Champions' TriBUne Archive

By: Garrett May   
 
Champions' TriBUne is a special feature through Baylor Athletics that will give you the student-athlete's perspective and tell their story in their voice. Garrett May, a senior from Hope, Ark., has recorded 22 career top-25 finishes and is second on the men's golf team this year with a 72.04-stroke average. A two-time state champion in Arkansas, May earned third-team All-America honors last year as a junior. Baylor is seeded fifth for the NCAA Louisville (Ky.) Regional that starts Monday at the University of Louisville Golf Club:
             
My career at Baylor has been nothing short of a full life journey. If I could go back to when I was a freshman, that person would not recognize who I am today. Years of destructive temper, years of not feeling like he was good enough to be here, years of loving golf but being furious every time I played. This journey to who I am now started with that, but thanks to the help of coach Mike McGraw, I can proudly say that I am not that person anymore.
 
I am from Hope, Arkansas, a town of 10,000 people and more farms than gas stations. I went to high school in the "big city" of Texarkana, Texas, thirty minutes east. A solid high school player, yes, a mature one, absolutely not. For as long as I can remember, I have loved golf, but was never happy with the result. Up until mid-way through my sophomore season, I was constantly comparing myself with other people who were better than me, or should I say farther along the road than I was.
 
Coming from a small town, playing against people who I saw as being born for high-level golf, I had a crazy amount of little-man syndrome (ironically I am not a big guy, either). My desire for perfection, to be the best, and to find self-worth through golf, led me to become the most hot-tempered, destructive person to walk on the golf course. Thousands of slammed clubs on the ground, hundreds of broken clubs, millions of words not suited for this article, all made up who I was on a golf course. It was only the days that I was playing well when that side didn't come out, but I knew it was only a few bad swings away.
 
Tournament after tournament, I would have these outbursts of anger and frustration that were not only embarrassing to myself but to the university I was representing. Coach McGraw, in his immense patience, tried to help me time and time again, and I would try to change, but it was all the same. My teammates felt it, my parents felt it, my coaches felt it, and even I felt it, that the path that I was heading on was only going to end in pain and failure.
           
I wish I could tell you that I just dug it out of the dirt, did some self-reflection, and automatically turned into the man I am today. If it were that easy, I don't think I would be writing this because I would've learned exactly nothing from it. It was hard, and it sucked, but over time the lessons I was being taught by coach and the numerous times I was just getting beat into the dirt by everybody I played, I started getting glimpses of what a champion's attitude looked like.


 
My sophomore year, I remember that coach McGraw would walk the whole tournament with me, helping me out, keeping me calm. Looking back on it, I probably looked like I was completely helpless because I couldn't do this on my own. Left to my own devices, my perfectionist brain would've taken me down the same path every time. This was my battle. The battle of not letting my deep desire to be successful be the thing that keeps me from where I want to go.
 
If I can give any advice to someone going through this, it's to never let your emotions control the direction you want to go. I want to play professionally, and I am more prepared to do that than at any other time in my life. But, if I let my emotions drive my actions and decisions, I will not get any closer to my dreams. It wasn't until I learned this point that I finally got over my emotions on the course and started playing my best.
           
The thing about athletes is that success is what we are going for, but the best players in the world are rarely happy with where they are. The bar always gets that much higher, I have to jump this much farther, run this much faster, it is a never-ending strive for greatness. I don't want that to be the story of my life. I do want that to reflect in my practice, my work ethic and my determination, but when I lay my head down at rest I don't want to only be thinking about how much better I have to be to climb the next rung on the ladder. Life has so much more to offer than that.


           
After Baylor, I will pursue a professional career. It will not be easy, far from it, and I will have more downs than ups for a long time. I now welcome those down times. Because of the experience I have gained at Baylor, I now look at hard times as opportunities for the best of me to come out. After all, you learn more about yourself through hard times than you ever would in the successful times. Losing is the biggest opportunity for learning and growth, something that I would've never believed just a couple of years ago.
 
In my time at Baylor, I have had ups and I have had downs. I have been an All-American, and I have failed to qualify for tournaments. I have even been left at home because my attitude was not suitable to take on the road. I have had fun, I have cried. I've had relationships (emphasis on had), and I have made lifelong friends. Nothing compares to the progress I have made as a person and the gratitude that I have to coach Mike McGraw and coach Ryan Blagg for being with me through all of this and seeing me out the other side. I can't even fathom going to any other school. Baylor University is where God wanted me, and it's where He put me. I am forever grateful for Baylor, and I am sad that my four years are coming to a close. It was a fun ride.
           
In closing, I will leave you with one life tip that I have learned from coach McGraw- Whereever you are in life, what defines you should never be accolades or trophies, but the lasting effect you had on the people around you and how you have been as a person.


 
Previous Champions' TriBUne Features
Women's Golf - Maria Vesga (May 2, 2019)
Acrobatics & Tumbling - Camryn Bryant (April 25, 2019)
Equestrian - Shannon Hogue (April 16, 2019)
Women's Tennis - Angelina Shakhraichuk (April 9, 2019) 
Women's Basketball - Lauren Cox (March 22, 2019)
Track & Field - Wil London (March 7, 2019)
Men's Basketball - Jake Lindsey (March 4, 2019)
Softball - Nicky Dawson (Feb. 21, 2019)
Baseball - Josh Bissonette (Feb. 14, 2019)
Men's Tennis - Will Little (Jan. 31, 2019)
Men's Basketball - King McClure (Jan. 17, 2019)
Women's Basketball - Chloe Jackson (Jan. 3, 2019)
Football - Blake Blackmar (Dec. 13, 2018)
Volleyball - Braya Hunt (Nov. 29, 2018)
Soccer - Jackie Crowther (Nov. 16, 2018)
Cross Country - Alison Andrews-Paul (Nov. 8, 2018)
Football- Ira Lewis (Nov. 6, 2018)