South Georgia - In The Game High School Sports Magazine

Maybe it’s not appropriate to call Dona Kioseff’s ascension to the top of the South Georgia women’s golf heap meteoric, but it has happened pretty fast. Just five years ago, Dona had never played the game. Now, in 2010 and about to graduate from Lowndes High School, she’s one of the best women’s golfers in the area and will play for four more years in the college ranks. Interestingly, it’s not her golf that landed her at her college of choice, Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. Her strict attention to grades earned her an academic scholarship at the Division III school. She had a choice of several schools to attend and even spoke with the golf coach at Princeton. “A few months ago I narrowed my decision to Oglethorpe and Mercer. I chose Oglethorpe because it seemed like it had the best mix of academics and athletics,” she says.

Long before Dona was a great golfer, she was an excellent student. She has always loved going to school and has always wanted to do her best. “I’ve been self motivated to do well in the classroom. I’ve always been focused on school,” she says.  Because of her drive to succeed academically, she will graduate among the top in her class at Lowndes. “I’ve been stuck at number four since last year – there are three boys in front of me,” she says. “The top 10 of our class are all good friends, and we have a nice little competition with each other. We have AP classes together so we see each other a lot.”

Dona’s schedule is pretty demanding. She practices or plays every day and spends a great deal of time traveling to junior tournaments. To play golf at her level and remain in the top five in her graduating class shows her tremendous dedication to both her sport and her studies. On a typical day, she leaves school and heads to Kinderlou Country Club, where she practices for a few hours. After that, she goes home and does homework for the rest of the evening. When she’s on the road playing tournaments her school work goes with her. Tough though it may be, it can also get monotonous. It’s a never-ending cycle: school, golf, homework, repeat.

Dona’s willingness to maintain that schedule has paid big dividends – literally and figuratively. She received the Presidential Scholarship from Oglethorpe University and hopes to have a career as a cardiovascular surgeon. For three summers, from eighth grade through tenth grade, she volunteered at South Georgia Medical Center. Her dad would drop her off at the hospital on his way to work and then pick her up on his way back home. She accumulated over 1,000 hours at the hospital and developed a love for the medical field in the process.

As she works toward a career in medicine, she won’t be neglecting her golf game at all. She and her father began playing  golf  about  the  same  time.  “I

used to go out and ride around in the cart with him when he started. We kind of began at the same time,” she says. Dona was in the eighth grade, and she thought she might want to try golf for a while. She didn’t have any clubs, which posed a problem. “My dad told me I had to buy my own set of clubs. I had a garage sale and sold old toys and things like that. I made enough to buy a junior set of clubs,” she recalls.

It was August of 2005 when she purchased her clubs. In February of 2006, she joined the golf team at Hahira Middle School as the only girl on the team.  For her eighth and ninth grade years, that’s the way it was – she wasn’t merely a member of the women’s team, she was the women’s team. “When I was the only girl, I couldn’t compete for the team competition. I was playing for the low medalist and for tournament experience,” she says. When Dona’s sophomore year rolled around, one other young lady joined the team but only played one event. The following year, three more decided to join. After playing as an individual for almost three years, Dona finally had some company. Those same girls returned this season as well. 

Not having a team for the first few years of her career was frustrating, but playing golf with men has provided a bit of unexpected enjoyment for Dona. “They always think they can beat the girls. It’s fun to play with them and beat them. I play with the men on Saturday mornings at Kinderlou. I’m the only woman who plays, and they assume they can beat me. It’s fun to exceed their expectations,” she laughs.

Because Lowndes really hasn’t really had a women’s team for much of Dona’s high school career, she’s never played in the state tournament. The top two teams in the region go to state, as well as the low medalist from the region tournament if the medalist isn’t a member of one of the top two teams. “Last year in region I shot a 78 – one stroke behind the low medalist,” she says. In 2009, Colquitt and Tift were the top two teams in Region 1-AAAAA.

In addition to playing for Lowndes, Dona enters a few tournaments a month on one of the various junior tours. She has played the Georgia Junior PGA, Southeastern Junior Golf Tour (SJGT) and the Georgia State Golf Association. (Now that Dona is 18, she cannot play on the Georgia Junior PGA, though she played many of these events prior to her 18th birthday. In December, she won a Georgia Junior PGA tournament in her age group.) During the summer, Dona may play as many as half a dozen tournaments a month. The rest of the year she plays one or two. In November, she picked up her first tournament win in a SJGT event at the Valdosta Country Club. She carded a 75 on Saturday and won by five strokes after rain cancelled play on Sunday.

All of her tournament experience has lowered her handicap tremendously. When she started five years ago, her scores soared into the 120s. Dona now plays a four or five handicap and averages in the high 70s. “I’m getting better each year. I hope to keep improving my game,” she says. As her swing increases, so does her course management and shot strategy – two things that will become increasingly more important when she begins playing at the collegiate level. Dona has the next few months to hone those strategies during her final season with Lowndes. At the time of this interview, she had not played any matches, though she was looking forward to the start of the season. She hopes to achieve her primary goal for this season. “I’ve never played at state before. I’d like to this season,” she says. •