To improve his golf performance, Sulman Raza had to focus on his mental approach. The sophomore was going through a rocky period in his career as a golfer while trying to adjust the mechanics of his swing, and the results were not showing signs of improvement.
Raza became heavily influenced with the numbers game in which he and other Duck golfers assessed their drives and putts by using a tracking system called TrackMan. What it led to, however, was a mind game that Raza subconsciously started playing against himself. The Eugene native began to experience some difficult moments during the fall season.
“When I started seeing and hearing about my numbers I started getting subconscious about it,” Raza said.
In the three tournaments Raza participated in during the fall season, he did not crack the top 10 once. When the Ducks traveled to California in February for a business trip that included two tournaments, Raza opened by posting one of his poorer performances of the season. His three-day scorecard of 225 (+12) at The Prestige was far worse than what his potential indicates.
As most comeback stories go, Raza was able to find an edge. Whether it was from sticking by the process or finally having a breakthrough, the sophomore dismissed the mental part of his game. Instead, he went out and simply played golf. The results: Raza would card a 70-68-70—208 (-8 ) and essentially carried the Ducks to their first tournament victory of the season at the Wyoming Cowboy Desert Intercollegiate in Palm Desert, Calif.
The score also placed him second individually, the highest mark of his short college career.
“I kind of went out there and played with what I had,” Raza said. “I accepted that if I did hit that huge draw that I’ve been hitting lately, that I’d be OK with it. I was kind of reacting to it and I think now I am just trying to accept what I have on the course and just trying to play with what I have.”
Raza admits that the mechanics and precision have effectively assisted himself and other Oregon golfers who choose to use it. However, he notes that numbers cannot overshadow the simple formality of just playing golf.
“I felt like it was more mental,” Ryann Ree, a sophomore who placed third individually at the Intercollegiate, said about Raza’s resurgence. “His swing is fine, he has always been a great ball striker.” @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=246&SPSID=4385&KEY=@@
With eight of the nine individuals on the roster being underclassmen, Raza’s battle with his approach is one of the many examples that have helped shed light on issues for young golfers on this team. The basic message being from it all is to simply just play golf.
“Sulman is a great competitor and golf is a hard game,” head coach Casey Martin said. “You can get into little ruts with your swing and putting stroke and he didn’t let it get to him or get discouraged. He just went out there and kept battling and was rewarded with almost his first victory in college.”
Follow Justin Wise on Twitter @JWISE25