Katie Dick ready for next stage

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Katie Dick

A Cardinal Mooney High graduate and Methodist University senior from New Middletown is preparing to embark on the next stage of her golf career.

Katie Dick, a four-time first-team All-American for the Methodist women’s team who is majoring in business administration with a concentration in golf course management, will attend the Jim McLean Golf School at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami, Fla., soon after graduation this month to launch her career in golf management and coaching.

She is planning to work as a golf assistant at the school for about five months during the winter season to learn as much as she can, before leaving in May to become an assistant professional at a Chicago-area country club.

“It will be kind of a learning experience. I’ll be learning from one of the top teachers in the country to help me further my career,” said Dick, 22, who is completing a 4 1/2- year program in professional golf management, and will become a member of the Professional Golf Association. “I will be observing. I will be watching the best teacher in the world teach other golfers.”

Dick helped Methodist (Fayetteville, N.C.) win four NCAA Division III national championships, and she won the individual national title in 2007.

Methodist has won the last six national championships and 21 overall.

Likes people, golf and having a career

Golf has been a big part of Dick’s life since she was a little girl, and she wants to continue in the sport as a course manager or college coach because having a career, especially in golf, makes her happy.

“I am very people-oriented. Career people are usually happy because they are doing what they like,” said Dick, who got off to a strong start as a freshman at Methodist by being named the team’s Most Valuable Player and NCAA freshman of the year. “I am thinking of going into coaching. I think I would like to coach college golf.”

Her best career score was 67 (5-under par), a course record at the William & Mary Tournament in her junior year.

The daughter of Tom and LouAnn Dick, Katie completed four internships in golf management as part of her college requirements, beginning locally in 2005 at Mill Creek Park. She followed that with internships at Country Club of the Rockies (Vail, Colo.), Grandfather Golf and Country Club (Linville, N.C.) and Lake Shore Country Club (Chicago).

She got a lot of golf help, experience growing up

Dick said she got a lot of golf experience growing up to help her develop her talent.

“All my family plays pretty much. I was 8 or 9 years old when I started,” said Dick. “When I was in high school, I played at Countryside in Struthers. I used to play there a lot but I haven’t been there since it changed ownership, and also [I played] at Mill Creek. It was Mooney’s home course. Chip Olenick helped me out when I was at Countryside.”

She also said Dennis Miller and Andy Santor helped her during her internship at Mill Creek.

Dick played golf at Mooney for four years under coach Stacie Butler, and made first-team All-Ohio as senior and placed fifth in the state as a senior.

Dick has enjoyed a variety of experiences at Methodist in addition to playing golf, and did well academicallly.

“I was involved in extracurricular activities like student governmnet, volunteer work in Special Olympics and the Student Athletic Advisory Committee. I made Academic All-Conference,” she said.

XJohn Kovach covers area college athletes for The Vindicator. Write to him at kovach@vindy.com.