September of 2013 was when it all happened. Jenelle Bayus was in her sophomore year and playing her second season of Division III collegiate golf at Hiram College.
It was the second tournament of the year. The sun was shining and the weather was absolutely beautiful. The team was playing at Ohio Wesleyan University, which just so happened to be in a prime location, located directly across from the Columbus Zoo.
Jenelle remembers the scenery and said, "I remember seeing the zoo animals from a distance. That was really cool!"
She arrived in Hiram College's team vans cool and confident from her pre-tournament ritual: Bayus preferred not to talk to people before her tournaments and tuned out the world by listening to music. She was sporting her red polo on Saturday and then wore her blue polo on Sunday because Tiger Woods wore red on Sunday and she never wanted to match.
In the previous year, Bayus had just an average year. In fact, this team was not much different.
Jenelle said, "We all played like crap the weekend before and coach was yelling at us, telling us how our swing coaches are crap and that they don't teach us anything".
Despite these comments, Bayus returned home to her swing coach for one last lesson before the tournament. It turns out that it paid off. On the first hole, Bayus smacked a drive right down the middle of the fairway.
Bayus said, "I knew from the first hole that it was going to be a great day because the first hole is normally the worst for me".
Bayus finished the day as the best on her team. Despite the team's shooting total of 745 strokes over the weekend, Bayus shot the team's best (low) on both days, shooting 87 on Saturday and 89 on Sunday. Although the team did not do as well as she had hoped and placed eighth out of nine teams, Jenelle could not be any more happy with herself.
Jenelle said, "And to top things off, we got to go to the zoo after we were done playing. And I didn't even lose a ball that weekend!". We both shared a laugh as she sighed through a smile.
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