Archive: Toledo Rocket Success Stories

By Steve Easton, Associate Director for Athletic Communications

TOLEDO, Ohio - Unlike most collegiate golfers, Palmer Yenrick wasn't born with a club in his hands.
 
Growing up in Oregon, Ohio, Yenrick mostly played baseball, basketball and soccer. He was even a kicker on his high school football team.  He didn't start playing golf until he was around 11 years old. It was just something he did in the summer and fall, in between his other sports.
 
"I started playing golf when I went to some junior camps and fell in love with the game," Yenrick said. "I played it just for fun, to hang with my buddies and see what happened."
 
By the time Yenrick was a junior at Clay High School, he was down to playing just two sports, baseball and golf. He was an outstanding baseball player, earning first-team all-conference honors and leading the team in batting average as a senior. He was good enough that he could have continued his career on the diamond in college.

 

"I could have gone to some schools in Michigan and played baseball," said Yenrick. "But after growing up in Toledo and knowing what the university had to offer, I decided to come here and concentrate fully on golf."
 
The transformation from being a baseball player who played golf into a golfer who used to play baseball began immediately, with the time commitment required to play golf full time increasing dramatically.
 
"My freshman year I had class all morning and then grabbed a quick lunch before going to practice all afternoon," said Yenrick. "I also would stay after practice trying to get better and having a strict schedule. That was a big change."
 
Toledo Head Coach Jeff Roope said Yenrick was a work in progress when he first recruited him.
 
"When we first saw Palmer's swing on video from high school we were up in the air on whether to recruit him," Roope said. "We knew he was an athlete, but we didn't know if he was going to be a golfer.  It turned out that he had an incredible work ethic and was passionate about what he was doing. Because of that, his transition to golf happened relatively quickly."
 
One critical thing Yenrick did was change his swing. After spending so many years playing baseball, his golf swing was more Detroit Tiger than Tiger Woods.
 
"My swing looks a lot different than when I came here as a freshman," said Yenrick, who was district golfer of the year after posting a 71.3 stroke average in his final season as an Eagle. "It is totally different. It worked okay when I was a freshman, but now I'm a lot more accurate and able to hit the shots you need, like fades and draws."
 
Roope added that in addition to changing his swing, Yenrick also had to learn the game in terms of course management and shot selection.
 
"Palmer had the ability to hit shots and hit them a long way," Roope said. "A big key for him has been changing what he's hitting off the tee, where is targets are, where his misses should be and where his scoring opportunities are.  It's still a work in progress with both his swing and how he thinks about the game of golf, but he has come a long way."
 
After not playing as a freshman and seeing limited time in the lineup over the last two years, Yenrick has earned a spot in the Rockets' lineup this fall and has a career-low 73.9 stroke average in his first three tournaments. That's after qualifying for the U.S. Amateur over the summer by shooting a seven-under 137 in a two-round qualifier.
 
Yenrick credits part of his evolution as a golfer to the opportunity he's had to work as a caddie the last three summers at the historic Inverness Club. Thanks to this summer job he's also been able to practice more at the Rockets' home course.
 
"When you have a course of that caliber in your back yard it's hard not to get better playing and practicing there," Yenrick said. "I get to learn a lot about the course and what makes it hard.  I've been able to translate that to other courses.
 
"It's also fun to meet different people, whether its club members or people from Texas or other places far away. It's a nice opportunity to get to know them and find out what they do and get some insight."
 
Those interactions could pay off down the road for Yenrick after he graduates and enters the business world. He possesses a 3.718 grade-point average is set to graduate next spring with a finance degree but is planning to return next season and start working on his MBA in sales management.
 
"The exciting part for Palmer is that he knows there is still more refining he can do with his game," Roope said. "What he's doing now is coming partly due to his athleticism, but once he takes that refinement even further he can reach his full potential."