Athlete of the Week: Will Harding

Q: When did you start playing golf?

A: My dad introduced the game to me when I was probably four years old.

Q: Why did you start playing?

A: My mom said when I was kid, I always had those plastic golf clubs in my hand, and I’d just always be playing golf. It was something I just fell in love with.

Q: Where do you play golf outside of East?

A: I play at a lot of courses throughout the summer but my home course is Kansas City Country Club.

Q: What’s different about playing golf at East compared to Kansas City Country Club?

A: Golf [is] usually just an individual sport but it’s fun to be on a team with a bunch of people who work hard to win. So it’s fun to get a team aspect in an individual sport.

Q: What have you learned from the sport that can be applied to you own life?

A: Probably the most important thing is patience. A lot of things aren’t going to go your way, and you just have to learn to battle through it and stay patient.

Q: When is a time you’ve had to use this patience on the course or in your life?

A: If you’re playing with slow people and they take a lot of time when they’re putting, you just kind of have to focus on something else besides the fact that they’re really slow. And in life it’s when you’re doing homework and you don’t really want to do it.

Q: What is your favorite golfing memory?

A: Actually like three weeks ago I was playing golf with my grandpa and he hit a hole in one and it was his first one. He’s 73 so that was pretty cool for him.

Q: What is your role like on the varsity team this year?

A: It’s not much different than last year, it’s the same top six as last year and we all know each other really well and we’re all equal I guess. We all like to play with each other so it’s fun.

Q: What is the team’s overall goal for this season?

A: Last year we lost at state by three shots to Blue Valley North. This year we have all our returning guys from last year and our goal is to definitely win state, and probably not lose a tournament in the year.

Q: How are you guys working to achieve this goal?

A: We practice every day after school; we play nine holes at different courses like Indian Hills, Mission [Hills], Milburn, and Kansas City. We all just practice as a team and on our own on the weekends.

Q: Are you guys doing anything differently this year to try to win state?

A: I don’t know I feel like last year we didn’t have any seniors on the varsity team, but this year we have four of them, so I feel like everyone’s taking it a lot more seriously. We actually have some really good leaders which is good, and we didn’t really have that last year.

Q: What are your personal goals for this season as an individual player?

A: Probably win state, I mean that’s the ultimate goal. I have a lot of smaller goals for myself like just doing the best I can at every tournament and playing the best I can play.

Q: Do you plan on continuing your golf career after high school?

A: Yes, it’s probably my favorite sport. I want to play golf in college, that would be really fun.