Back for one final run with the Kansas women’s golf team, senior Johanna Ebner has big plans for the 2024-25 season, which officially opened Monday in Michigan.
But rather than setting her season goals around a score, a win total or even reaching certain distances with various clubs, the native Austrian is borrowing a page out of the Joel Embiid playbook.
“I’m not saying now that it doesn’t matter how well I play, because it does,” Ebner recently told R1S1 Sports during a sit-down interview at the team facility. “But I want to focus only on the performance. For me, the most important thing is that I get better and I don’t want to look too much at the results. I’m just happier if I just look at the process and then see what comes out – how well I do or how well the team does.”
That plan of attack, trusting the process if you will, is simple, Ebner says. And it’s derived entirely on the idea of improving with each step, each swing and each session on the range.
“My goal is to be 1% better every day,” she said, echoing a phrase that has been popularized by Lance Leipold’s Kansas football program.
“I had it before they did,” Ebner added with a laugh, noting that she and Leipold arrived in Lawrence at the same time.
Regardless of who got it where or said it first, the Austrian-born golfer believes in it all the same. And it helps keep her grounded and comfortable in a game that has so many moving parts and so much technical precision.
Update from the season opener: Through two rounds at the Folds of Honor Collegiate tournament at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, Michigan, Ebner leads the Jayhawks at +4, the result of back-to-back 74s on Monday and Tuesday. The third and final round will be played Wednesday.
“Best case, you want to win all the tournaments,” she admitted. “But I know I can perform my best when I set my goal for the season to be better in May of 2025 than I am in August of 2024. When I’m focused on the process and I feel like I’m getting better, the success comes naturally.”
In order to achieve that goal, Ebner is relying on a mirror in her apartment to guide her.
It’s there where she has written a one-word reminder to herself that she’ll carry with her to every tournament and every practice, each tee shot and every putt.
Nearly 3 feet wide, with 5- to 6-inch tall letters, written in what Ebner calls “Rock Chalk blue,” is the word “Believe” across the top of that mirror.
“That was my motto two years ago, and I’m still working on that,” she said.
The funny thing about Ebner writing the word on her mirror is that when she moved out last May before returning home to Austria for the summer, she had to remove it.
As luck would have it, she wound up in the same apartment this year and could’ve just left it up. Instead, she followed the rules and removed it before moving out and said she planned to write it back in the same spot before the team left for Michigan last Friday.
Few players at the Folds of Honor Collegiate tournament where the 21st-ranked Jayhawks are playing entered the start of the season quite as hot as Ebner.
While playing 2-3 tournaments a month across Europe during her time back home, Ebner won both the Austrian International Amateur championship, which included amateur golfers from around the world, and the Austrian National Open, which was limited to Austrian players but included amateurs and pros.
She said winning the international was a bigger highlight because she felt the field was stronger. But winning the Open was cool, too, because she defended her 2023 title in winning that one for the second year in a row.
“Last year, I was not that satisfied with my game,” Ebner said. “But I just knew I had to stick with it and work hard and I feel like now I kind of see the reward. The work is paying off. I’m feeling good. I’m confident. I’m on a good ride and it feels good. I’ve got a lot of confidence.”
In general, her entire game is in good shape. She’s been putting well, she’s comfortable with her iron play and more stable than ever with her long game — longer irons and off the tee.
Because of that, she has spent a good chunk of her time lately working on what she calls “random shots,” that she may never actually face during a round but wants to be ready for just in case.
“Like short game, for example. I could spend all day on my chipping,” she said. “They’re always random shots, and on all of them I’m just trying to find ways to get it more consistently close to the hole.”
It’s that be-ready-for-anything and take-nothing-for-granted approach, along with her current form, that has Ebner so excited for her final season at Kansas.
“In golf, you don’t always play good,” she said. “You have a few weeks a year where you’re like, ‘Whoa, my game is in such good shape.’ And I’m having those weeks quite often lately, where I just hit it super-close, made a lot of putts and it felt so easy.”
“Last ride,” she added with a chuckle. “It’s my senior year and I want to enjoy every moment, every day and take every opportunity I have.”
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