Danielle O’Malley, Sports Editor
The plunk of the ball in the water is all it takes for a golfer to start throwing their clubs around. Or maybe they sliced into the woods or hit into the other fairway. Maybe they missed the ball entirely. It only takes one bad shot to completely ruin a round of golf, no matter the experience of the player.
Even though players are on a team, golf is still an individual sport. Sean Watchmaker, senior captain of the boys golf team said, “You’re relying on yourself for your own score. If you hit a bad shot or play something poorly and end up with a bad score, it hurts because then you have to spend the rest of the round recovering from that.”
For many players, it’s hard to recover without the constant support of teammates. Sean said, “In other sports, if you’re playing poorly you have your teammates who can help your game specifically. With golf, no one else can control your score, it’s only you.”
Sophomore Carielle D’Elisa, who spent her first year on the New Canaan High School golf team last year, has had a similar experience. “It is very easy to get caught up on little things when you are playing individually, having no one to really remind you to slow yourself down and focus on what’s ahead,” she said.
Boys varsity head coach Bill Brown prefers his players to be present in the moment rather than looking ahead. “I try to tell them not to get too upset after a bad hole or get too excited after a good hole. It’s very important for them to stay as calm and focused as they can and try to understand that every shot is important,” he said. “These are kids, they’re fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, they try to hit the ball as hard as they can. They try to do the impossible shot. I tell them to stay as focused as they can, and not try to do too much.”
Sean takes this advice when he is playing. “I try to make adjustments and try to make sure that I improve my scores,” he said, “you can’t take back the shots that you hit poorly. But you can hit better shots and make better scores on the following holes.”
Golfers have many strategies that they use in order to maintain their concentration during the game. Carielle said, “I try to be positive and not let myself down too much, keeping in mind that I’ll always have another chance to try again.”
Pre-game routines are also popular as they help get players into the right mindset before a match. “I like to listen to music while I’m putting around and practicing before a match,” Sean said.
Despite having a gameplan or a ritual, every golfer has bad days and makes mistakes, regardless of the player’s experience. “When our team went to nationals last season at Pinehurst, on all three courses, I had just one hole out of eighteen that I let ruin my whole round,” Carielle said. “I remember on the last day, on the 16th hole, I blew up and got a really bad score. Just two bad shots on that hole and I began rushing around with each next shot until I finally got it in.”
Golf is not like riding a bike, it’s hard to pick up after not practicing for a long time. Coach Brown said, “Even though I don’t play as much as I used to, if I do hit a bad shot, I say to myself, ‘what the heck are you doing?’ Then I think about it and I say, ‘you know, I don’t practice very much.’ Golf is something that you have to practice a lot.”
