Michigan Golf Journal January 2021

In a way, golf has trained us for the pandemic. What can you control? How do you respond? These are important questions to get clear when preparing your mindset for the rigors of tournament golf and the long slog of a global pandemic. Perspective is important too. And, we’ve had plenty of that throughout 2020. We still miss competing as a team like crazy! However, nothing about how we trained this fall changed from our normal tournament preparation. As a coach, that’s a reflection Michigan Golf Journal College Corner uncomfortable, yet very necessary engagements. We are extremely proud of our team’s diversity and the ownership they have taken to understand, learn, and make a difference together. Their work in the (virtual) classroom has been exemplary to this point and I believe our competitiveness will help us achieve another outstanding team GPA. And lastly, all 11 student- athletes came to practice with a will to work. They brought with them passion, pride, and purpose; stronger than any semester that I can remember. In a situation where complaining was the easy way out, they found a way to be filled with joy and resolve when the alternatives were understandable. While we haven’t been able to show our skills on the course yet this year, we have shown that our program is molding young men to be leaders in life, and I believe these last fewmonths have been some of our best. MGJ Michigan Women’s Golf – the Covid Fall Season Guest column by Jan Dowling Women’s Golf Coach at Michigan Andrew Walker