A golf swing is never simple. Knees, arms, elbows, the center of gravity, hands, wrists, eyes, head, hips must be set in proper place to produce the desired swing. Even a decent golfer knows that in golf, swing is everything.

Put yourself in the shoes of a golfer. Imagine that it’s the last hole, the score’s tied, and the ball lies only five feet away from the hole. The green is slanted diagonally from the ball, and the wind is blowing right towards you. Imagine trying to recreate a specific, delicate body motion in such conditions, while trying to make proper adjustments in your swing to compensate for the slope and the wind while judging how much power to put behind the putt, and you just might see why golf is such a hard game.

Despite the mental stresses, the El Camino golfers are having a fairly successful season of four wins, three losses. El Camino Golfer Raymond Ridon believes that their strong mentality through increased practices and new equipment created by their new coach Jeff Ponce, have helped him and his teammates succeed. “We have more practice matches and short practices. Now more people are shooting low scores. Our new coach is cool, and he is a good golfer too,” Ridon said.

To play a golf game is both fun and stressful at the same time, but to win a golf match is the result of hours of practice and patience. So if you see an El Camino golfer after a victory, know that they push themselves mentally, practice after practice, game after game, to win in the name of El Camino, so do not take their sport lightly; it is the most intense mind game in all of high school sports.