MUSKEGON TWP. - The record shows that Reeths-Puffer star golfer Sophia McCollum usually has big success after falling short of her own very high expectations.
There have been lots of examples of that this season.
She hit a bit of a slump in mid-September, at least by her standards, finishing in second place at an O-K Green conference jamboree, then tying for third at the next one.
She bounced back by winning the individual title at the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association tournament for the third year in a row, then taking first place at the next conference jamboree.
A few weeks later McCollum tied for fourth place at Reeths-Puffer’s own Rocket Invitational, which did not make her happy at all.
R-P's Sophia McCollum
She responded by tying for the championship at the prestigious Captain Sally tournament in Grand Haven, taking first place at the final conference jamboree of the season, then winning the individual title at the O-K Green conference championship tournament – all within one week.
Then came last week’s Division 2 regional tournament at Lincoln Golf Club.
It was a great day for Reeths-Puffer as a whole, because the Rockets won the team championship and qualified for the state finals as a group. McCollum was thrilled about that part, because she loves the team element of high school golf, and loves her teammates.
But she finished in second place individually, which she did not care for one bit.
“I definitely did not play as well as I wanted to,” she said. “I ended birdie-birdie on my last two holes, which put me in a better mood, but overall I did not play very good.”
So if the pattern holds true, McCollum will be on schedule for a big rebound performance at Friday and Saturday’s Division 2 MHSAA state finals at Michigan State University, which could be bad news for the other top contenders.
McCollum will be aiming for her second straight individual state championship, and while that will certainly be a difficult task, nobody familiar with her game would bet against her.
“She is very competitive,” said R-P head coach Matt Pallett. “She has had a few events this year where only one or two bad holes derailed her chances of winning. She will be one of the favorites to win, for sure.”
So does failing to finish in first place light a fire inside McCollum, propelling her to success the next time out?
She said there’s probably something to that, because she definitely hates to lose. But she also said the opposite reaction - her growing ability to simply put disappointing days behind her - has been very helpful this year.
“I do get pretty upset because I have high expectations for myself,” she said. “I have been trying to improve on that, and not let (non-first place finishes) bother me as much. There is always another opportunity to play better.”
Besides, she said, winning is not everything. She just wants to shoot as well as she can.
“I would rather play my best round and not finish first, then play bad and finish first, if that makes any sense,” McCollum said.
It does make sense, but the point is almost moot, because when McCollum shoots her best, she almost always wins, particularly over the past two seasons.
She has an amazing total of 22 first place finishes in high school golf, including 20 as a junior and senior.
Last year she finished in the top 10 in 16 events and took first place in 11 of them. This year so far, she has placed in the top 10 at 14 events, with nine first-place finishes.
That is the result of a lot of hard work, very high personal standards, a great deal of confidence and mental toughness – plus a passionate desire to finish first every time, which McCollum acknowledges.
Pallett probably summed it best when he put it this way:
“When she’s on the course, she wants to rip your heart out,” he said. “She wants to win.”
'Talent only takes you so far'
McCollum was apparently born to be a golfer.
She said she received her first set of small but real golf clubs at the extremely tender age of one.
She doesn’t know who gave her the clubs – she’s guessing it was her dad, who was a frequent golfer in the past – or whether it was her birthday or Christmas or some other special day. Regardless, the sport has been a big part of her life every since.
She played in a lot of kids’ nine-hole tournaments in her elementary and middle school years, and won her share of them.
But that all came from natural ability. Her intense desire to be the best – and willingness to fight for it - took over when varsity golf became a reality four years ago.
McCollum with R-P head coach Matt Pallett.
She’s been constantly pushing herself throughout high school, lowering her nine-hole average from 45 as a freshman to 37 this year, and her 18-hole average from 93 to 78.
“Probably the summer going into ninth grade I really started to focus in and tried to improve,” she said. “I just started wanting to win and be better.
“I knew I wanted to eventually win a state championship, and to do that I would have to put in a lot more practice time. I have always kind of been naturally good at it, but talent only takes you so far.”
McCollum became even more immersed in the game in the summer before her sophomore season, when she took a part-time job at Stonegate Golf Club, which gave her the opportunity to be out of the course perfecting her skills far more frequently.
That led to her breakthrough sophomore season, when she was among the top 10 golfers at 14 events, finished in first place twice, won the first of her three straight GMAA tournament championships, and qualified for the state finals for the first time.
"It was probably in tenth grade that I started thinking I can really take this somewhere,” McCollum said. “The summer before that I played all the time with the people I worked with, then in my first tournament that season I shot a 74 or something like that, and took third place against some pretty good competition.”
That was also the year that Pallett noticed something special was developing.
“Between her freshman and sophomore years she really took a big jump,” the coach said. “You could definitely tell she had worked very hard in the offseason. Her game seemed pretty good at that point, and she came out and had some good events right away.
“She played well and built some leads, but sometimes she struggled to finish. When she started finishing the way she can and winning, then it was look out!”
McCollum cashed in on her momentum last year as a junior, winning the first of her two O-K Green conference individual championships, her second GMAA tournament title, an individual regional championship – and finally a coveted Division 2 individual state championship.
Pallett remembers watching McCollum warm up for the state finals last year and worrying a bit.
“It was not a good warm-up for her on Friday morning,” the coach said. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh boy, this may not be good.’ But she settled in early in the first round, with good shots and good pars, and built her confidence up for day two.
“She was hitting greens, making putts and staying out of trouble. At that point I figured she had a good chance to finish it out on day two.”
McCollum finished with a two-day score of 148, four strokes better than the second-place golfer, Sixtine Charnalet of Cranbrook Kingswood.
Her confidence had obviously peaked by then, and nobody was going to stand in her way.
“I knew I had the skill to do it,” McCollum said a year ago, just after clinching the title. “I definitely knew I could win it. I wouldn’t say I expected to win, but I knew I could, and felt like I had a really good chance to.”
Dealing with the pressure
In some ways, McCollum may have peaked too soon by becoming a state champion as a junior.
That led to great expectations for this year, with a lot of people expecting her to cruise through her senior season and repeat her amazing feat.
That’s not a fair expectation, according to Coach Pallett. While he knows she has a good chance to win, he also knows it’s only a two-day event, and it could all come down to how she happens to be shooting over the weekend.
“She has had another great year, but a lot of people who don’t play a lot of golf automatically think she is going to win it again this year, and that’s not realistic,” Pallett said. “There are going to be 108 other golfers playing those two days, as well.
McCollum by the leader board after winning the state title last year.
“I have not had conversations with her about it. I want her to just go out there and have fun. Even if she finishes 104th, we will still love her!”
There have been various sources of external pressure this year, according to McCollum.
One, she notes with a chuckle, has been her dad, who is without a doubt her biggest fan and supporter.
"My dad is very competitive when it comes to my golf,” McCollum said. “He always makes sure I have everything I need for tournaments. He is always there to help. He is very involved in my game.
“He also has lots of motivational speeches I have to listen to. It’s mostly just talking. I don’t like too much talking! But I know he cares, and he’s doing everything he can do to always look out for my best interests.”
More than anything, McCollum says the pressure has come from within herself, based on her overwhelming desire to always win, and prove she can match her biggest achievement at the state finals.
“I would say the pressure I feel has done nothing good,” she said. “It’s not even pressure from other people, just pressure from myself. It was really messing with my head at the beginning of the season. I have been working on it as the season has gone by, I have been trying to mentally toughen up so I can battle through it.”
With the state tournament starting on Friday, McCollum may have found just the right balance for her mental approach.
For one thing, she is very much looking forward to playing with most of her teammates, which is a very nice distraction. They will all be focusing on helping the Rockets finish as high in the team standings as they can, while enjoying one final outing together.
“I am really excited we all get to go as a team,” McCollum said. “It will be kind of similar to when we went to Crystal Mountain and played and stayed the night. That was a lot of fun.”
McCollum and the Rockets after winning last week's team regional title.
McCollum also said she understands that anything could happen over two days of golf against a bunch of great opponents.
She may not win the individual state title this time around, and she said that would be okay. Does she really mean that? Only she knows for sure.
“I would love to repeat,” she said. “Going back-to-back, I would love to do that. But there is really good competition in Division 2, and last year what I did was almost perfect, and it’s hard to repeat that.
“I will be disappointed if I don’t win, but I already have a state championship, and that’s something nobody can take away. If I don’t win, I will be happy for someone else. I guess I just want to go out and have fun.”
