I’ve played golf pretty much my whole life. It was always just a hobby more than a sport to me up until freshman year. I had never taken lessons or anything like that, I just went out and played and had a lot of fun. But then, I wanted to start taking it more seriously.

Fast forward to the summer going into senior year, and I struggled figuring out my game, and I started to enjoy golf less and less. I had been going to a swing coach for the past year and a half, who I gave a lot of credit to for taking my game to the next level. I just wanted to strive for more.

My dad told me one day, “There’s a new teaching professional named Jason Tipton who had been hired at Chenequa and that he was strictly there for teaching lessons.”

I was interested as I had been thinking about making a coaching change for quite some time. I had a few lessons with him throughout the end of the summer sporadically but nothing set in stone.

November hits and I’m seriously contemplating playing tennis over golf my final year of high school, as I had been enjoying tennis a lot more, and tennis is something that is synonymous in my family. I decided to reach out to Jason to set up a lesson just to see where things were at with my game. I hadn’t played in about two months.

The lesson went great, and something just clicked in my head. I wanted to make the varsity golf team more than anything, and from that day forward I had that goal in my head. I began going for lessons every Wednesday. I almost see this as an opening to new things, because I’ve now seen myself have a goal in mind and now I know I can do anything in life I put my mind to. I started to see real progress physically with my swing, however Jason and I both acknowledged that my biggest issue was the mental part of my game. He told me all the time “If you figure it out, you’re going to be dangerous.” We both saw the physical ability, it needed some refining but it was there.

This goal got even more prominent in my head as time went on and we got closer to the season. I wanted this more than anything. The swing kept progressing and I was gaining confidence. Jason helped me instill confidence in myself and gave me self-belief. I would ask him questions and talk about how I wanted to prove people wrong. He would always tell me “It doesn’t matter what anything else thinks, it only matters what you think.” Pertaining to golf, and that is something that I even apply to everyday life now. I just do me and don’t care what other people think.

Fast forward to the end of tryouts and I made the varsity golf team. I had achieved that goal, and I give all the credit to everything Jason did for me. I know there's more work to be done. The season is just about to start, and I’m striving for even more. I'm continuing to work with Jason and I’m excited to see what happens next. The work that I’ve put in isn’t going away, I’m going to keep working to achieve my goals, and I know Jason is going to help me reach the point where I want to be. My golf game wouldn’t be where it’s at without Jason Tipton, and for that I’m forever grateful. I’m no longer that kid that just strictly plays for fun, I feel like I’m playing for something more, something bigger than myself.