The sport of golf, at the local level, is rarely thought of as competitive. It is mainly a pastime, a way to enjoy the day with close friends and family. In the life of Blake Worden, however, golf plays a huge role.
Since his stepfather introduced him to the game, Worden has used it to take him to new heights. He was rated one of the top ten golfers in the Metroplex by the Dallas Morning News as a high school senior, has finished tenth in the NCAA South Central Regional as a freshman and shot a 68 in the same tournament the following year.
“I didn’t really pursue it (golf) until, like, seventh grade,” Worden said. “I wasn’t able to play baseball, so I just played golf all summer.”
As a senior at Rockwall High School, he finished seventh at the state tournament and was selected first-team all-area. Golf requires complete concentration, so its participants must take achievements like this in a quiet manner.
“It’s hard, because you have so many things going through your head,” Worden said. “In a sport like basketball or football, you don’t have a whole lot of time to think about stuff. In golf, you’re sitting there for four-and-a-half to five hours just thinking. That’s one thing why golfers do conditioning and run. The more you run and the more you’re in good shape, the better your mental make-up is going to be.”
Worden was at one point ineligible when he was a junior at Texas A&M University-Commerce. But this spurred him on to work harder in the classroom, and he has since had little trouble keeping himself available to play.
“School wasn’t one of my strong points,” Worden said. “As soon as anybody would ask about me they would find out I was not a good student. I came to coach here and he had a little bit of money to give me,” Worden said. “I told him right there I wanted to come here and play golf.”
A business administration major, Worden is also a member of Kappa Alpha. Worden has continued his top performances, as he averaged a score of 73 strokes per round his junior year. Golf has many lessons that can be applied to life in general. Apart from his schoolwork, Worden says it has also shown him a few other things.
“It taught me to never give up, in all of life,” Worden said.
“You’re not going to have great days every day, so you have to continue to grind everything out.”
Unfortunately, Worden’s time as a Lion is drawing close to an end. Next semester will be his last, but he does not plan on stopping there. He plans to start taking the steps towards professional golf, but it will all come with time.
“There are so many rules in order to keep your amateur status,” Worden said about becoming a professional. “I want to, but I don’t know how I’m going to do it yet.”
The journey takes many steps, including difficult jumps up to different levels. But, first and foremost comes the spring season for college golf. After a fairly impressive fall season, Worden plans on relying on his fellow teammates to make spring even better.
“At all times, you’ve got to keep your teammates in your mind,” Worden said. “You can’t hit low percentage shots all of the time because you’ve got to be looking out for your team. I think playing golf in a team sport is more fun than playing as an individual.”