Athlete of the month: Joshua Song
May 18, 2016
When Joshua Song was ten years old, his father introduced him to golf as a way to remain active. After hitting a few shots, Song quickly found himself developing a passion for the sport that stuck with him throughout his high school experience.
“Golf interests me because it taught me a lot about patience and self-discipline as well as high morals and respect of others, as in integrity and you can’t do anything wrong since you are being watched by other people,” Song said.
Serving as a valuable asset to the varsity boys golf, the Diamond Bar High School senior has led the Brahmas through another undefeated season and a Palomares League title.
“He helps with everything, especially because we have so many young players, and I’m always saying ‘Be like Josh’. It’s a great thing to have someone like that on the team. He’s really improved these past few years, and he’s going to be a solid college golfer,” head coach Tony McCabe said.
Since joining varsity in his sophomore year, Song has steadily improved and now serves as captain. However, with the new leadership position, Song discovered the difficulty of balancing concern about his teammates’ performances and his own scores.
“Since golf is an individual sport, you can’t think about what other people do but rather how you’re doing yourself, like your scores. This year, I was worrying too much about how other people were doing instead of worrying about my own game. It’s a good point as a captain, but as an individual, it was a bit troublesome,” Song said.
During his junior year, Song advanced to CIF, placing in the second team, and placed this year as league runner up, placing him in the first team finish.
“In golf, it’s difficult to get a win. It’s not like any other sport, where you can win with a team. It takes time and patience. I value consistency in every tournament, rather than trying to win every tournament I play in,” Song said.
As a member of American Junior Golf Association, Song regularly competes in national tournaments. The matches are held every month at varying locations nationwide. Song typically places in the Top 15, usually hitting around even par.
“It gives me new experiences of playing national tournaments and seeing the various types of venues. I’m averaging as a scratch golfer; that’s not enough to win, but it’s enough to place high enough. I’m not looking to win, but rather consistency,” Song said.
Despite finishing in the Top 5 at local tournaments and Top 15 at national tournaments, Song’s golfing career has not always been easy. In his junior year, Song struggled after not reaching his expectations with his game.
“I was vulnerable in the ways that I didn’t know if I should keep going and push on. Because of that, I was discussing with various friends, family members, and golfers and my coach and they helped me convert that negativity to positivity into playing and it helped me start to go up and up,” Song said.
The senior plans on continuing to play the sport in college, but his participation will be affected by his performance and his family’s wishes.
“I’ll see how it plans out and see how far I can go with it,” Song said.
However, the sport has taught Song many life lessons which resonate with him even outside of playing golf.
“Inspiration wise, I wanted to pursue something I loved, and it just gave me the ambition to never give up, even after a bad hole. It gave me the motivation to succeed mentally and physically in golf, it changed me not only as a golfer but also a person,” Song said.
