Special Golf Guest Speaker by Maggie Loomis
On Mar 20, 2023, the Saugatuck Varsity golf team was lucky enough to spend some time with Patti Butcher. Patti Butcher is a trailblazing female golfer. She is the golf pro at Scott Lake Country Club and has achieved countless accolades. She has truly blazed the way for female golfers everywhere. The golf team has nine members, and everybody was able to attend.
Patti taught the team some very valuable life skills. She explained that these skills don’t just apply to golf. The skills that she taught the team can be applied to other sports and academics. Patti gave a few stories that further prove this. This includes stories of doctors and many professional athletes. Golf is a very mental game so these techniques can be very helpful tools for the athletes. Patti instructed a nearly two hour long lesson to help the team master these skills. She taught them deep breathing, visualization, and controllable factors. These skills are what strengthens an athlete's mental game. Patti focused on teaching the team about what you can control and what type of mindset you should have. This skill can easily be applied to many aspects of life, and proves helpful for all athletes and students.
During an interview with Jacey Merkle, a third year golf team member, she said: “Monday night for golf practice we had guest speaker Patti Butcher come out and talk to us about the mental side of golf and sports in general. I thought this was very helpful because she went over breathing techniques that will be very useful throughout life. Also, as a team we came up with things we can and cannot control while playing golf. I thought this was important because we can't let things that are out of our control affect us. Overall, I think that everyone on the team learned something from this and I believe that it will help us in our upcoming season!”
This year the golf team is considered a young team. The team consists of no seniors, and the majority of the members are underclassmen. Nevertheless, the team consists of some great golfers and everybody continues to improve. Overall, this was a good learning experience for the Saugatuck golf team. They learned skills that can easily be applied to many aspects of their life, and many different situations. This lesson helped the team grow their mental game which proves crucial in golf.
Patti taught the team some very valuable life skills. She explained that these skills don’t just apply to golf. The skills that she taught the team can be applied to other sports and academics. Patti gave a few stories that further prove this. This includes stories of doctors and many professional athletes. Golf is a very mental game so these techniques can be very helpful tools for the athletes. Patti instructed a nearly two hour long lesson to help the team master these skills. She taught them deep breathing, visualization, and controllable factors. These skills are what strengthens an athlete's mental game. Patti focused on teaching the team about what you can control and what type of mindset you should have. This skill can easily be applied to many aspects of life, and proves helpful for all athletes and students.
During an interview with Jacey Merkle, a third year golf team member, she said: “Monday night for golf practice we had guest speaker Patti Butcher come out and talk to us about the mental side of golf and sports in general. I thought this was very helpful because she went over breathing techniques that will be very useful throughout life. Also, as a team we came up with things we can and cannot control while playing golf. I thought this was important because we can't let things that are out of our control affect us. Overall, I think that everyone on the team learned something from this and I believe that it will help us in our upcoming season!”
This year the golf team is considered a young team. The team consists of no seniors, and the majority of the members are underclassmen. Nevertheless, the team consists of some great golfers and everybody continues to improve. Overall, this was a good learning experience for the Saugatuck golf team. They learned skills that can easily be applied to many aspects of their life, and many different situations. This lesson helped the team grow their mental game which proves crucial in golf.