North Carolina State University Athletics
A Quiet Confidence
5/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
May 4, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - It was a rare burst of emotion, subdued as it was. But when NC State senior golfer Ashlee Dean saw her ball trickle into the fifth hole at the Legends Club in Nashville, Tenn., last October, she had plenty of reasons to celebrate her first career hole-in-one.
First, she hugged her coach, Page Marsh, then she hugged teammate Molly Birmingham. She waved to the other groups of golfers who were backed up on the hole, waiting their turn to play. She walked to the green, then posed as her mom got a picture of her pulling the ball out of the hole.
"I might have screamed a little," Dean said. "But I didn't do a whole lot of jumping around."
Jumping around isn't really Dean's style. She's introverted, as quiet as a Masters gallery before a Tiger Woods putt. She shuns attention that others might crave.
"She is extremely quiet," said Wolfpack coach Page Marsh. "But her biggest asset is her ability to lead by example."
It was that first career ace - only the third in the 11-year history of the Wolfpack women's golf program - that helped Dean get off to a strong start to her senior season. She not only leads the Wolfpack with a 76.5 stroke average, she has a pair of Top 10 finishes this year, including a ninth-place performance at the ACC Championship at Carmel Country Club in Charlotte.
Earlier this week, she became the first women's golfer in NC State history to earn All-ACC honors.
Now, Dean will lead her teammates to the NCAA East Regional Championship at the University Golf Course in Gainesville, Fla., where the 11th-seeded Wolfpack hope to finish in the top eight in order to advance to the NCAA Championship in Corvalis, Ore. This is the fourth consecutive NCAA regional appearance for Marsh's team, but it has yet to advance to the NCAA Championship.
"I think we are peaking right now, playing our best golf of the season," Dean said, with a self-assurance that comes from the Wolfpack's ever improving play. "We are going to Oregon."
It's a bold statement from the normally reserved Dean, who had a unusual path to get in this position. She began her career at UNC-Greensboro, but opted to transfer after two years because she wanted to play against more difficult competition.
She grew up playing golf and working at Etowah Valley Golf Course in Hendersonville, NC. But she didn't play the game competitively until she was a sophomore at West Henderson High School, choosing instead to play softball and basketball.
She switched to golf after learning that she had a better chance of getting a college scholarship in golf than the other sports.
She excelled at UNCG and in her first year at NC State, winning the 2004 NC State Saguaro Cactus Classic, the Wolfpack's first tournament of last spring.
This year, she has tried to be more patient and relaxed on the course, to be a little more fun-loving like her favorite men's player, Phil Mickelson, than reserved, like her favorite women's player, Annika Sorenstam. She credits her ability to do that to her work with University of North Carolina sports psychologist Elizabeth Hedgpeth, who counsels all the players on the team.
"I started having a lot more fun this year," said Dean, who hopes to earn her degree in Criminology next spring. "I knew it was my last year. There were times before when I let myself get frustrated. I wasn't as patient with myself as I have been this year.
"I have learned to control my mind a lot more. I am a lot more confident this year. That's definitely a reason I have been playing better this year, because of my mental focus on the game."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
