Grinding out a varsity team letter

A few weeks back, Sean survived tryouts to make his high school golf team. He is really enjoying golf as a team sport. He takes a lot of pride in carrying his high school bag, wearing the logo hats and shirts, and most especially playing golf with a group of boys sharing a common purpose, and having a blast with them all.

As a high school freshman, his goals all along have been to make the varsity golf squad, and to earn the letter that comes with it. To earn that letter, he tells me he has heard, means that he has to play on the 6 man squad that competes in the state high school state golf tournament in early May.

I'm not exactly sure how many boys made the team, but it sounds like a bit more than a dozen. The coach mixes them up to assemble varsity and JV squads to go out to play in various matches and tournaments. There is one senior on the team, four or five juniors, two or three sophomores, and a handful of freshman.

It sounds like everyone older than freshman are rotated onto any given daily varsity squad, to get their chances to put up numbers. A group of freshman don't quite have the games for this just yet, and appear to be JV specialists. Sean and one other freshman, however, have feet in both camps and are getting ample opportunity to play on the varsity.

Slowly but surely, Sean appears to be earning his way on varsity. He probably won't be sent to any more JV matches, because he is clearly well ahead of that group. But he is also clearly on the bubble, in a dynamic that involves not only scores, but also the coaches dilemma of what to do with kids who don't score as well as Sean but who've been on the team a few years.

Presumably, he'll send to the state tournament the six boys who have the best shot at putting up the four scores that will be needed to win the event, which is likely to be 290 or less. Sean and some of the other kids are counting heads, and it seems like Sean might be as high as #5 in terms of scoring, but the presence of an upper classman probably bumps him to #6, or even #7. I don't doubt Sean is getting a good luck from the coach.

Chats about the situation with Sean provide ample opportunity to remind him the only thing that matters is the scoring. It is the only thing he can really control. His 18 hole avg right now is 77, with only one round in the 80's (an 81).

He's been consistent, but so far all he offers the coach is confidence that he'll put up something in the 70's. From the coaches point of view, Sean hasn't really shown the ability to go low, to show he can put up one of those low numbers, around par, a few of which will be necessary to grab that state title.

Because Sean's consistency includes making too many mistakes out there, throwing away strokes on three or four holes every round. And intellectually and emotionally, he's not quite at the point where he really "gets" that part of golf.

He'd rather think about his strengths than about his weaknesses. Talking about what he does great versus what he needs to improve. Talking about bad shots as random injustices of creation, rather than as the outcome of poor execution. This all seems to me nothing more complex than a reflection of his level of maturity in his development. If you would ask them, the vast majority of teens would tell you they can do no wrong. He'll grow out of this eventually, the kid is only 15 years old, after all.

In terms of that goal to make the state squad and earning the coveted letter, in the few remaining matches he'd probably best help his chances by putting up something less than 75, perhaps even something closer to par than that. He's got the ability, and just needs to figure out a way to limit the mistakes. His coach needs to see a low score from him as solid evidence that he can actually go to a tournament and put up one of those scores that can help the team win.

I really like the idea that Sean imposes these broader goals upon himself, like getting a varsity letter. But there is a significant tension there, too, where he needs to better understand the relationship between his game management and that broad goal.

Because that goal only frames what he can really control, which is his scoring. His score at the end of the day is a direct reflection of how well he manages the series of decisions that face him during a round.

He needs to get to that point in his maturation where he understands that executing each and every of the 70 to 80 odd shots, and the myriad moments and issues that pop up in the course of a round, are all important goals in and of themselves.

He'll figure it all out. Talk about a life lesson....