Mastering the long game

Like another generation's moon landing or 9/11, the players and coaches in Lynn University's golf program will never forget where they were when the news hit that COVID-19 was bringing their season to a screeching halt.

Then-Coach Andy Walker was at the range filming player Justin Wynen's swing when he received the fateful text from Athletics Director Devin Crosby.

"It was such an awful day," Walker said. "I think we all started crying on the spot. Not only was this team playing the best golf of their lives, they were playing the best golf of any college team I had ever seen play. We had just won a Division I tournament, and we were excited for our post-season run, going for a three-peat. And just like that, it was over."

Senior Helen Kreuzer was on the 13th hole in tournament play when Coach Marcelo Huarte showed up unexpectedly at her side.

"I was thinking, 'What's he doing?' He didn't walk tournaments with me. Normally he would walk with the freshmen," she said. "When we finished the round, he told me that they canceled the season because of the pandemic. He wanted to walk with me because it would be the last time ever. That's what we thought."

Within three days, the entire roster had flown home to their families.

"We have a very international team, with players from seven countries," Huarte said. "They left immediately for lockdown, flying off to Sweden, Germany, The Bahamas, Spain, Mexico, Italy. It was a tough experience for all of us."

"It was eerie," Walker said. "Everyone was gone. Campus empty. Just like that."

For seniors Kreuzer and Matilda Wahren on the women's team and Toto Gana and Carlos Bustos on the men's team, it didn't look like it was just the season grinding to a stop. It was effectually the end of their college sports careers.

Every country instituted different protocols, but the common thread was that country clubs and public courses the worldwide were shut down. None of the students could hit the range. For some living in hot-spot regions, like sophomore Giovanni Manzoni from Italy, strict pandemic regulations meant he had to quarantine for two weeks before being allowed to see his family and then often couldn't leave home for days at a time.

"Of course, everyone was mainly worried about the health and safety of their families and friends," Walker said. "But they're also wondering, 'Is my college career gone?'"

Lynn's golfers did what the rest of us did, hunkering down, worrying, watching too much TV. But not for long.

They're young athletes, anxious to play. So, they tapped in three-footers on makeshift greens in their living rooms and spent hours hitting irons into nets set up in their back yards. When they'd advanced beyond chipping into a bucket in the garden, they turned to the internet. They held team meetings online and received detailed swing analyses from their coaches via FaceTime. They were playing the long game now.

"The pandemic could have worked one of two ways: We could get better or we could get worse," Kreuzer said. "We decided to get better."

No one would call the unsettling days of lockdown a blessing, but they did have their rewards.

"Golf is a year-round sport," Huarte said. "Players rarely have time to work on mechanics, so this was our opportunity. We would do video calls, and I would analyze their swings."

It wasn't all just swing dynamics. It was also team dynamics. They gave each other tours of their houses (Walker said he loved this, seeing how everyone lived in their home countries and taking his own video very seriously, like a Lynn Golf version of MTV's "Cribs"). They discussed podcasts and read sports psychology books. They set team goals. Gana and teammate Jorge Villar also took it upon themselves to host Zoom calls, giving advice and encouragement to younger players.

"They matured so much in this process," Walker said. "We got better as a team, and I got better as a coach learning from them long-distance."

Most of all, they gained perspective.

"It was a challenging time, but I reminded the guys that it was times like this when we had to focus on what we were thankful for," Walker said. "Toto said he was thankful he could be back home in Chile for a while to see his little brothers grow up a bit. He had missed so much of that when he was away at college and playing in tournaments."

Spring season 2020 was cut short, and no post-season play or championships took place. Although some universities resumed sports for the Fall 2020 season, Lynn's Sunshine State Conference (SSC) division postponed a return until Spring 2021.

But what a return it was for Lynn, masks and all.

The men's team claimed their fifth SSC golf title, with junior Agustin Errazuriz winning the individual championship.

The women also claimed the SSC Championship—led by individual champion Kreuzer, who maintained her eligibility by enrolling in the MBA program at Lynn. Kreuzer also won the women's NCAA Division II individual title. The women's team narrowly missed taking home the tournament’s team trophy after a heartbreaking tiebreaker.

"We were devastated," Kreuzer said. "But we made peace with it. Sometimes things just don't go in your favor. You have to bounce back."

Huarte said the team's no-golf isolation experience might have helped them recognize that a single result does not define success, nor a single setback failure.

"They get that it's not all about one tournament or one shot," he said. "They're so much more resilient now."