USC golfer Justine Dreher on the edge of greatness

Justine Dreher joined the South Carolina women’s golf team in the fall of 2011 with what Puggy Blackmon calls “a case of the shanks” -- a golfer’s worst nightmare.

“That’s not the girl I saw play (during recruiting),” coach Kalen Anderson told Blackmon, USC’s director of golf and assistant women’s coach.

Today is different. She has returned to form.

Almost four years after arriving from France, Dreher leads the Gamecocks into the NCAA Championships that begin Friday with a glittering resume’: two-time first-team All-SEC, No. 5 in Golfweek’s ranking of college players, honorable mention All-America, on pace to set the school’s single-season scoring record, second on USC’s career scoring list and the SEC’s co-scholar athlete of the year.

“Justine is organized, purposeful and very talented,” Anderson said. “She takes care of every aspect of her game.”

That game combined with her mental toughness will serve her well in professional golf, Blackmon predicted, and she will start focusing on that goal after the Gamecocks complete their season in the national tournament in Bradenton, Fla. Her plans include attempting to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open with an eye on LPGA qualifying school this fall.

That’s for later. Now is the NCAA Championship, and Dreher, the team’s lone senior and its leader, said, “We’re ready to go. We just need to be patient, stay rested and play the way we can.”

The Gamecocks have been a picture of consistency, reeling off three wins and three seconds in their 10 tournaments with a tie for fifth their worst finish. They absorbed the loss of freshman star Nanna Madsen, who turned pro at mid-season, and enter the nationals after a dominating win in the East Regional.

Dreher, who finished fifth individually in the regional and has posted four top-5s in the spring, is reaping the fruit of her labors in her senior season. Her drive to succeed ranges from the classroom to the golf course to rehabilitation of a serious back injury, and she learned that trait growing up in Europe.

Born in Germany, her family moved to France at age 12 and she speaks three languages fluently. She played all sports growing up, and her excellence attracted the attention of France’s national sports federation. She spent four years in the golf development program -- three in Antibes near her parents’ home in Valbonne and one in Paris.

“Almost like college -- school in the morning, golf and workouts in the afternoon and studying at night,” she said. “The training program is under the wing of the French national team. College coaches saw me play, recruited me and I have no regrets. Coming to USC has been a great experience.”

Blackmon laughs at the memory of the shanks and reflects how Dreher has developed in her four years in Columbia. He comes up with perhaps his ultimate compliment in comparing her to his most famous student, a former No. 1 player in the world.

“She has a bit of David Duval attitude,” he said. “She’s stubborn and feisty and has the will to succeed. Three things about her: nobody will outwork her, nobody will outthink her and” -- he laughed -- “nobody will win an argument with her.”

Dreher and her coaches agree that her greatest development has been on the mental side of the game.

“I had to learn to be patient, and that has really helped me,” she said. “Winning is the result of hard work, and that’s what we have done.”

No one, Blackmon said, should feel better about themselves than Dreher.

“Remember this,” he said. “She is so close to being great.”

This story was originally published May 21, 2015 at 3:02 PM.