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CHESTERLAND NEWS Volume 57, No. 9 • Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Your Community Newspaper Since 1967
Preparation Key for Phillips As Golfer Wins District Title By Alan Kornspan sports@karlovecmedia.com “Failure to Prepare is Preparing to Fail” legendary 10 time National Championship Basketball Coach John Wooden used to tell his players at UCLA. For Wolverines Golfer Dylan Phillips, this was an important lesson he learned at an early age. Phillips' meticulous physical and mental preparation led him to winning the OHSAA District Title on Sept. 30 at Windmill Lakes Golf Course in Ravenna, the collegiate home golf course of British Open Champion, Ben Curtis. With the victory, Phillips has now qualified for the OHSAA Boys Div. II State Championships for the second year in row. To win the District Title, Phillips shot a 71, two strokes better than his closest competitor. But for Phillips, winning the District Title and returning to states was not a forgone conclusion at the start of the round. Phillips said that he started the round slow with an early bogey and double bogey due to a few bad swings and some mental mistakes. Before long, Phillips suddenly found himself in 21st place. Some golfers may have panicked, and others may have allowed the pressure to slowly get to them. But not Dylan Phillips. He had prepared for this moment. After dropping to twenty first place early on, Phillips dug deep and demonstrated his mental toughness as he overcame adversity to get himself back to the top of the leaderboard. “I battled, I fought, I stayed in it physically and mentally to get to a point where like ‘I could still do this thing if I make some good shots’,” Phillips said. “Sure enough, when my season depended on it, I had
ALAN KORNSPAN/KMG
West Geauga’s Dylan Phillips, who shot a 71, qualified for the Div. II state championships for the second year in a row after winning the district tile Sept. 30 at Windmill Lakes Golf Course in Ravenna.
some of the best swings of my life, (for) like five straight holes.” He continued: “With those swings on those five holes I got myself into first place. It was just awesome, an awesome mental battle, an awesome physical battle, I'm super happy.” As Phillips made the turn after shooting a 3 over 38, he described his mindset that allowed him to concentrate and stay in the moment as he carded a back nine 2 under, 33. Phillips explained that he was able to have a positive mindset and high self-efficacy because he knew he had put in the physical and mental preparation to succeed. “I prepared like crazy to get ready for (Districts),” said Phillips. This high level of mental and physical preparation allowed Phillips to believe in himself and tell himself to keep sticking with what
got him to districts. “(I told myself), ‘I know I'm good enough, I know my game is good enough and that if I keep doing what I'm doing, staying in it mentally, that the physical part will take care of itself,” he said. “I just stayed in it mentally and it all turned out well.” But as well known mental performance coach Dr. Bob Rotella famously said, “golf is not a game of perfect.” And as such, Phillips said he had some moments on the back See Golf • Page 3