Benjamin Cole '21 Recruiting Profile

After 9 years of playing golf, the game has taught me many valuable life lessons.  These lessons I will bring with me to college and to my college team.  Golf taught me the art of controlling myself, how to win, how to lose, etiquette, and how to manage stress.  Over the years, I have gone from not being able to control my anger after I hit a bad shot, to learning from my mistakes.  This was very valuable, on and off the course.  Golf also taught me how to win.  Going to a small school, in the middle of nowhere, with no athletes to choose from; winning is very rare.  The golf team consisted of my best friends.  Being an individual sport, we would always work hard to beat the other person.  This also taught me hard work.  If I did not work hard enough, I would not beat them.  The fact we all challenged and pushed each other made our team virtually unstoppable.  In my eighth grade year, our team went from placing third in sectionals to the next year winning sectionals.  This was the first time in our school’s history that the golf team won sectionals.  This victory taught me how to win.  I learned to act like I have been there before.  The next year, our team went into sectionals favored to win.  The whole school was planning for us to win it, as well.  Unfortunately, our team placed second, only losing by one stroke.  The minute I saw the final score added up and saw that we lost by one stroke, my stomach dropped.  Instead of pouting and walking away, I went up and shook the other team's hands.  The game of golf also taught me etiquette, on and off the course.  The biggest lesson it taught me was respect.  This carried over into my day to day life.  Golf also taught me how to manage stress.  Most people are stressed out when they are even par, going into the ninth hole.  This has taught me to manage my stress.  I have learned to not be distraught when I am even par, going into the last hole.  This has carried over into my daily life.  In school, I have learned to control and manage my stress very well.  The game of golf has changed my life for the better.  Knowing this, I will definitely play for the rest of my life.   I look forward to learning more about myself and the game of golf during my college years.