The “Stuck at Home With” series profiles players, caddies and staff in the women’s game who are making the most of an unprecedented break in tour life due to the coronavirus pandemic. New stories will be posted every Tuesday and Thursday.
Janie Jackson got the keys to her new apartment in Phoenix, Arizona, the day before she left for the Symetra Tour’s season-opening event in Florida. The Huntsville, Alabama, native first moved to Arizona over the offseason hoping that better weather would lead to added motivation.
What was supposed to be a temporary move turned into a one-year apartment lease.
Uprooting her life to move West quickly proved to be one of the best decisions of her young life. Jackson, 26, won the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic on March 8, lapping the field by eight strokes. It marked her first win in 60 starts on the developmental tour.
“I feel like if I hadn’t moved,” said Jackson, “that wouldn’t have happened.”
On the range at Silverleaf Country Club in Scottsdale last winter, Jackson remade her golf swing into something she could be proud of.
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Growing up, Jackson worried anytime someone of importance stood behind her while she was over the golf ball.
“My whole life I could feel uncomfortable or insecure if they saw my swing from behind the line,” said Jackson. “What is she doing? How does she even make contact?”
Jackson was referring to the inside move that led her to pull over the top and swing left through the ball. The 5-foot-10 Jackson was athletic enough to manipulate the club to her favor on most days. But when it was off, it was wildly off. And after a poor showing at Q-Series last fall, Jackson sat down with her longtime swing coach, Mark Blackburn, and addressed what needed to change.
“My whole life I’ve been a sub-optimal swinger of the golf club,” said Jackson matter-of-factly.
Of course, it was a good enough swing to earn her a record three state championship titles in high school and a scholarship to Arizona, where she played freshman year before transferring to Alabama. It also helps that Jackson is one of the longest hitters in the game, averaging 285 to 290 off tee. She currently leads the Symetra Tour in driving distance at 298 yards.
Making this swing change has been in the back of Jackson’s mind for years. If someone whose opinion she cared about watched her from behind, she tried to change it on the spot. But her body wouldn’t do what her head wanted.
It took every bit of three months on the range in Arizona to get comfortable enough to bring what Blackburn had taught her into competition. Blackburn works with a number of PGA Tour players, including Charley Hoffman, Kevin Chappell and Chez Reavie, and is based at Greystone Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama.
Blackburn, however, splits his time in Arizona during the winter months working with clients and helped connect Jackson to Silverleaf.
The club has been open throughout the coronavirus pandemic, so Jackson has been able to continue the work that led to her first title. The Symetra Tour hasn’t held an event since the opening one in Winter Haven, Florida.
There are days when Jackson focuses on the glass that’s half full. She won $18,750 that week and tops the money list, collecting her first title since high school.
And there are days when she’s bummed that she couldn’t carry over that momentum. When the newly announced July restart seems like a lifetime away.
“If I’m being honest, right at the moment it’s hard to get motivated,” she said.
Pickleball has become a new passion. She likes to get out and throw the softball with friends.
“I’ve never watched so much TV in my life,” she said. “Outer Banks,” “Money Heist,” “Little Fires Everywhere,” “SEAL Team” to name a few.
When Jackson first turned professional, she couldn’t stand going on the road for five weeks at a time. Even though she traveled throughout junior and college golf, the lifestyle still came as a shock. It took her two years to even feel comfortable on the road. Nothing could’ve prepared her for it, she said. It’s something you simply have to live through.
Only 68 players on the Symetra Tour have cashed a check this season. Jackson knows her timing was fortuitous. She’s hoping that the next time she gets to a competition, wherever and whenever that might be, those winning feelings come flooding back. In a way, that’s when that first victory will really sink in.
For now, she’s enjoying her new life in the desert.
“Moving out here made all the difference in the world,” she said.
She has the trophy to prove it.
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