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HAVE TEE WILL TRAVEL
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PENGUIN SENIOR: Youngstown State golfer Mollie Boney hits a shot at the Horizon Leage women's golf championships at Plum Creek Golf Club in Carmel, Ind. Boney, now a senior, finished ninth in the championship.
By Pete Mollica
Mollie Boney is a senior golfer on the YSU team
Coming out of high school, Mollie Boney wanted to go away to college. Now, her appetite for distance is satisfied in yards.
YOUNGSTOWN — When Mollie Boney was a senior at Cardinal Mooney High School she really wanted to go away to college.
Then Boney was introduced to the Youngstown State women’s golf team and coach Roseann Schwartz, and her decision quickly changed.
“I was introduced to the game of golf when I was 6-years-old by my father,” said Boney. “When I was at Cardinal Mooney I really wanted to go away to college, just because I’ve never been away.
“But once I met the girls on the YSU golf team and Coach Schwartz I knew this was where I wanted to be and to play golf,” she said.
Boney, one of two seniors on this year’s YSU team, is excited about the season and high hopes for the Penguins.
“This is a strong team this year and everybody has been working hard,” Boney said.
The YSU roster includes fellow senior Amanda Brindley, juniors Reagan O’Brien, Ann Ciavarella and Brittany Stillwagon, sophomore Katie Rogner and freshmen Samantha Formecki, Jamie Berndt and Amanda Spitzer.
The Penguins opened the season last weekend with a second place finish in the Bucknell Invitational, where Formeck took medalist honors and Boney finished fourth.
Sunday and Monday the Penguins will play host to the YSU Invitational which will be played at Pine Lakes Golf Course in Hubbard.
The Penguins won the event last year when it was held at Salem Hills Golf Course.
Boney said she’s spent a lot of time on her game the past year.
“I still need to work on my short game, especially my putting, but I feel that my experience will be a big help to me this season,” she said.
Boney said that her father was a major influence in her golf game as a youngster, but since she got to college she has been working with professional Joe Allen at Avalon Lakes as well as with Schwartz.
“Joe Allen has really be a big help to my game,” Boney said. “He completely changed my swing and rebuilt it and he’s also helped me with the mental side of the game.”
Boney has been a regular with the Penguins since her freshman season and has improved with each year.
Last year she played in 11 tournaments and averaged 83.0 per round in 24 rounds and in her first Horizon League championship she placed ninth overall.
Her low round with the Penguins has been a 77, which she shot twice, once as a sophomore and once last season.
“I also played basketball and softball, until I got hurt playing softball and then decided I would concentrate on golf,” she said.
She is an exercise science major, but still hasn’t decided whether she wants to go that route, or to try her hand at golf management or becoming a teaching professional.
mollica@vindy.com