'Lady Longball' tees it up
Overheard on the tee box:
Grip it and rip it.
Tee it high and let it fly.
Lisa Joyce prefers: "Go big or go home."
It's mainly the former for Joyce, an Elmhurst College freshman bound for the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship in Mesquite, Nev., Oct. 20-25.
On Sept. 6 at the Golf Shack in Rockford, Joyce qualified for the 24-person Women's Division field with a winning drive of 265 yards. In June she made it out of a local qualifier by whacking the pill 288 yards.
After competing in junior long-driving events since she was 12 - she won the girls junior division in 2003, finished second the next two years and in 2006 belted a junior girls world-record 315-yard drive en route to a fourth-place finish - "Lady Longball" is old enough for the big leagues.
"It's not the small-time show anymore, you've got to pull out the big guns," said Joyce, daughter of long-drive competitor Mary Joyce, club pro at White Pines in Bensenville. As a junior at Fenwick in 2006 Lisa placed sixth in Class AA, right in front of Driscoll phenom Gigi DiGrazia.
"These are very talented women, and I believe I'm the youngest in the division," Joyce said.
She talks about big guns but not necessarily those with watermelon-sized club heads grafted onto 6-foot-long shafts, secured by duct tape.
Depending on flight conditions she uses up to three clubs, all Cobras sanctioned by the United States Golf Association.
The difference is the angle of the club face; rather than the usual 10- or 11-degree driver hers offer less loft at 5.5 to 6.5 degrees. She also uses long tees, which get the ball up in the air while the lower angle reduces backspin.
"If there's a way to get a few extra yards, believe me, I'll do it," Joyce said.
Her height doesn't help her crush the ball. She's only 5-foot-2 but generates up to 115 mph worth of club head speed.
"It's definitely something unique," she said of her pursuit. "You don't see a lot of the girls out hitting drives. You see them out working on their short game."
If Joyce is fortunate enough to last in Mesquite, you won't see her taking the $12,500 grand prize. She'll accept no more than a $750 certificate in order to retain her amateur standing while she decides what to focus on at Elmhurst College, education or law.
In Mesquite she'll hope to break the law - of physics.
"I'm going for the hardware," Lisa Joyce said. "I'm not concerned with the money. I want the trophy and the title."
Up close and personal
Western Illinois men's basketball coach Jim Molinari wasn't in Aurora last season to see Waubonsie Valley's Jelani Johnson drill the game-winning shot that beat Neuqua Valley.
Over the summer, however, Molinari saw enough of Johnson to welcome him aboard as a Leatherneck.
Johnson, a 6-foot-4 senior forward projected as a guard in college, recently gave his verbal commitment to Western Illinois.
He caught Molinari's attention playing on the same AAU team, the RBS All-Stars, as Molinari's son Billy, an honorable-mention Class 2A all-state guard from Peoria Christian.
"(Jim Molinari) said I'm a consistent shooter and I know how to play defense because of my length," Johnson said. "And I've got a good basketball IQ."
The IQ thing is helped by having a mother, Natalie, who teaches math at Waubonsie Valley. But Molinari could see Jelani's on-court abilities often, as the RBS All-Stars won three different tournaments and compiled a 35-13 record.
As a junior at Waubonsie, Johnson averaged 12.7 points and 6.9 rebounds, converting 35 percent of his 3-point shots and nearly 54 percent overall, plus 82 percent from the foul line.
Austin Peay, Loyola-Chicago and Augustana also had interest in him, but Johnson liked Western for a variety of reasons.
"I wanted to go there because I liked the environment," he said. "The players made it seem like a good fit, too, as well as the coaching."
doberhelman@dailyherald.com