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Nicole Gal: golf's next big player

Nicole Gal at Ontario Junior (U19) Girls Championship at Shelburne Golf and Country Club | Golf Ontario
Nicole Gal at Ontario Junior (U19) Girls Championship at Shelburne Golf and Country Club | Golf Ontario

Nicole Gal is making waves on the junior golf circuit. She will no doubt become a big player in the future, but before she can think about that, she has to finish high school. The Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School student is going to Grade 11 this fall, and she currently trains at the Oakville Golf Club and is being coached by Ann Carroll.

Believe it or not, Gal hit her first golf ball when she was only four years old.

“My dad and my grandpa are into golf, so they took me to the driving range when I was really young,” said Gal. “We just hit balls and I kept doing it more and more each year.”

“I hit my first golf ball when I was four, and I joined an academy when I was eight, and I started competing when I was 10.”

Her mother, Kathryn Gal, has always stood by her side, along with the rest of her family. Although Kathryn doesn’t know a lot about golf, she was willing to do what it took to make sure her daughter succeeded.

“She didn’t have to push us hard,” said Kathryn. “We were ready to do whatever she wanted to do. We put her in a lot of activities when she was young. She liked a lot of activities, and she was good at a lot of activities, and we were just wondering what she really wanted to pursue. She chose golf, and we were willing to do whatever she needed.”

To become a world-class golfer, you would thing that physical training is not necessary. You’d be wrong.

“I’ve been doing a lot of strength training to get more muscle and power,” said Gal. “I’ve also been doing a lot of yoga and stretching to get more flexible.”

Gal also does a lot of mental training. Among the tools she uses is a golf-specific program called VISION54, which helps unlock a golfer’s potential, no matter their skill level. She also does some mental training with former Olympic skier Allison Forsyth, who also provides Gal with her physical training program.

As for those golf trainers available for sale on almost every shopping website, Gal has no need for them.

“Some give a lot of good tips, but I have a really good coach that knows me,” said Gal. “I get to see her once a week for a private lesson, sometimes more for group lessons, so I don’t need to use any of the online trainers.”

Just like every athlete, Gal’s training regimen was massively affected by COVID-19. Before the mandatory lockdown, she was in Florida for the winter, and she was forced to come home.

“We set up a net in our backyard, so I could hit my full swing,” said Gal. “I had a putting mat, which I used to putt a bit. Once courses were open, it was good to play but I wasn’t able to practice as much because driving ranges weren’t open yet. Our golf course didn’t open the practice facility; they didn’t open the chipping facilities until a couple months ago. It was a lot of block practice and a lot of reps.”

With the resumption of tournaments, Gal has hit the ground running. At last weekend’s Ontario Junior (U19) Girls’ Championship, Gal finished second, finishing at -2. She has three more years to participate in the tournament, and she already beat many competitors who were older than her.

The only one who beat her was Katie Cranston at -6. Coincidence or not, Cranston also trains at Oakville Golf Club. The most successful winner of the U19 Championship was Brooke Henderson, who won the event twice in a row from 2011-2012. Henderson would go on to become the second-youngest winner of an LPGA major, winning the 2016 Women’s PGA Championship at 18 years, 9 months.

Although of all of Gal’s successes, one towers above the rest. The 2019 Drive Chip Putt title (Girls’ 14-15 division) at last year’s Masters was her most memorable.

Drive Chip Putt is a junior golf tournament that takes place on the Sunday before the Masters. There are three components (driving, chipping, and putting) that make up the competition. Unlike traditional golf scoring, points are gained based on the distance travelled by the ball. The more points you score, the better.

All aspiring winners have to go through three qualifying events to make it to the finals at Augusta. All qualifying events take place in the US, but it does not exclude international participants from taking part. Gal travelled to participate in a local qualifier, before participating in a sub-regional qualifier followed by a regional qualifier. Only nine other girls qualified in her division to travel to the Masters.

And Gal beat them all.

“It was Augusta, and it was such a special place,” said Gal. “I didn’t know what to expect, but it was even better than I imagined. I went there just to take it all in, try my best, and see how it goes. I ended up winning which made it even better, but there was no place like it.”

Gal is active on Twitter, and her bio is simply a golf emoji, followed by the year 2022. This allows prospective schools and coaches to know when she will graduate high school. Her long-term plan is to get an athletic scholarship to a school in the US.

“I’ve been talking with a few schools in the Carolinas,” said Gal. “It’s kind of hard for them, though, because they haven’t been able to come watch me play anywhere, so they’re just going off scores, but I really do like the climate there.”

Currently, the only Oakville golfer to win a major is Sandra Post, who won the 1968 LPGA Championship. Post also learned to play golf at the Oakville Golf Club. Might we see Gal’s name added to that list in the future? If her current trajectory is to continue, that might very well be the case.


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