Coming off a hot season, women’s team will strive for gold this year
Photo credit: Courtenay Whyte
If you have patience, a good handicap, and time to practice in the summertime, Kelsey Studiman insists you try out for the Gee-Gees women’s golf team. The team finished seventh overall in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship last year, and had many great accomplishments across the border. Studiman has been playing golf since she was young with her brother and father, but she only began to golf competitively five years ago. It’s an extremely frustrating sport to pick up, and she realized very early on that it requires countless hours on the range hitting thousands of golf balls, and most importantly, patience.
Studiman’s favourite part of golfing is the challenge. It doesn’t matter how many times you play one course, it is a different game each time because there are so many factors that come into play. The weather might change, your drive from the tee box might be off, or you may simply have an off day. There are countless mistakes one could make.
“There’s not only the weather that drastically impacts the game, but also the mental aspect,” said Studiman.
Studiman considered taking a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division two scholarship in the U.S. and was ready to sign. But after visiting the school and thinking more about it, it simply did not seem like the right fit. Studiman admits she wasn’t quite ready to play in that division.
“When I was considering my Ontario university choices, I was also looking into their golf teams and knew I still wanted to play but at a less competitive level,” she said.
The Gee-Gees have access to the Ottawa Athletic Centre to hit balls and get some practice. The team tries to go as much as possible, but with school, it can be a challenge to make it out each week. Once classes are over, they will play and practice a few times a week.
“The schedule for a golfer can be quite busy depending on the tournaments coming up,” said Studiman. “As for practice, it typically consists of not only going to the range but also playing nine or 18 holes and then practicing problem areas after. So this typically will take a full day.”
This coming season, the golf team hopes to enter into more tournaments. They will play a few of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) tournaments, as well as their yearly Cortland New York tournament. Some of the OUA hosts are Carleton University, Waterloo, Guelph, and Queen’s. The tournament season will start as soon as September hits and continues until the OUA championships, which take place in mid-October.
For all students who would like to try out for the golf team, Studiman’s advice is to simply take a deep breath, relax, and remember that everyone has to start somewhere.
“Most importantly I would tell them to be patient with it. Golf is not a sport one can perfect in tics one year, and a lot of new golfers don’t realize that aspect of it.”
