How I Changed My Practice Plans
My desire to play college golf started when I was a freshman in high school. I knew that I wanted to continue playing competitive golf, and Wesleyan posed as the perfect fit for my academic and athletic needs.
Once I arrived on campus, practices were starting nearly right away. I thought I was well prepared to compete, but I was met with an issue. My putting was very bad. I was able to be successful in youth golf and in high school by being an exceptional ball striker, but everyone in college is a good ball striker. I was very behind, and I needed to adjust quickly. One thing that I did to improve was practice putting every day after practice for an extra 30 minutes. While this doesn’t seem like a long time, doing it every day helped me make monumental strides in my putting. I used a putting aid most days, which had marbles on both sides of the putter head. If my putting stroke was too far to the outside or too far to the inside, I would hit one of the marbles.
After many hours of practice using this putting aid, I was able to catch up to the rest of my teammates, and later on in the fall, I made my debut at Hamilton, having qualified to play in the tournament. My improved putting allowed me to play in tournaments early on in my collegiate career.
