Column: IU golf legend is in the making

Former Cathedral High School golfer Jason Seward knew Corey Ziedonis could be the X factor in helping the Irish obtain their first-ever team championship when he began his sophomore campaign.

“All through tryouts I heard he was the stud coming in,” Seward said while recalling his sophomore year. “I thought, ‘OK, I’ll see what he’s got, since I got to play with him all throughout tryouts.’ At the end I was like, ‘Wow,’ because he never went high. I knew before our first tournament he was going to be great.”

Seward, a current IU junior and high school senior at the time, did not know just how big that “X” would be, nor did any other member of the Cathedral team or golf fans around the state.

That’s because it wouldn’t become evident until the final putt of the 2008 high school season in the Indiana State High School Championship at the Legends of Indiana Golf Club in Franklin, Ind. And it wasn’t your ordinary six-footer for par to end a sunny day on the links.

“I was biting my lips hoping he’d make the putt,” Seward said of his teammate’s sudden death playoff. “He did, and we all just went nuts.”

Ziedonis, an IU sophomore and member of the IU golf team, sunk a birdie putt on the first playoff hole to defeat current teammate Chase Wright of Delta High School, securing an individual state championship and Cathedral’s first-ever team championship.

“Everything happened so fast,” Ziedonis said. “We were up on the tee box, and I didn’t realize there were so many people until I hit the putt to win.”

Most people connect that type of ending to a high school championship to basketball in Indiana, with the location being Conseco Fieldhouse.

Thus, when it comes to an in-state athlete and story like Ziedonis, it usually relates to a basketball player packing for Purdue or Indiana with hopes of etching a Final Four or national championship into his or her school’s history. Names like Damon Bailey, Jared Jeffries or Glenn Robinson would immediately come to mind.

The only difference for Ziedonis was that while many shot baskets in their driveways as a young child, he had a club in hand.

The time in the backyard paid off for 10-year-old Ziedonis, who finished 12th in The Optimist International, a tournament in West Palm Beach, Fla., that some of the best junior amateurs in the world play in.

Similar to any blue chip basketball or football recruit, it was the same type of up-at-dawn routine and ruthless hours for Ziedonis during his high school years, where he was a four-time team MVP.

Taking the Tiger Woods approach of mixing golf workouts with strength and conditioning, Ziedonis would go on to cap off an incredible high school career with both an individual state and city title, in addition to six invitational championships. Ziedonis also placed 10th at the Future Collegians World Tour National Championship prior to his freshman season at IU.

Since then, the junior has made noise on one of the Big Ten’s premier teams as he finished in the top-25 standings of two tournaments. Ziedonis’ 75.23 scoring average ranked 12th on the IU all-time list for IU freshmen.

While some may not know his name or story, Ziedonis takes after other in-state greats who went on to call IU their home.

Although it was a different road traveled than Eric Gordon or Steve Alford, Ziedonis’ goal and dream of ending his collegiate career on the golf course doesn’t differ from any other Hoosier great.

His plans? A national championship.


E-mail: ftherber@indiana.edu