Trent Tipton took a piece of Hartley to the U.S. Amateur Championship
Trent Tipton stepped onto the course at the U.S. Amateur Championship last week and felt jitters. A combination of nerves and adrenaline ran through his body as he prepared to compete in the famed tournament.
It wasn’t the first time the Hartley graduate had competed in a large-scale tournament. He’d won the 2016 PGA Junior Series at Kearny Hill and has played in many important events as a member of West Virginia's golf team. Tipton entered play as a seasoned golfer.
Yet, something felt different.
“I saw a lot of the faces that I normally see when playing in college, but I think it was the setup of the golf course and maybe more of the hospitality (that was different),” Tipton said.
Tipton was one of the 312 golfers who competed in Paramus, New Jersey. The stiff competition didn’t scare him, but the amount of time he invested in getting ready to face such a large field may have contributed to his stress.
“Golf is such a mental game where, if you’re going high in and competing all the time, it does get pretty exhausting, mentally,” Tipton said.
To combat the uneasiness trickling in, Tipton envisioned himself playing a round at the Columbus Country Club, his go-to spot over summer break. The low-stakes rounds always seemed to help Tipton retrain his mind.
But that wasn’t the only thing Tipton took from Columbus to help him through the Amateur. Tipton brought his golf coach from Hartley, David Liskowiak, as his caddy.
Liskowiak, who no longer coaches at the school but remains a counselor there, mentored Tipton through a runner-up finish at the 2016 OHSAA state championship and a third-place finish in 2017. Liskowiak had fueled Tipton’s passion for golf beyond the prep level, and Tipton knew that having him on the bag would help him perform under pressure.
“He’s been there for a lot of big moments,” Tipton said. “Having somebody there that was familiar and that knows my golf game, and knows what keeps me calm out there was really important.”
Tipton credits Liskowiak and the staff at Hartley for building his work ethic. The rigorous academics and strong athletics helped him grow as a person and a golfer. He could not have made it to where he is today without Hartley. It was where he learned to be the best he could be.
Although Tipton did not make it past stroke play at the U.S. Amateur Championship, the experience was still valuable to him. He doesn’t want to dwell on what could have been, Tipton wants to focus on the future.
His senior season at West Virginia is on the horizon, and he’s ready. Tipton has worked his whole life to get to this point, and he doesn’t want to look back and feel that he left a stone unturned.
“When I get older, I definitely don’t want to tell myself that I could have worked harder,” Tipton said. “I want to feel like I put as much work into it as I can.”
It’s what he calls his growth mindset, which is something he learned at Bishop Hartley.
“I think that’s something they instilled in me that is still carried with me to this day for sure,” Tipton said.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: trent tipton us amateur championship bishop hartley graduate david liskowiak caddy
