My ball goes flying straight into the trees. I shanked another shot. Great. 

“That’ll work,” Coach Scott Parlin says. 

I want to punch him so hard right now. I’m in front of our whole girls’ golf team. They’re all watching me shank my ball into orbit and all my coach says is, “That’ll work.” If I hear “that’ll work” one more time I might lose it. I’ll send my brand new Cobra driver flying. 

We go on to the next hole and I finally hit a good first shot. 

“Mia, work on your backswing.” 

Are you kidding me? The one good shot I have, and that’s all my coach has to say? I roll my eyes and move on. I made a birdie on that hole. The other girls congratulated me and said good job. I then proceed to shoot a 52 on nine holes.

I’ve been playing golf since I was 10 years old. My dad had played golf his whole life in and out of school. As I was growing up, I’d go and hit balls on the range with him, but I never really became committed until middle school. 

In middle school, I played golf because of my dad, and it was just something to do during the spring. I was always mediocre at the sports I did like cross country, tennis and basketball. And it was the same for golf, I wasn’t terrible at it, but I wasn’t the best player. After eighth grade, I started to find interest in golf and became committed to the sport. Going into my freshman year of high school I did cross country AND golf. 

While running cross country my freshman year, I was at the lowest point of my life because of all the stress from school, sports, clubs and home. Running quickly became a burden instead of a stress reliever, and I dreaded practicing every day. The only escape that I enjoyed was golf, and I could go play by myself or I could go play with my friends. After my freshman year, I quit running and completely focused on golf.

During my sophomore year, I had a major slump in golf. I didn’t have motivation to show up at practice, and I constantly compared myself to the other golfers. If I played a round with someone better than me I would always have lingering self-doubt. I’ve always had problems with comparing myself to other people, but in sports, it was especially bad.

In golf, I always felt like I didn’t belong, and I didn’t deserve to be on the team. I felt like I always made our team worse and that every bad shot I took could be the end of the world. But every time I had a bad shot my Coach Parlin always told me “That’ll work,” no matter how bad the shot turned out. I hate to admit it, and I’ll never say this to his face, but it always made me feel a little better.

At one of my tournaments during my sophomore year, I shot so bad to the point I cried my eyes out at the end. And since my parents work in Fort Worth, they’re never able to come to my tournaments, this one wasn’t any different. When I got back to the clubhouse, I sat down and didn’t speak to anyone. Coach Parlin stayed on the course with the other girls so I sat there by myself and tried to hide that my head was spinning. But instead of my coach or my teammate coming up to me, one of the girls in my group that I played with from a different team came up to me and asked if I was okay. When I explained, she continued to reassure me that it wasn’t the end of the world, and that it was only one bad tournament. And honestly, she really did help me. I stopped crying and by the time my coach came into the clubhouse, I was fine.

The compassion that girl showed me did truly change my mindset on golf. I finally found the motivation to keep going to practice, and I started committing more and more time to golf. Instead of comparing myself to people I’m playing with, I’ve learned I am a good golfer. I have the talent, I have the mindset, I have everything I need to be a successful golfer but there will always be people better than me.

I’m still learning how to have the best mindset for golf, and I still struggle with comparing myself to others. But I’m learning and I’m working to be better. I just have to remember that one bad shot isn’t the end of the world, that one bad tournament doesn’t mean I’m a terrible golfer and of course to always say, “That’ll work.”