Athlete of the Week: Elliot Cowden

Freshman Elliot Cowden has had a great start to his first season as the only freshman on varsity golf. He won second place overall in his first high school invitational at Kansas City Country Club. Though he spent most of his life playing soccer, he injured his hip while kicking in seventh grade, making it more difficult to play his favorite sport. He is now focusing on playing golf.

Q: How long have you been playing golf?

“I started playing golf back in sixth grade. I always went out with my grandpa, but I didn’t really start playing tournaments until seventh grade.”

Q: Why didn’t you go back to soccer after you fully recovered from your injury?

A: “I caught a golf bug where I started liking golf better than soccer and I’ve always kind of had lingering injuries through soccer. With golf, I found that I didn’t get injured all the time, so that helped me make my decision to not go back to soccer.”

Q: Were golf tryouts as a freshmen stressful?

“I’ve known coach [Evan] Scobie for a while. He’s in the teaching program at Kansas City Country Club. He’s taught me lessons, so that helped with tryouts and starting to get in with the team as a freshman. Having those connections pretty early on was nice because he’s a great guy and it’s been really fun with him so far.”

Q: What was it like winning second at your first tournament?

“The first tournament was at Kansas City Country Club, which is the course I’ve played on for a while now. I was kind of surprised just because it was a tough day out there [and] I didn’t really feel like I played my best. I was pretty surprised that [my playing] ended up getting me second place.”