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"POOLER, Ga. – First Team All-Peach Belt Conference performer Katja Dammann fired a second-round
72 en route to claiming medalist honors in leading the seventh-ranked UNCP women's golf team to the PBC Championship
by 23 strokes on Tuesday afternoon at Savannah Quarters Country Club in Pooler, Ga.
Dammann captured medalist honors by six strokes over Columbus State's Kimesha Anthony, marking the fifth time this
year a member of the Lady Braves golf squad has brought home top individual honors at a tournament. The Schwerin,
Germany, native opened the tournament with an opening-round 73 and followed with an even-par 72 on the second round
to finish her tournament with the two best 18-hole scorecards in the 30-person field.
The Lady Braves as a squad took eight strokes off their opening round score with a 301 on Tuesday, which left them
23 strokes ahead of 20th-ranked and defending tournament champion Flagler and 26 strokes ahead of 36th-ranked Armstrong
Atlantic on the team standings. Columbus State, Montevallo and North Georgia rounded out the remaining team scores in order.
UNCP captured their sixth tournament title of the season with the victory, including five-consecutive wins as they
head into regional play..."
"She's tall, she's slim, she's blonde and she's never seen a golf course she didn't think she
could shoot under par on.
She's Katja Dammann, a German immigrant who is on a mission. Her goal is to make it onto the
LPGA Tour, and she's willing to pay whatever the price may be.
She's 24 years old and she's only been playing golf for five years. But she's already a
better player than 99 percent of the women in the world and she's proved it by earning a
full scholarship to play for Western Carolina University.
Dammann is going after her goal the old-fashioned way. She's working for it. Think an
eight-hour-a-day job is tough? Try 24-7. Putting Guru Geoff Mangum has seen
Dammann's work ethics up-close."Katja is the hardest-working, most persistent student I have
ever seen," Mangum says. "She putts fabulously." Craig Sigl certified Hypnosis and NLP
Trainer is just as impressed.
"I have worked with hundreds of golfers worldwide and never before have I met anyone more
dedicated to the game of golf and the mental game of life than Katja," Sigl says.
Dammann turned 24 on July 29 and fittingly celebrated her birthday with a hole-in-one on the
17th hole at National Golf Club. It was her first ace, but just another milestone in her
journey to become the best she can be at her chosen profession.
Dammann is leaving nothing to chance. She's obviously talented and driven. She's also organized
and focused on where she wants to go and how to get there.
"I started playing golf at the age of 18," she writes on her Web site. "Before that, I was
actively playing tennis, volleyball and triathlon, but I needed a new challenge.
"My dad, who is a tennis and triathlon coach in Germany, introduced me to this fascinating
game of golf. I didn't get much instruction, but I developed a natural swing and people were
impressed. "When I came to Connecticut as an au pair, I met my coach Bob Montello and
realized my swing had some flaws and that there is more to golf than mechanics."
Montello is convinced that Dammann is the real deal. "When I first met Katja on the golf
course, I immediately recognized her talent and love of golf," he said. "She asked me if I
thought she had a chance to make a living playing professional golf, and I told her that
not only does she have a chance to make the Tour, but she can be a winner, too."
It figures that someone with Dammann's determination and drive would migrate to the Pinehurst
area. She found a job working in the repair and club-making shop at Match Play of Pinehurst
and later moved to Longleaf Golf and Country Club where she worked in the golf shop and was
able to practice and play.
"I fell in love with the game, and I knew what I wanted to do," Dammann said. "I was fascinated
with the club-making and that helped me tremendously. It took me more than two years to
understand what fit me and my game.
"And working at Longleaf gave me the opportunity to make a lot of contacts and the chance
to get all the practice I wanted.
"I'm working on my game pretty much every day. I have an indoor driving range and sometimes
I'm hitting balls at 10 o'clock at night."
The work has obviously paid off. Dammann made statewide and national news when she became the
first female to win a flight championship on the virtually all-male Amateur Golf Tour last
year. She then won flight A in the year-ending Tour Championship at Hilton Head, finishing
10th overall in competition with several hundred men.
Dammann made her first big splash locally last June when she opened the Moore County Women's
Amateur with a 68 at Foxfire Country Club. She finished second, a stroke behind five-time
champion Patty Moore, but it was a confidence builder.
A week later she cemented her reputation as a player with a fourth-place finish in the
North Carolina Women's Amateur held at Carolina Trace in Sanford.
This success and her attitude impressed Western Carolina golf coach Steve Lott enough that
he offered a scholarship in a program that is gaining respect nationally.
"I called a lot of colleges, but none of them knew me," Dammann said. "Some were interested,
but Coach Lott made an offer, and I visited Western. It's a beautiful place and I'm looking
forward to being on a team." Meanwhile, Dammann is still working hard.
"That part comes naturally for me," she said of her inner drive. "The strength of my game is
good misses. I don't get in a lot of trouble. I'm not long off the tee, though, and that's
something I'm working on. I went to Gold's Gym for some exercises and added 20 or 30 yards.
"I'm a work in progress. I take two steps forward and one backward. But the drive to succeed
comes naturally to me. I rarely take a day off. In fact, I went to Florida recently for a
vacation and played golf.
"I think everyone gets discouraged at times, it's part of the process. But I've talked to a
lot of people about what they wanted in life, and they tell me that if it's something I want
to do, do it, or you'll regret it for the rest of your life."
The ending was the same, but the plot was entirely different.
Patty Moore claimed the Moore County Women's Championship for a fifth time Wednesday at Foxfire
Resort and Country Club.
But this time it was no runaway victory for the Carolinas Golf Association's 2006 Senior Women's
Player of the Year.
Moore, whose fifth win in five appearances resulted in the "retirement" of the trophy, had enjoyed
one-sided triumphs in her previous four victories. But this time she was taken to the wire by the
young and coming Katja Dammann, who works in the golf shop at Longleaf Country Club.
Dammann, a 23-year-old native of Germany who came to the United States five years ago and took up golf,
served notice in the first round of the 36-hole championship that she was a serious threat. An opening
4-under-par 68 gave her a five-stroke lead over Moore and fueled speculation that the Charlotte
resident's stranglehold might be on the verge of ending.
But Moore thrives on competition and responded quickly in the head-to-head confrontation Wednesday.
A birdie on the first hole got her rolling, and she slowly cut into the margin until Dammann faltered
on the 11th hole with a bogey and the match was level.
Both players made birdie on the par-5 14th hole, and Moore took the lead on 15 after appearing to
be in trouble. She found her tee shot in the left rough and placed her approach into a front bunker
on the par-4.
Dammann's second shot came up just short in front of the green, and after Moore had blasted to
within 10 feet, she muffed a chip shot and made bogey. Moore rolled in her par putt and celebrated
with a mini-fist pump.
Both players parred 16 and bogeyed the par-3 17th before finishing with pars on 18.
Moore shot 73-71 for a level-par 72, while Dammann followed the spectacular 68 with a 77.
"When we teed off this morning, I didn't think a 71 would be good enough to win," Moore said.
"I watched Katja shoot the 68 on Tuesday, and she was so steady I didn't think she was going to
put up a high number. I didn't see her doing much worse than another 68."
Dammann was disappointed in her second-round performance but took it in stride.
"There was no pressure on Tuesday," she said, "but there was a little today. I could have shot a
really low round on Tuesday if I could have gotten my putts to the hole. My ball-striking wasn't
quite as good today and the putts still weren't going."
Although her putter was a little balky in the first round, Dammann posted 14 pars and four birdies
in a solid eye-catching performance that had Moore concerned.
"My good start today and Katja making a couple of early bogeys made me feel it was a lot more doable,"
she said.
The 17th hole provided a scary moment for the champion, however. She pulled a 6-utility club and,
thinking it might be out of bounds, hit a provisional ball. She found the ball safe, though, chipped
within 25 feet and two-putted for bogey.
Dammann was in the left-side bunker and blasted out to within 10 feet, but once again left the par
putt short.
Moore will play in the North Carolina Women's Amateur Championship at Carolina Trace in Sanford
Tuesday through Thursday.
"This was good experience for the state," she said. "I've won it twice and I'd like to make it
three. I won the Carolinas Amateur earlier this year and I'd like to win them both in the same year."
"[...] Yeah, there were moments a couple of years ago when it appeared that another tiger on the course,
Dianne Yelovich, might pull off an upset. But she couldn't get the job done down the stretch and it
was déjà vu all over again. Patty Moore accepting the trophy.
It was Patty time again Wednesday at Foxfire Country Club. But this time there was some doubt -- even
in Patty's mind -- as to who the winner was going to be.
That was because a slim young German beauty with the heart of a lion was doing some strange things.
Things such as making 14 pars and four birdies in an opening round of 68 and creating a few shock waves.
Katja Dammann, who works in the golf shop at Longleaf Country Club just so she can be involved with the
game, almost stole Patty's party favors.
That hot 68 stood out on a scoreboard where the next lowest score was Moore's 73.
Yeah, Patty was concerned.
"Katja was so steady in that Tuesday round, I couldn't see her doing much worse," Patty said. "I had
never been behind here before and I didn't like it very much. I just had to admire her, shooting that 68."
Does that mean that there was doubt lurking in the mind of the woman who has never finished worse than
first in this event?
"Yeah," Patty admitted. "Katja didn't miss a shot on Tuesday. And I didn't think she was going to let
me in the door. I was going to have to kick the door down."
Maybe she didn't kick the door down, but she did have the only sub-par round of the final day, a
smooth 71 that began with a birdie and immediately put some heat on the 23-year-old who had never
picked up a golf club until five years ago.
"There was a little more pressure," Dammann said. "It was no one thing with my game, but I just
couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I know I put too much pressure on myself."
An example of that came on the 15th hole, where Dammann failed to make par after reaching the fringe
of the par-4 while Moore hit her tee shot in the rough, then got up and down from a front bunker for
par and the lead.
"I was standing over the approach shot in the fairway and thinking, 'Whatever you do, get it there,'
" Damman said. "So I took one more club, but when I do that, I take too much off it. So it came up short.
"Then I made a bad decision. I decided to chip instead of putt and I decided to use a 64-degree wedge.
Absolutely stupid!"
The chip came up short and so did the par putt.
"I did the best I can," Dammann said. "Patty has so much experience just what I need."
Katja Dammann is my kind of golfer. She's going to be a winner -- with class." 6/07, The Pilot
"Competing against men and beating them is nothing new for Katja Dammann. After all, the 23-year-old
from Germany had won five times on the Amateur Golf Tour this year. But when she won the A flight last
weekend in the Amateur Tour Championship, it was something special.
Dammann, who has lived in Pinehurst since 2003, became the first female champion in the Amateur Tour’s
history. She shot 81-74 — 155 at Palmetto Dunes Resort in Hilton Head Island, S.C.
“I know how it feels to beat the men but it always feels good,” she said.
Bruce Hallenbeck, the tour’s director in the Fayetteville-Pinehurst area, said, “she’s a heckuva
competitor.”
“She came up big in the big event,” he said. “I’m very proud of her.”
What she is most proud of is finishing in a tie for 10th place overall out of 461 players in the Amateur
Tour Championship field.
Dammann has made a meteoric rise in golf. She didn’t start playing the game until she moved to Pinehurst.
She credits two coaches for helping her play at a high level so quickly. Bob Montello of Pinehurst is her
swing coach and Geoff Mangum of Greensboro is her putting coach.
“Without Bob, I wouldn’t even be playing,” she said. “And Geoff is the best putting instructor in the
world.”
Dammann said most of the men on the Amateur Tour have accepted her. She plays from the regular tees at
about 6,200 yards on most courses while the men play from tees at about 6,500 yards.
“Most of the men have been very nice to me, they enjoy competing against me,” she said. “But some don’t
like getting beat by a girl. They say, ‘She should go back to the men’s tees.’ But to me, it’s
pretty fair.”
Dammann played in 20 events on the Amateur Tour this year. “It wasn’t because I wanted to play against
men,” she said. “But I needed somewhere to play and compete on a regular basis.”
Dammann would like to land a college scholarship and eventually play as a professional.
“I’m not quite ready to turn pro yet but I’m definitely on my way,” she said."
"The 12-year-old tour held the first of at least five annual championships on Hilton Head Island this
weekend, with 461 players from 15 states and 28 cities competing in the five flights on five courses:
Palmetto Dunes' Robert Trent Jones, George Fazio and Arthur Hills courses, Port Royal's Robbers Row
course and Palmetto Hall's Arthur Hills course.
AGT founder and president Dennis McCormac said the field represents the tour's biggest championship yet,
but he expects more than 500 players when the championship returns to the island next year.
The tour is proud of its inclusive nature, "If you can shoot between 65 and 95, you've got a legitimate
shot of competing on this tour," said Bruce Hallenbeck, who runs the Pinehurst, N.C., chapter
and the lower flights provided plenty of drama Sunday.
Katja Dammann of Pinehurst became the first woman to win a flight title at the AGT's national tournament,
coming from nine shots back to claim the A-flight championship by one shot over Mike Meadows.
Dammann, 23, shot 2-over 74 on Palmetto Dunes' Arthur Hills course Sunday, and still was kicking
herself.
"I gave away a lot of birdie putts, let me tell you," said Dammann, who took up golf four years ago and
hopes to graduate to a professional tour sooner than later.
For now, though, she's content to cut her teeth on the AGT for as long as she's welcome.
"The guys are very nice to me," Dammann said, "even though I'm sure they hate me." "
*Due to errors in these articles I corrected the spelling of my last name and dates
