Virginia Golfer September/October 2025 | Page 30

Carbery says puckhandling efficiency translates to smooth hands on the putting green.

I love the game of golf and loved to play it. I had a bit of success as a junior golfer. But the competitiveness of hockey, the team sport aspect of it, the physicality of it— it sort of sucked me in.

– Spencer Carbery
WHEN IT CAME DOWN TO CHOOSING HOCKEY OR GOLF, IT WAS AN EASY CHOICE, RIGHT?
Honestly, it was a tougher decision than you might think. I love the game of golf and loved to play it. I had a bit of success as a junior golfer. But the competitiveness of hockey, the team sport aspect of it, the physicality of it— it sort of sucked me in. I had to make the decision to focus on that, even in the summers, so I didn’ t have as much time to play golf and practice it.
WHEN YOU TRANSITIONED FROM A PLAYER TO A COACH, WHAT KIND OF MENTOR WAS YOUR DAD?
He helped me a lot. We would just have different conversations. The sports are very different from a coaching perspective. There’ s a lot of individual teaching. Team collegiate golf is very individual, but you’ re also shooting for a team score. So we would have discussions and talks about how to get through to certain players, recruiting team players versus
CRAIG LAUGHLIN FOUNDATION( 2)
28 V IRGINIA G OLFER | S EPTEMBER / O CTOBER 2025 vsga. org