Some see hitting a golf ball as a simple act — swing a club, hit the ball and hope it makes its way into the hole.

But for Bishop Moore’s Danielle Owens, a golf swing is like a dance. 

There’s a rhythmic motion that requires perfect coordination and timing — things that take hours and hours of constant practice to build muscle memory and shape form.

For Owens, the game is not unlike another passion of hers — dance.

“I feel like the activity (dance) itself really helped me — I had a good understanding of how my body worked, so I feel like that was one of the reasons why I picked up golf so quickly,” Owens said. “I could manipulate my swing and really get moves down that my coach asked me to do.”

That start three years ago — which was prompted by her and her family moving to a golf community — was filled with excitement and anxious nerves. Most of the golfers she started off facing all had been playing since they were kids.

When she arrived to Bishop Moore for her freshman year, her shot was always high and right. She had to learn how to adjust herself to find that perfect swing.

“I feel like the activity (dance) itself really helped me — I had a good understanding of how my body worked, so I feel like that was one of the reasons why I picked up golf so quickly. I could manipulate my swing and really get moves down that my coach asked me to do.”

- Danielle Owens

Today, her shot consistently finds its mark, and the nerves of being the new kid on the block no longer bother her.

Head coach Luanne Cherney has watched Owens’ progress from fresh-faced freshman to the hot-shot leader of the Hornets.

“She’s just really a very dedicated, very athletically gifted student — she’s a natural,” Cherney said. “She has a natural ability — from her training from dance — to have a focus and single minded purpose to excel at the game.

“She’s used to the hours of work,” she said. “(And) she has the ability to have that focus to work on something, work on something — almost like you’re doing a dance routine where you just have to get it right and no one would know.”

Owens is a “course hawk” — she spends every single day out on the greens working on her short and long game. The only time she isn’t on the course is when she is at school, doing homework or sleeping.

When she isn’t suiting up for the Hornets, Owens is out on the links playing on the Florida Junior Tour.

“The FJTs are really competitive, and all the players are really good in those, so it really pushes me to be a better player,” Owens said.

It’s that constant dedication to the game that has led Owens to her role as a leader for the Hornets. So far this season, Owens has helped lead the Hornets to five straight victories (5-1), with scores such as the 37 she shot against Windermere Prep and the 21 she shot in a rain-shortened match with Lake Highland. Through those five games alone, she has picked up an impressive 38 average.

Although her stats so far this season have come from hard work and determination, there also has been another factor — the arrival of a talented freshman Ainsley Mann.

“She’s an outstanding local junior player, and Ainsley is actually the fuel and the gas motivating the whole team —  including Danielle, because Danielle finally has some competition,” Cherney said. “Everyone has motivation because they’re seeing what the other two girls are doing, so it is kind of feeding itself.”

But how does Owens herself feel about the arrival of another talented player? To put it simply, she’s welcomed Mann with open arms.

“We’re definitely friends, and I do enjoy playing with her a lot,” Owens said. “She hits her driver a little farther than I do, and I push myself and get my swing together. I think we help improve each other, and I feel like that is a good thing to have on a team.”

Although Owens is working on her game constantly in the hopes that one day she will be playing at the collegiate and professional levels, currently, she is more worried about helping her team win. The only way that will happen is to keep practicing and working alongside her friends.

“Before I went to Bishop Moore, I didn’t really have anyone that I knew who played golf — I was alone,” Owens said. “Meeting new people and studying from people who I play and compete with makes Bishop Moore a very enjoyable team to be on.”