She strides toward the first tee box and clears her mind, focusing on the shot at hand. “I try not to think about too much because that’s never good,” says Glynn Academy senior golfer JuIianna Collett. “When I tee it up, I visualize my shot and then I just hit it, like I’ve done so many times at practice.” She pulls her Titleist 913 D2 driver back and releases like a coiled spring. “Thwack.” The golf ball goes sailing long and straight nearly 230 yards down the fairway of the par four first hole at Ocean Forest on Sea Island.
“For as long as I can remember, my driver has been my best and most consistent club,” she admits. Collett is the three-time AAAAA State Player of the Year who was this year’s State Champion as the low scoring medalist among the 71 players at the state tournament. She also led the Lady Terrors to the Region 3-AAAAA championship this season. One of the leaders of Coach John Bennett’s golf team, Collett is a three time all-state golfer who will soon be taking her talents to Statesboro. “In the fall, I will attend Georgia Southern University to play on the golf team.”
Not bad for a young lady who at one time was just happy to be able to practice with the high school team. She played junior varsity matches in her eighth-grade year, has started every tournament since and has been named All-Region four years in a row.
“I’ve always been very competitive, so I love being able to compete in tournaments. Also, golf has allowed me to travel to many cool places and meet new people.” Along with school matches, Collett also plays individually in tournaments throughout the United States which is one of the things that got her noticed by Georgia Southern.
She first gripped a club when she was 10-years-old. She credits her dad for guiding her journey on the links, never missing a tournament. “He’s my biggest supporter and I wouldn’t be the player I am today without his help,” she says. In ninth-grade she got to make her first big shot- on the first tee of her first match for Glynn Academy. It was something she had long anticipated, “which is probably why I was so nervous,” she says. As a freshman, she also shot her lowest score in a nine-hole match and was low medalist with a score of 33.
Last year she had the chance to play in the North and South Junior Championship, which was played in North Carolina at the famous Pinehurst No. 2. “It was an awesome opportunity to be able to play on a course that hosted both the men’s and women’s U.S Open.” She was also the low medalist at the Region 3-AAAAA tournament and was named an ambassador for the Glynn County Sports Hall of Fame. Collett was also ranked as high as seventh in the state by Golfweek magazine. “There is never a doubt that you will get a good score from her and she is going to compete at the same high level from the first tee to the eighteenth green,” says Coach Bennett. “The ability to put a bad shot behind her also sets her apart from her peers. Julianna does not hit it bad often, but when she does, she almost always follows it up with something special.” Earlier this season, Collett won the Red Terror Ryder Cup with teammate Olivia Hickson. The tournament is one of the most competitive the team plays all season with the exception of the state tournament.
While her Titleist driver is her favorite club, she has been hot with the putter recently and she is working hard to improve her short game before joining the Eagles in the fall. GSU women’s golf coach Emily Kuhfeld is looking forward to having Collett on the team saying she has a “quiet determination and friendliness that she exudes when she plays.”
The daughter of Anjie and Berry Collett, not only does she have a better than scratch golf handicap of 0.8, she also has a better than perfect grade point average of 4.26 weighted for completion of Advanced Placement classes. She is a member of the Beta Club, National Honor Society and the Glynn Academy Spirit Club. She’s been chosen as an Outstanding Senior, National Advanced Placement Scholar and National Honor Society Scholar. Collett is undecided on her major but she is looking at concentrating on the math and science fields at Southern. “I feel that the sky is the limit with her. Anytime you have someone willing to work as hard as she does to achieve their goals, it really just comes down what those goals are,” says Coach Bennett of what he expects for Collett’s future. “Success, I know that, in whatever it is she decides to do, golf or otherwise.”
Favorite club: Titleist 913 D2
Average drive: 230 yards
Favorite local course: Ocean Forest, Sea Island
College attending: Georgia Southern
Handicap: 0.8 (better than scratch)
Three-time Georgia AAAAA Player of the Year
Three-time AAAAA All State
Four-time All Region 3-AAAAA
2015 Region 3-AAAAA Champion
2016 State AAAAA Champion
Southeast Georgia/ June 2016
Juliana Collett
GA Golf
By Rob Asbell
Photos by Michael Brinson
Southern Bound State Champ
