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Buckeyes' Coffing back on course
Former Middies standout named Big Ten Golfer of the Week months after returning from surgery for wrist injury last season.
Friday, March 07, 2008
To go from the operating table to Big Ten Golfer of the Week in a matter of months is quite a feat for anyone, but Middletown native Carling Coffing did it after facing the possibility she'd never play golf again.
Now, with a retooled golf game and a wrist that's "about 95 percent," Coffing is out to make even bigger accomplishments.
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Coffing, the Middletown High School graduate who claimed the state high school golf title as a sophomore, is savoring each moment of her senior year on the Ohio State women's golf team, and for good reason.
Last season, a wrist injury forced her to step away from the game. Doctors originally thought she had tendinitis in her right wrist. At one point they thought she'd need to have bones fused together, a procedure that would've ended her golf career.
Then a deep X-ray revealed a tiny cyst of fluid deep within her wrist. In June, surgeons removed the growth, but had to remove part of her wrist bone to get at it.
"I spent six months without picking up a golf club, and for a while there, I didn't know if I'd ever play golf again. That was scary to even think that," she said, while driving back to her dorm from the team's wedge practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Facility on the Ohio State campus.
She's come a long way already this season. Just two weeks ago, after leading the Buckeyes and finishing third overall at the Central District Invitational tournament in Parrish, Fla., Coffing was named Co-Big Ten Golfer of the Week.
"It just feels so good to get back into it again," she said. "With the help of my parents (Tom and Leona Coffing) and my coaches, and because I wasn't able to even pick up a club until last September, I think I'm now more focused than I've ever been.
"It's really exciting to be back on the course again."
Since the college spring season began in February, Coffing has been either first or second on the Buckeyes in scoring. At last week's Naples (Fla.) Challenge, Coffing finished third overall, just two strokes behind teammate Emma Jandel, who is from Oakwood.
"Right now I'm working really hard, because I want to go out with a Big Ten championship," she said. Coffing finished second at the Big Ten tournament two years ago, but the wrist injury kept her on the sidelines last season.
"I'll just keep working on my game until then, but right now I can see my swing evolving. And my overall game feels like it's getting better and better. I can't wait for the Big Ten Championships," she said.
Coffing, who had earned a playing card on the Futures Tour just a week before the wrist injury, has a medical exemption to play on the Futures Tour this season once her college career comes to a close.
"But that's all down the road," she said. "It's a thrill to be golfing again, but now my goal is to win the Big Ten title."
The Big Ten tournament is set for April 25-27 in University Park, Pa.
