The Northeast Ohio Boys and Girls OHSAA Golf Division II District Titles were both won by Geauga County golfers on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.
The Northeast Ohio Boys and Girls OHSAA Golf Division II District Titles were both won by Geauga County golfers on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.
The Wolverines’ Dylan Phillips won the OHSAA Boys Golf District Title on Sept. 30 at Windmill Lakes Golf Course and Chagrin Falls Tigers golfer Elizabeth Pollock won the OHSAA Girls Golf District Title on Oct. 1 at Goodpark Golf Course.
With their victories, both Phillips and Pollock will be returning to the state championships for the second year in row.
To win the District Title, Phillips shot a 71, two strokes better than his closest competitor.
But for Phillips, winning the District Title and returning to states was not a forgone conclusion at the start of the round.
Phillips said that he started the round slow with an early bogey and double bogey due to a few bad swings and some mental mistakes.
Before long, Phillips suddenly found himself in 21st place.
Some golfers may have panicked, and others may have allowed the pressure to slowly get to them.
But not Dylan Phillips.
He had prepared for this moment.
After dropping to twenty first place early on, Phillips dug deep and demonstrated his mental toughness as he overcame adversity to get himself back to the top of the leaderboard.
“I battled, I fought, I stayed in it physically and mentally to get to a point where like ‘I could still do this thing if I make some good shots’,” Phillips said. “Sure enough, when my season depended on it, I had some of the best swings of my life, (for) like five straight holes.”
He continued: “With those swings on those five holes I got myself into first place. It was just awesome, an awesome mental battle, an awesome physical battle, I’m super happy.”
As Phillips made the turn after shooting a 3 over 38, he described his mindset that allowed him to concentrate and stay in the moment as he carded a back nine 2 under, 33.
Phillips explained that he was able to have a positive mindset and high self-efficacy because he knew he had put in the physical and mental preparation to succeed.
“I prepared like crazy to get ready for (Districts),” said Phillips.
This high level of mental and physical preparation allowed Phillips to believe in himself and tell himself to keep sticking with what got him to districts.
But as well known mental performance coach Dr. Bob Rotella famously said, “golf is not a game of perfect.”
And as such, Phillips said he had some moments on the back nine where he faced adversity. But because of his mental and physical preparation he was able to let the bad shots go and stay present, playing one shot at a time.
Phillips said that mentally practicing and visualizing the course was very important.
“I really did (visualization) a lot before sectionals, and that had a good result, so I did it a lot before (districts),” said Phillips. “(I went) on the range and visualized all these shots that I could hit from different angles, it really prepared me as best as I could have been for today.”
Phillips emphasized how important visualization and mental practice was in preparing for districts when he explained the challenge on the seventh hole.
“Honestly, if I wouldn’t have prepared, if I wouldn’t have visualized what I was going to do (on hole number 7), I would have been a whole lot more nervous standing there on (tee 7),” Phillips said. “But I went back to my preparation and my mental practice and I felt calm on that tee, not very stressed. I stepped up there and I did what I practiced, and sure enough it had a great result.”
Along with Phillips, also competing at Windmill Lakes was the Chagrin Falls Boys Golf Team and Hamilton Miller from NDCL.
Leading the Tigers were Owen Adelman (80), Jackson Watson (81), Pete Fischer (82), Rocco Dardis (84) and Jack Orazen (90).
The Lions’ Miller carded an 84.
Also qualifying for the State Championships on Oct. 1 was the Chagrin Falls Girls Golf Team.
Competing at Goodpark Golf Course in Akron, the Chagrin Falls Tigers Girls golf team finished in second place to punch their ticket to the state championships.
Winning the OHSAA Girls Golf District Individual Title was the Tigers’ Elizabeth Pollock who shot a 74 (36-38), one stroke better than Orange’s Anuja Patel.
As a team, leading the Tigers were Pollock (74), Natalie Venorsky (88), Kate Murphy (93), Ella Catney (96) and Lainey Holmes (100).
In the Division I Boys and Girls Sectionals, the Kenston Girls Golf Team qualified for districts on October 1st at Old Avalon Golf Course by edging out Hathaway Brown on a dramatic 12 foot put to capture fourth place. Leading the way for the Bombers was Ava Solak (85), Stefania Mighton (86) and Lainy Lombardo (91).
Also qualifying for the Boys Division I District Tournament was the Bombers’ Hunter Yates and Chardon’s Ty Roediger.
Yates qualified for districts on September 29th as he shot an 80 at Windmill Lakes.
Roediger qualified for districts by shooting a 76 in sectionals on Sept. 29 at Quail Hollow.
