Feb. 3, 2006

Bloomington, Ind. - Indiana women's golfer Shannon Johnson has only spent one semester at Indiana and has already made contributions to the IU squad. The senior transfer kicked off her IU career by winning her first tournament as a Hoosier at the Notre Dame Invitational over the weekend of Sept.10-11.

In the summer of 2005 Johnson claimed her third consecutive South Dakota Association Women's Stroke Play Championship. Johnson became only the seventh woman in state history to win at least three straight stroke play titles.

Johnson came to Indiana from the University of New Mexico where she spent the first three years of her collegiate career. During that time, Johnson earned two Mountain West All-Conference honors, along with two selections to the MWC All-Academic team.

In her last two years at UNM, current IU head coach Clint Wallman served as an assistant coach. Together Johnson and Wallman helped New Mexico reach two consecutive NCAA appearances.

"My time at UNM really helped my game as far as maturing as a golfer," Johnson said. "I was lucky enough to be able to work with Coach Wallman and develop my game.

I think what Coach (Wallman) taught me at New Mexico helped make me the player I am today," Johnson continued. "Now that I get to work with him every day as a head coach it's even better. It was nice to have someone I'm comfortable with and I knew his coaching style. He was a big part in why I came to IU."

Johnson is a native of Sioux Falls, S.D., where she received honors for both golf and ice hockey. During her four years at O'Gorman High School, Johnson tallied a total of four straight all-state honors and three state championships as team captain of the ice hockey team.

"Hockey was one of the best sports I've ever played," Johnson said. "I can get all the frustration out on the ice. It was a good sport for me to play because it kept me in condition the whole year. In South Dakota you can only play golf about six months out of the year, so it helped me stay in shape during the off-season. It helped me not worry about golf all the time, so that when golf season came out I was ready to play."

As a dual athlete, Johnson was named to the South Dakota Conference Academic All-Conference team in golf and received Academic All-State honors from the South Dakota Amateur Hockey Association in 2000-01.

Johnson came to the Hoosiers with high expectations not only for herself, but for the team as well. Johnson is looking forward to the upcoming season where she hopes to see both herself and the team in post-season play.

"We as a team have gone out and played a lot more and I think that is where you get better instead of on the range," Johnson said. "I have high expectations for this coming semester. I hope to win a couple more tournaments and Big Ten Championships. The large picture of course is to make it to regional and nationals as a team. It's an unbelievable experience being able to share it with your team."

Johnson's first goal is to win a Big Ten Championship as a team. IU hopes to win its first conference title since the 1997-98 season. The Hoosiers will battle for a piece of the Big Ten crown on April 28-30 at IU's own University Golf Course.

"The Big Ten Championships is definitely something I want to win both as a individual and team," Johnson said. "I think it's such an advantage to have it here at our course. We can go out and play every day if we want. It won't be a question of where to play it on the course but actually going out and doing it."

The success in Johnson's career both at IU and the University of New Mexico has been because of the little things she does to make her game better. It's her dedication to every shot that allows her to be such a successful golfer.

"It's not going out and playing a full 18 holes," Johnson said. "It's when you have a bad shot that you hit another one or 10 more into the green. It's about getting real comfortable with all the shots your going to have to take."

In the future, Johnson plans to complete her masters at Indiana and then take the next step in her golfing career to the professional level.

"Making it on the professional tour is definitely something I'd like to do from talking to a lot of people they regret not having played," Johnson said. "It's a matter of sitting down with my parents to discuss what I want to do. The success I have this spring will really help me make a decision."

In Johnson's short time at Indiana, she has finished in the top 25 in all five of her tournament appearances. In two of those tournaments Johnson finished in the top ten with one being an overall tournament victory at Notre Dame's Warren Golf Course.

Johnson plans to kick off her final semester at IU on a good note when the team travels to Puerto Rico for their first tournament of the spring season on Feb. 24-26. Indiana is coming off a 2005 fall season where they recorded two top ten finishes in five tournaments with their best being fifth at the Lady Northern Invitational.