Know Your Bulldog: Garrett Johnson

By: Breana Norton Student Assistant/Communications

"Forty-five minutes, max" before his round starts. Garrett Johnson said he can be found on the driving range preparing with country music and rap playing through his Beats as he focuses on his swing.

The senior golfer from Kimberly, Alabama, has had a tremendous career teeing it up for Mississippi State Golf, and he has one more semester to go.

"I have one more ride. I have a bunch of goals and dreams that we haven't achieved yet. Some that I would really like to cross off the list."

Playing golf at the collegiate level, especially Division I, has been a lifelong journey, literally.

"I started playing as soon as I could walk. My dad was a pretty good golfer himself, and he taught me the game. I had plastic clubs, just like every little kid did."

As Johnson continued playing in his youth, he found himself holding trophies and winning tournaments a majority of the time. But through all of his success, it was his sheer love of the game that motived him.

"I started so early, and I loved it. That was the thing, I absolutely, and still do, love the game. I think it was known. I loved what I was doing and happened to get fairly good at it. I just did it, got noticed, and realized that maybe I could play college."

Johnson's decision to join the Bulldogs came late in the recruiting season of his high school senior year. Only having two scholarship offers, his "Maroon Moment" came when he visited Starkville.

"I came and took a visit here, and I loved it. They offered me, and I accepted. I've had some great experiences here."

Being a collegiate athlete has pressure moments. Having to rely only on your own performance level to help a team creates a mindset that has taught Johnson how to actively channel his nerves during tournaments.

"It's obviously nerve-wracking. Every time I tee it up, I'm nervous. But it's how you're able to channel that nervousness into positive energy, instead of it dwelling on you, and making you under perform. I think that's a big thing for me. I do get nervous, but I know how to make it good for me, in a sense."

While golf is very much an individual sport, Johnson's goal for his senior year is to help contribute to more team wins, instead of focusing on individual honors. Shooting a low score and winning is nice, but seeing and feeling a team victory creates memories for more than just one person.

"I obviously have my own individual goals, but the big thing that I want to achieve is more on the team aspect.

I've been here for three years, and we've always left after three rounds of stroke play at the SEC Championship. I think that's one of my biggest goals for this year – to make it into match play and advance highly, if not win, in the match-play portion of the tournament. I truly do believe we can do that with the team we have this year.

If we can get our minds right, get the right leadership, which hopefully I'm doing now, and not be okay with being average, I seriously do think that this is definitely the most talented team I've ever been on. Once we all figure that out, especially when they figure out how good they are, I think we are going to start trending upwards."

Golf is such a unique sport, and most golfers have a particular nuance about them. Johnson is no different, "The only superstition I have is that I've marked my golf ball the same way forever. It's just a little dot over the number and a line on it, and that's it."

Superstition or not, just like Johnson marks his golf ball the same way all the time, you can find that same stability every round Garrett Johnson plays his senior year.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Know Your Bulldog: Garrett Johnson

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