photos courtesy of Cooper Stowell
By Brad Spiegel
brad.spiegel@waylandpost.org
Ask any golfer and they will tell you that the game is much more mental than physical. If you don’t have “it” between the ears, then all of your strength and ability mean little.
Wayland High School golfer Cooper Stowell learned that firsthand this season. He started slowly, battling a teammate to be the number one golfer for the Warriors and losing some early-season matches. As the season progressed, however, he changed his mindset. He started to think about every shot more and taking every practice, driving range session and meet very seriously. And it showed in the results. Stowell finished in the top 10 in the Division 2 Central Sectional Golf Tournament, followed by an impressive runner-up showing in the Division 2 State Championship on Oct. 16 with a two-over-par 73, one shot behind the winner.
“It was the biggest relief when I finished,” said Stowell, a senior. “I checked the scoreboard and was in third place. And a few minutes later, all of the scores came in and I was in second. It was a really good way to end my high school career because I put so much work into it, and to get a good result I feel that all of the hard work paid off.”
Stowell was the first Warriors golfer to place in the state tournament since Liam Gill also finished second in 2018.
Wayland golf coach Brian Reddington certainly noticed the difference from last year when Stowell was the number two golfer.“He made significant improvement this summer and continued to improve throughout the season, leading to easily the best golf I have seen him play these past two weeks,” Reddington said. “He was always one of our top golfers, but his consistency has greatly improved.”
The most important work Stowell put in was getting into the correct frame of mind. He admits that he had confidence issues, but once he got that right, positive results started to follow.
Stowell noted that a pre-shot routine — which included stepping back and visualizing every shot, not worrying about what he can’t control, like other golfers’ scores, and taking one shot at a time — turned his season around.
“I think a lot of my early-season struggles came down to confidence and momentum when I was out on the golf course,” he explained. “It was very easy for me to lose confidence if I dropped a couple of matches in a row or carded a couple of bad scores. But when I adopted my [new] routine and I started to hit greens and make putts, the confidence built upon itself.”
He added that his participation in the junior golf program at Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord also played a part.
”The coaches [at Nashawtuc] emphasize the practice with a purpose,” Stowell said. “Instead of whacking a bucket of balls on the driving range, they would tell us to see every shot and have a plan on where we want it to land. I implemented that in my play this year and at times I felt like I was on autopilot. It allowed me to make tougher shots because I wasn’t overthinking.”
The stellar round at the state tournament at Taconic Golf Club in Williamston was aided by an opening eagle (two strokes under par for the hole). He was pretty steady throughout the day but he tried not to find out where he was on the leaderboard. He said it was around his 13th hole of the day when his dad sort of gave it away that he was close.
“All of a sudden my dad is smiling and he is more into [the round], more upset when I missed a putt,” Stowell said. “I was one over and I asked my dad if the leader was under par and he said, ‘No.’ If I had known where I was [on the leaderboard] I would have folded.”
Stowell said that despite getting so close to winning the tournament, he easily achieved his goal of finishing in the top 10. He added that he wasn’t upset with the result, even when he thinks back to a handful of near misses, including his second-to-last hole when his five-foot putt rimmed out 360 degrees around the cup.
“This was literally my best round in the biggest tournament I’ve ever been in,” he said. “Coming in first place just wasn’t meant to be.”
