Golf has made me the man I am today.
Sometimes when we think about the way sports has developed who we are, our brains stop at the physical aspects. For Ivan Yabut, the impact of sports is woven throughout his whole life.
Ivan is a sophomore majoring in psychology with a sports psychology minor, but the title he prefers is golfer. “I started golfing when I was four years old with a yellow plastic club. It was always just something I kind of did, but then my sister sent her golf team to the national championship, which caused me to want to take it more seriously. If she could do it, so could I.”
Golf was always a part of Ivan’s life, but it has recently become a part of who he is. “Golf has developed who I am in so many facets of life. It has taught me how to be a team player, understand how to use stress effectively and just how important it is to stay positive in even high stakes circumstances. Those are not just sports skills; those are life skills.”
Recently, Ivan had an opportunity to put those skills into action, breaking Concordia’s record for a lowest single round score. “I stayed present the whole time. I knew that each shot was important, so I tried to focus not on the past or future, but on what was happening right now. Right before my last shot, I stood to the side and calmed myself down for about a minute. I took a deep breath and made the putt.”
Ivan hopes to keep golf and its many life lessons a constant theme in his life. “I’m planning on graduating a year early, so I’m hoping to use my extra year of eligibility to go to a D1 school to play, and then go to qualifying school after that. If that doesn’t end up happening, I want to go to school to be a sports psychologist. I’ve had so many people teach me how I can get out of my own head and I want to help people learn to do the same thing.”