West Orange golfer Shawn Coultoff's mindset is key to special senior season

Coming off a dominant performance (-8 over 18 holes) at the inaugural West Orange Invitational at Stoneybrook West Golf Club, West Orange High senior golfer and FSU commit Shawn Coultoff went into the eighth annual Wolverines vs. The World Invitational boys golf tournament as one of the clear front-runners to take home the individual title. 

But, as it goes in the sport of golf, one round, you can feel like your Tiger Woods wearing a red sweater on a Sunday, and the next, you can look like a literal tiger trying to swing a golf club. 

After the first two holes of the invitational tournament at Orange Lake Golf’s Legends course, the momentum from Coultoff’s win at the Warriors’ home course felt like a distant memory.

“In the shotgun start, my round started on the 16th hole … and I just had a bad start,” Coultoff said. “It was probably the worst two starting holes I’ve had in a long time. I just had some bad shots that led to a couple of bad putts, and I started the tournament off with double bogey on 16 and bogey on 17. I was three over through two holes.”

As a younger golfer, Coultoff would have let the rough start eat away at his focus and compound on itself hole after hole.

“In the first two years, if this would have happened, Shawn would have really gotten down on himself,” West Orange boys golf coach Jason Thorndill said. “He would have started talking to himself and muttering. He’d let a bad shot or bad hole drag on into the next two or three.”

But at this stage of his golf journey, the senior has seen too much to get rattled after a pair of bad holes. He knew there were 34 more left to play. 

“When you start off poorly, whether it’s a couple of bad holes in golf or in football, you throw a couple of interceptions, the tendency can be to get in your own head,” Coultoff said. “But for me, in that moment, something clicked in my head and took me to another gear … and I ran off three birdies in a row and got myself back to level.”

CONSISTENCY IS KING

Those three birdies were just the start. 

The future Seminoles golfer finished the two-day, 36-hole event three-under par and took home his second consecutive individual tournament title. This type of bounce-back was not the least bit surprising to Thorndill. After all, he’s had a front-row seat to Coultoff’s career and development. 

“Well, he’s the best I’ve ever seen, and I’ve had some good players over the years,” Thorndill said. “He’s as complete of a golfer you’re going to see at this level, and I’ve been lucky to be able to coach him.” 

Coultoff’s experiences over his golf career have taught him a thing or two about the game he loves, but one idea has become the foundation of this stage of his development: Consistency is king. 

“My goal is to play consistent golf,” he said. “Every time I get on the course to compete, I’m trying to play to my average, which I know sounds weird, because the idea of sports is that we’re trying to push to do better and better. But for example, at Stoneybrook West, my average score is 69, so my goal, during a competition, is to play to that average. The thought process is simple. If I try to press, the odds are that I’ll actually play worse over time, because I may be trying to do something I haven’t practiced or just am not capable of. Trying to play above my average usually ends up with me getting frustrated. So, I just try to play to that average, and while working outside of competitions, I try to slowly get that average down.”

This mindset not only allows the young golfer the ability to push aside mistakes but also gives him confidence he will be able to bounce back on his next swing. 

“I think back to the start of this season, I had a rough time in our second match,” Coultoff said. “But having this approach, I was able to get past that and bounce back the next round I played; I think I shot three or four under.”

Thorndill said Coultoff’s success is well-deserved and the direct result of his hard work.

“The run he’s on — winning tournaments, setting personal bests —  it’s amazing to see, because I know the amount of work he’s put into this and what he’s experiencing right now are the fruits of his labors,” he said.

YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE

Coultoff and his West Orange teammates aren’t done, though. Led by the senior star, his goals are sky-high for the rest of the season. 

“The ideal goal would be to win both the team and individual state titles, but winning as a team is the main goal,” Coultoff said. 

“I believe, as a team, we can go all the way. I feel we have what it takes to put it together. It just comes down to staying focused on our preparation and then playing some good golf down the stretch in the postseason. We can do it, as long as we have the belief that we can. If you don’t believe you can do it, in a game like golf where you’re the one in control of your ball, you don’t stand a chance. So, you have to have that belief, which is easier to have when you put in the work.”

Thorndill, in typical coach fashion, is working to keep his golfers focused on not getting ahead of themselves and focusing on what’s in front of them.

“Since Shawn won individual regionals a couple of years ago, he kind of has a target on his back as one of the top golfers in our area,” Thorndill said. “But he also knows he’s capable of going far this season, and he should be aiming to win the state title, which I know is a goal of his. But I know, for him, making a run with this team would mean a lot. We have never made it to regionals as a team in his four years, and with it being at our home course this year, it would be special. But we can’t put the cart before the horse, and we need to focus on getting ready for our district. We’re in an extremely tough district with Olympia, Windermere and Winter Park, so we can’t overlook any part of the process when looking toward our goals.”