“Hey, are there any bathrooms up here?” Two-time women’s world champ Juliana Bower is in the middle of a tournament round at Veterans Park in Arlington Texas, and in need of facilities. “Sorry, no,” is the answer from one of the many helpful staff volunteers. “But there are some pleasantly secluded bushes on the next hole,” he adds.
Juliana is unfazed. “Cool, thanks,” she replies. An unlikely answer from your typical superstar, but then this disc golfing champion is far from typical. In a game of explosive growth, she is a super nova, a celestial event. Juliana Bower is a disc goddess, yet grounded enough to pee in the woods without batting an eyelash.
She'll call you nuts if you say it out loud, but Mrs. Bower has become an disc golf icon: brains, beauty, charm, grace and a game that regularly beats many of the pro men. Watch out jack, she’ll kick yer ass with 350 foot drives and deadly accurate putts, take your name and leave you whining for a rematch.
“Next year, I’m thinking about competing in the Open division at the US Disc Golf Championships,” she offers with a mischievous grin. That would be the Open Open, with da guys. Somewhere in Vegas there’s probably a bunch of oddsmakers who have already figured she’ll cash, they just don’t know what place yet.
We met up in Texas, where Juliana was working on sanctioned win number thirty for the year, padding her latest record. Over the course of two days, she revealed herself to be an amalgamation of polar opposites: outgoing yet painfully shy; graceful as a gazelle yet clumsy as an ox, confident yet vulnerable to insecurity.
Down On The Farm
Juliana (pronounced Julie-anna, not Julie-ahna) grew up as Juliana Korver in the oh-so-wholesome country farm settings of Iowa, the same kind of place where another squeaky-clean girl named Dorothy kept an eye out for twisters. Even today, Juliana stills says there’s no place like home. “I’ve lived in Iowa my entire life. I love it.” She also loves quilting and her wearing her belly ring. Again with the opposites.
Her father Doug Korver, a semi-pro football player, was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons as a center but never played, while her mother Bonnie kept the home life in order and later taught school. Mrs. Korver kept young Juliana occupied with dance lessons, swimming lessons, and other activities. “I was extremely uncoordinated,” Juliana says. “Even today, when I try to walk through a doorway, I usually bounce off one side or the other.”
Uncoordinated? The same player who has been called the most graceful disc golfer ever? She offers a witness.
“In 1995, while I was still an amateur, I took my good friend Susan to a tournament in Nashville. The other girls in our group -- none of us had ever met -- had been watching me throw and said ‘Oh Juliana, you’re so graceful!’ Well, Susan dropped to the ground laughing. She knew better. I am anything but graceful, but sometimes when I throw...” her voice trails off into a bashful laugh.
Cover Story, continued...
