Golf is not a fashionable sport at the high school level. It doesn’t draw any spectators, it has no contact, and is seen by people as a hobby opposed to an actual sport.

But, that doesn’t matter to senior Miles Atkinson, who is one of the most consistent golfers at Fossil. 

Atkinson is in a unique position, as he had limited time as a part of the Sabercat golf team. Atkinson lived in Texas, about 30 minutes outside of Dallas until his junior year. 

His dad was a golfer, and taught both Miles and his older brother how to golf. Atkinson would mostly use it as a hobby as a young kid, but started competing in tournaments in middle school, and then made junior varsity as a freshman. The school he attended was very competitive when it came to their golf team.

Miles would eventually join a private golf academy for a full semester before moving to Colorado, and joining the Sabercats varsity team. He describes a very different environment at Fossil compared to his old school.

“The team I played for in Texas was one of the better teams, I wasn’t one of the star players…it was very competitive…they drove a lot of competition and really focused on that. Here it’s more let’s play as best as we can…the coaches are much more relaxed, they just try and make everything more fun,” Atkinson said

What makes golf so different from other sports is how much of a mental focus it takes to play consistently good golf. Miles admits to struggling with the mental aspect of the game, and has been working on several strategies to keep himself in the zone.

“Breathing really helps, just taking like a few breaths before every shot…slowing down, usually when you’re playing you speed things up, so you’re walking faster, you’re putting your ball mark down faster…you just gotta keep everything at a smooth pace. Then probably not thinking hard. When you start to think you start to hit bad shots,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson has several ambitious goals in his golf career. He has already accomplished his main goal of playing college golf, as he has already committed to Hawaii-Pacific. Atkinson also has ambitions of being a pro golfer, and is looking to become talented to play enough at such a high level.

Despite these ambitious goals, Atkinson has already accomplished a lot in his golf career, highlighted by shooting a team-best 152 at the state tournament, and was a part of the playoff against Monarch at regionals to help qualify the team for state.

“… it was just super super fun…it was very much a moment of we needed this…it was really intense but really fun,” Atkinson said.

As the boys golf season has come to a close, Atkinson will continue to work on his skills and prepare himself to start playing at Hawaii-Pacific next year.