By JACK MCNEELY, Publisher
Commonwealth Journal
Bradstown —
A young Rockcastle girl gives new meaning to the old saying, “Big things come in small packages.”
Hannabeth Owens stands just shy of five feet, four inches and barely breaks the 100-pound mark, but her silky smooth golf swing turns her into a giant amidst her Bluegrass State junior golfing peers.
The 12-year-old daughter of proud parents David and Detrina Owens captured her first Kentucky State Junior Amateur Championship (12-under division) last week when she edged out Franklin’s Mary Joiner on the first hole of sudden death.
The 18-hole championship was held on the Maywood Course of Bardstown Country Club last Wednesday and Thursday. Owens carded a 6-over-par 42 on Wednesday and trailed the leaders by two strokes. She then fired a personal best even-par 36 Thursday to tie Joiner’s two-day total of 78.
“It was awesome,” says Owens of the way she finished the tournament. One year earlier she finished fourth in the Kentucky State Junior Amateur at Maywood after carding an 11 on the par 4 final hole.
This year she pared the same hole to send the championship into a sudden death playoff.
“After last year she really has concentrated down the stretch. She doesn’t lose her focus; she really wants to win and she’s learning how to finish good rounds of golf,” says her father, David.
Hannabeth Owens started swinging her first set of golf clubs at the tender age of two. She began playing on the Rockcastle High School golf team as a third grader. She’s been working with swing coach Tennye Ohr at the Man of War Golf Center for the past four years.
“We just click,” Hannabeth says of her relationship with Miss Tennye. And it shows. Hannabeth consistently blasts drives of 230 yards.
Despite her prowess on the links, Hannabeth remains grounded with realistic goals. “I just want to improve. Sure, I love the idea of playing college golf, but that’s a long way down the road. If I continue to work on my fundamentals good things will happen,” she says.
Such was the case recently when Hannabeth played with a professional golfer during a Duramed Futures Tour Junior Pro-Am event at Crooked Creek Country Club near London, Ky.
When she’s not playing in one of her eight junior summer tournaments, Hannabeth and her father can be found nearly daily on the range and practice green at Eagle’s Nest Country Club where they are both members. Uncle Robbie Owens of Rob’s Barber Shop in Somerset and Eagle’s Nest member also lends his support during the golf maturation process.
Hannabeth enters the 7th grade next month at Rockcastle Middle School.
