HER GAME FACE HART GOLFER ALL BUSINESS ON THE COURSE.

Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Sara Jones is often misunderstood. Her seriousness is mistaken for meanness, her intensity for aloofness. But Jones couldn't care less.

These days, Jones, a rising star on the girls' amateur golf circuit, is too busy perfecting an already nearly flawless swing to worry about how she might be perceived on a superficial level.

``I'm a very serious person'' she said. ``I get it all the time. There are a lot of players who think I'm mean, that I'm so cocky and into myself just because I'm not the most open person in the world.

``I don't always walk around with a smile on my face and I'm not always just eager and friendly. I'm just really serious about golf. I take it really seriously and I don't like to be bothered. I don't mean to come off that way, but I honestly don't really care about what people think about me. I know how I am and my friends know how I am.''

Jones' seriousness has produced results.

In June, the Hart High senior reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links at Kemper Lakes, Ill. She's ranked 70th in the women's junior amateur circuit.

Her tough exterior is a quality more typical of junior amateur golfers than high school competitors, Hart coach Renee Onari said.

``She's a completely different person off the course, but when she walks onto the course, her game face is on and it stays on,'' Onari said. ``She's got that competitive edge, and it's an edge.''

Said teammate Jennifer Parkes: ``Some girls come up to me and say Sara's mean on the golf course, and I just tell them she's not mean, she's serious. She takes every shot seriously.

``It helps me strive to be better,'' Parkes said. ``It makes me play up to my level and not down to other players' level.''

Jones' winning attitude has apparently also rubbed off the rest of her teammates. Hart has won the Foothill League title in each of the first three years of the program. The Indians are 70-0 over that span.

Jones will conclude her distinguished prep career sometime within the next month. She's a leading candidate to win the individual state championship, which will be decided on Nov. 27 at Members Club (near Temecula).

However Jones has a fight on her hands with Burbank freshman Grace Woo, with whom she enters the league championship match Wednesday and Thursday at Knollwood Country Club in Granada Hills locked in a tie for first place.

Jones, who's among the most recruited players in the nation, has already made official visits to Tulane, UNLV and UC Irvine. She'll visit Arizona State, the school she said she's leaning toward, in two weeks.

She plans to major in psychology, and although she intends to pursue a career in criminal psychology, the field she'll be studying isn't unrelated to the sport in which she's excelled.

``You hear a lot of people say it, that the game's more mental than anything else, and it's the truth,'' she said. ``It just depends on if you play bad or if you have a bad shot, how you react to it; if you falter, or how you bounce back.''

What makes Jones meteoric rise to national prominence that much more remarkable is that she didn't pick up a club until five years ago, when she was visiting a friend who lived near a golf course. She had only been competing for three years when she joined the boys' team her freshman year at Hart. She qualified as an individual for the girls' state championships that year - CIF sanctioned girls' golf in 1998, but Hart hadn't established a team yet - and finished 10th, just four strokes behind the leader.

Competing against more experienced players has put Jones at a disadvantage, which she said she said has been among her biggest challenges. She tries to make up for it through hard work and enthusiasm.

``I'm not burnt out,'' she said. ``I think I have a truer love (for golf), and I think I'm more into it and I have more energy than somebody who's been playing 10 years. They're a little burnt out, a little tired and not always as dedicated.

At the recent Burbank tournament at De Bell Golf Course, Jones showcased her vaunted power, winning longest-drive competition with a 280-yard mash - more than twice as far as a typical Mark McGwire homer. She won the tournament outright.

``I just take a really big turn,'' she said, explaining how she's able her to generate that much power from her slight 5-foot-8 120-pound frame. ``It's all about timing and being in right position at impact. It's a lot more timing and clubhead speed than being big or strong.''

Onari expects big things from Jones, who seems to have a knack for rising to the occasion on the national stage. ``Give the kid three years, I'm sure you're going to be hearing about her.''

The highlights of Jones' career include a 5-under 31 on the front nine at English Turn in New Orleans (she was a combined 11-under on the front nine through the three-day tournament) in early August. She shot a 3-under 69 at Aspen Golf Course in June 2000.

``It's been a really great experience for me,'' Jones said. ``I've made a lot of friends, played the country's greatest courses and I've been exposed to the greatest competition there is. It's just a really big blessing that there's an organization that can do all this for high school kids who just want to go to college and play. I think that's just amazing, and for me to be a part of it and considered one of the best in my class and one of the best in the nation is really flattering. It's taken a lot of work and dedication and its finally paying off.''

And don't expect Jones to stress too much about anything but keeping her head down through the point of impact.

``It's kind of how I go through life,'' she said. ``I take things seriously, but if it's not that important, it's not that important. In the past, I would've, but I've grown up and gone through so much drama going through high school, you just learn that what people think doesn't really matter. It's what you do with your life that matters.''

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Sara Jones of Hart High has fashioned an outstanding career for the Indians' golf team.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer