Maintaining a balance between schooling and golf is the name of the game for Emily Adams.
The years have slipped by quickly for Adams, 21, as she heads into her fourth and final year at the University of B.C. Okanagan in Kelowna.
“It’s been a really good experience,” she said. “I’m excited to be graduating.”
She’ll obtain a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology next spring, but has plans for further schooling. Adams figures she’ll put in another two or three years in graduate school at the University of B.C. in Vancouver.
Before that, “I might take a year off and do some travelling,” she said.
UBC Okanagan has provided Adams with all the tools to progress in her chosen field toward a few possible careers.
“It’s a really good stepping stone,” she pointed out. “It gives you all the pre-requisites.
“I’d like to specialize in either occupational or physical therapy and hopefully work with kids or athletes.”
Adams has never wavered from her intentions since graduating from Chemainus Secondary School and entering university. It’ll be nice not only for herself, but friends and family to see those goals come to fruition.
Adams has long been a fixture at Mount Brenton Golf Club since first taking up the game and remained an employee during the summer months since starting university. Attaining the extra work experience has interrupted plans to play golf more often, but she still gets onto the course as much as possible.
The university golf season actually begins early and Adams headed to Kelowna last weekend for the first tournament before returning home one final weekend prior to the start of school.
It turned out to be a great tournament opener with this season’s UBC Okanagan women’s golf team. Adams won individual honours handily by eight strokes with rounds of 83 and 84 for a 167 total.
“The greens were really pretty quick - different than here,” she indicated. “I should have done better, but that’s OK.
“I just don’t get out enough, as much as I used to as a 16-year-old.”
The next tournament is Sept. 15-16 and there are five throughout the season, including two on the Island at Victoria’s Highland Pacific and Morningstar, hosted by Camosun College and Vancouver Island University, respectively.
“It’s nice I get to come back to the Island twice,” Adams conceded.
While she’s working hard on boosting her Grade Point Average, Adams will also be cranking up the intensity of her golf game for the final university season.
“I’d like to try to improve a bit and work on my game in the next few weeks,” she reasoned.
“I think if I spent a lot more time on my golf game I could definitely improve back to where I was a couple of years ago.”
Adams has designs on possibly taking her game to a higher level.
“Maybe one day I’ll try and go for my pro card,” she said. “That’s in the far future.”
Between her other pursuits, Adams got a chance to play some softball this summer and even trained for a half marathon, running it under her goal time.
While many older people can often be heard commenting how fast time passes, it’s even the same for a young person like Adams.
“It goes by faster every year,” she said. “It’s unreal. It feels like I just graduated from high school.”