SIGNING DAY: Waldo to play golf for Jacksonville State
Julie Waldo will play golf for Jacksonville State beginning next fall. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Julie Waldo started playing golf when she was 4 years old and was part of the Drive Chip and Putt Championship at Augusta National Golf Club when she was 9, so her career path has been on a collision course with a signing day ceremony for quite some time.
That doesn’t make it any less exciting for the Alabama Christian senior, who signed her letter of intent to continue her career at Jacksonville State University on Wednesday in a ceremony held in the ACA gym.
“It’s unreal,” Waldo said. “This has always been my dream. I’m been sitting around recently thinking of how I finally get to achieve my dream of playing college golf and studying what I want to study and I’m really excited for it.”
The two-time defending Class 1A-3A state champion sorted through her offers but felt comfortable playing for coach Robbie Fields and the Gamecocks.
“I talked to many schools, 14 or 15,” she said. “I didn’t wait around for anything else because God led me to Jacksonville State. It was very obvious. I’m surrounded by Christ-like coaches and Christ-like people. Jax State is known as the friendliest campus in the South and it’s very obvious. Every single person I met was so nice.”
Waldo maintains a 4.4 grade-point average so academics was at the top of her list when she contemplated signing with Jacksonville State.
“It’s not everywhere they allow you to study such a rigorous study, like biology, and play Division I-A golf,” Waldo said. “I’m taking on a lot but my future coach was so willing to let me do that and even encouraged me to do that. So it was an easy decision. God led me right to it.”
ACA golf coach Rick Solar said Waldo is an east student to coach because of her drive and her commitment to the sport.
“If you look on the internet, the qualities and the characteristics of a highly specialized and highly developed athlete, it reads as a biography for Julie Waldo,” Solar said. “She is that player who has spent all of her time honing her craft to a point of near-excellence. If anybody plays golf, we all know that excellence is not attained in golf, quite frankly, but Julie Waldo has come very, very close. Julie has shown me shots that I didn’t think people were capable of, except maybe at the highest levels of the PGA Tour.”
Waldo has her sights set on a third consecutive state championship and is challenging herself with a tough pre-season schedule.
“I have some tournaments of my own that I’m going to play in to prepare for the high school season coming up,” she said. “I’m really excited. I’m ready to go out there and have some fun.”