Indiana University Athletics
Dennison Smelling the Roses
9/24/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
September 24, 2002
Dennison Enjoying Round of Her Life
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Golf legend Ben Hogan once said, "As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round."
Throughout Karen Dennison's 20 years, she has made the casual stroll down life's fairway, making sure that when it comes time to sign her card, the "round" of her life will be complete.
Dennison's story is one of belief-belief in herself and the people close to her in her life. Throughout the years, Dennison has had to believe in herself and prove to people that she can be a championship-caliber golfer.
Growing up on the other side of the Ohio River, this young girl born in Louisville, Ky., began hanging around her dad on the golf course quite a bit. Her older brother Charlie was also involved in golf and played often with their father. Karen, who is four years younger than her brother, tagged along and played when she could. She became involved in the junior leagues that were offered at the local golf course, but was limited with her playing opportunities.
Dennison's family moved from Louisville to Madison, Ind. when she was 12, which allowed her to start taking lessons from Ken Allender, the head golf professional at the Madison Country Club. Unlike many school systems, Madison offered junior high golf teams, but there was not enough interest to make up a girls' squad. Dennison embarked once again on a mission to beat the boys.
After all, when asked what her greatest ambition was, Dennison calmly but boldly stated, "I want to be successful in everything I do."
Once Dennison had shown up the boys in junior high, she was able to compete with her fellow female classmates on the golf team at Madison High. As a junior, Dennison placed seventh at the IHSAA state championship, raising the eyes, but ironically more doubts, of a lot of people.
"I think when I finished seventh as a junior, people were wondering where in the world I came from," said Dennison. "I guess I did come out of nowhere, but I think people thought that my finish was just a fluke, since no one had really heard of me."
Certainly one person that had never heard of her was Indiana women's golf coach Sam Carmichael. Apparently, it wasn't until his good friend Ted Bishop, father of Ambry, who is currently a junior on the Indiana squad, told him that he needed to check out Dennison.
"We sent coach a lot of information on me, but really never heard anything back," Dennison said. "I really hadn't played in any major tournaments before my junior year, so I guess I could have easily gone unnoticed. After my junior year though, I began playing in statewide tournaments and gained a lot of interest from coach."
At the state tournament her senior year, Dennison was followed by Carmichael throughout the round en route to her second place finish. Shortly thereafter, Carmichael offered her a scholarship to play golf at Indiana University.
"I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to play golf at IU, and receiving a scholarship to come here was amazing," Dennison replied. "My scholarship gives me the opportunity to get a great education and it will mean a lot when I receive my degree from IU."
It wasn't until last season at IU, that the junior began to realize that her game was excelling. Dennison quickly emerged as the scoring leader on the team, and played with a great deal of confidence.
"I came into my sophomore year with no expectations to take over a leadership role, but I was playing with so much confidence, my scores dropped and I began playing really well," she said. "I see myself as a leader instead of the leader on this team. We have so many girls that can play on our team, anyone of us can step on a given weekend and be our leader."
It was Dennison's low scores and leadership qualities that caught the attention of another collegiate coach, Diane Thomason from Iowa. Thomason, who recently stepped down as Iowa's coach after 27 years, was the head coach for Team USA in the 2002 World University Golf Championships and selected Dennison as one of the five girls that made up the squad.
In order to travel to the Championships in Taipei, Taiwan, Dennison had to raise $2200 to cover her expenses. The money was raised to no surprise, as teammates, their parents, family friends, and the generous townspeople of Madison donated the money to the girl in whom they always believed.
This year the Hoosiers are coming off one of their most disappointing seasons ever. Last year marked the first time since 1987 that Indiana did not win at least one tournament. Also in Carmichael's 21 years of coaching at IU, last season marked the first time he did not have an All-Big Ten honoree. Dennison statistically missed the honor by mere tenths of a point.
Already this season, Dennison has shown that the Hoosiers will be a team to contend with for the Big Ten title. At the season-opening Wolverine Invitational two weeks ago, Indiana captured the team championship while Dennison shattered the tournament record to card her first collegiate individual title.
"When I came here, winning a tournament wasn't on my agenda, but it was my main goal this year," she said. "I've now won the first tournament of the season so I guess it's time to set the standards a little higher."
Last week, Dennison was honored by Golf World magazine as the National Female Player of the Week.
At one time a "nobody" from Madison, Ind., she has now turned into the "somebody" here at Indiana University. Determined as ever to join the company of Redman, Buzminski, DeKraay, Carney and Wicoff, Dennison is enjoying her walk down life's fairway, as she is smelling every rose that comes along.
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