Golf: How the men’s and women’s teams use the winter offseason to prepare for a hefty spring

Carly Jo Damon
Thu, 21 Dec 2023 03:38:24 +0000
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Neal Shipley practicing Dec. 6 at the Ohio State golf facilities during the winter offseason. Credit: Jo Damon

There really is no “offseason” for the Ohio State men’s and women’s golf teams.

As the men’s spring season kicks off Jan. 29-31, 2024, with the Southwest Invitational in Thousand Oaks, California, and the women’s begins Feb. 4-6 in Palos Verdes Estates, California, with the Therese Hession Regional Challenge, the Buckeyes take the winter to prepare for a busy spring season, including weekly team workouts, regimens, individual winter tournaments and one-on-one conditioning with coaches.

“I think this is a good time that we can all work on certain parts of our game, improve our health, tend to regroup and improve our things we don’t really get to work on during the tournament season,” redshirt sophomore Jacob Tarkany said. “We can get after it and get to work versus constantly preparing for each tournament.”?

Kary Hollenbaugh, a sophomore on the women’s team, said one of her favorite parts about the offseason is having personal practices with her coaches. She said they use this time to focus on technique.?

Graduate Neal Shipley said he likes the individual tournament aspect in which athletes enroll at their leisure. He said the differences between team and individual tournaments include traveling solo, playing for a personal ranking and less camaraderie. The mindset, though, remains the same: win.?

“[It’s] still pretty similar because you’re still trying to play your best when you’re playing in a team tournament because the better you play, the more you help the team, and same thing going into these ones,” Shipley said. “It’s mostly focusing on trying to play the best golf possible.”?

Because the weather in Ohio gets cold and hard to practice in, many Buckeyes enroll in these tournaments down south or out west, Hollenbaugh said.?

“All of the girls on the team like to play at least a few tournaments over winter break just to keep our competitive game up, just because we are not able to play a lot here in the winter,”? Hollenbaugh said.

When they’re not traveling for tournaments, the Buckeyes utilize Ohio State’s indoor golf facilities. Shipley said the men meet Monday through Friday, while the women work on their game at least eight hours a week.?

Putting is a large part of indoor work, senior Faith Choi said, as are heavy team lifts. Choi said the offseason does much more good than harm.?

“I think it’s nice since we do have those outdoor heated bays that are heated so we can always see the ball fly, which is always really nice,” Choi said. “We have so many resources in our facility already, especially with putting. I don’t actually think we get held back at all.”?

As the semester begins Jan. 8, the Buckeyes will slowly make their return to full-team practices, readying for the seasons ahead.?