With blue skies spanning the Encino Golf Course, OVS sophomore Jay Galgano lined up his shot to sink a game-breaking putt, beating his opponent by just one stroke and earning a spot in Wednesday’s CIF regional tournament at the Los Robles Greens golf course in Thousand Oaks.
Picking up a golf club at a very young age, Jay started his golfing career before knowing how to spell “golf club.”
“I started golfing when I was in first grade, and I’ve played pretty consistently throughout my life,” he said. “I’ve taken a couple of breaks, you know, just to switch to a different sport, but that’s the primary sport I’ve played.”
However, his smooth-sailing golf path was thrown off course when the baseball season began, as Jay was faced with a difficult choice between his love for the two sports.
Jay is the only golfer on the team who splits time between two sports and the only golfer who qualified for CIF.
“It’s hard to balance the two, especially with time,” Jay said. “Baseball practice could run late, and you don’t have enough daylight to hit balls every day, so it gets harder to play.”
His long-standing love for the sport contributed greatly to his perseverance throughout the season, even when he didn’t feel fully prepared.
“Going into it I wasn’t really expecting much since I’m not playing constantly because of baseball,” he said. “I was just going for it, and once I finished, I was impressed with my score.”
According to Jay, the two sports are not complementary.
“Once it became baseball season it really gets hard as a golfer,” said Jay. “Because then you have two very different swings. A baseball swing and a golf swing.”
Regardless of the challenges Jay faces, he is ready to tackle this upcoming CIF competition. Even if he’s the lone OVS player, he knows that his practice and determination will not fail him in the face of adversity.
“Golf is a funny sport where it doesn’t matter how good you are,” he said. “There are always other factors.”