Boo Timko strives for perfection with each and every swing in a game filled with its lion's share of peaks and valleys.
The Canfield High School graduate was always one of the area's best golfers and sought to consistently improve his game.
That's why he gravitated to Ohio State University's men's golf team and coach Donnie Darr, who was an outstanding golfer for Kent State in the mid 1990s.
"I knew he was an extremely good player," Timko said. "He would be able to help me out and help me to do a lot better. One thing he's taught us is to handle our emotions because that's a big part of golf."
All Timko needed was a little confidence, which he got early in his sophomore season at OSU.
The Girard native put two top-10 finishes together at the Marshall Invitational and Wolf Run Intercollegiate earlier this month, which helped him to be named player of the week for the Ohio State University men's golf team.
Timko's stroke average was 70.33 after those first two tournaments of the season.
Before Timko got to this point in his game, he honed his skills in the offseason - winning the Ohio Public Golfers Association State Championship in late July at Seven Hills Country Club in Hartville.
"Through that, it gave me a lot of confidence to bring back to the course this year," Timko said.
Timko admittedly says his course management around the green has vastly improved.
"My short game got a lot better, my wedges, chipping and stuff," Timko said "That was always the weak part of my game. I can always get a lot better at it. The biggest difference is having better course management and knowing how to handle my emotions and handling different situations - thinking better on the course. That comes a lot with experience. That's what makes the biggest difference."
OSU coach Donnie Darr has noticed his sophomore's improvement with his wedges.
"He's starting to touch the ball more consistently, which is the key to being a good chipper," Darr said. "You've got to return that club head to impact the same time so you can judge how it's going to react when it's on the green.
"I would say in the last three weeks he's improved in that one little area."
Darr said Timko's putting has improved as well thanks to a change of clubs.
"We switched him to a belly putter last year," Darr said. "I really believe that's helped his game and free up his stroke a little bit. At times, he struggled with his confidence with his putting. With the belly putter, he feels a little more secure. He doesn't have to worry about his stroke as much. He can focus more on his speed and his touch."
Darr wants Timko to focus more on the 25-foot birdie putts he sinks and less on those 5-foot par putts that lip the cup.
"Boo's competitive to a fault," Darr said. "He cares so much and works so hard that he wants to do so well that at times when it gets away from him a little bit, he gets a little bit too frustrated. I just keep talking to him about trying to let bad shots go, you have to learn to let them go quicker. Another thing is you have to have a longer memory on his good shots.
"He can hit 10 good shots in a row and he never really takes all that positive energy away from it. As soon as he hits two bad shots in a row, he gets a little frustrated. Just trying to get him to have a little bit more balance, be a little bit more level throughout his round. He never misbehaves or shows any outward emotion, he's just overly hard on himself."
Timko is still working on that part of his game.
"I think everyone can always work on it," Timko said. "I've put the hours in. I've done enough practice to know all I have to do is trust it in competition. If I miss a shot, I should know that this is going to happen. It's golf. Put it behind you and I can get it back my next hole - not let anything behind you effect you what you're doing in the future."
All Darr asks for Timko and all of his golfers is to give a good effort each and every round. It's something Darr learned from Kent State coach Herb Page.
"The big thing I learned from Herb is you've got to be competitive," Darr said. "It doesn't matter how you're hitting it, you just have to find a way to put a score on the board. Herb was really consistent as a coach, day in and day out. I knew what we were going to get from him. You've got to do the best you can."
Timko hears those same sentiments being echoed through Darr.
"He tells us we're the best team in the field," Timko said. "We've worked hard enough. We've put the hours in, probably harder that just about any other team.
"All we have to do is go out and trust it."
