Just two years after Sean Paul Owen started walking, he began to play the sport he fell in love with. At the young age of 3, his father, Timothy Owen, gave his son his very first golf club, a tiny driver.

“He had a club in my hand when I was 3 years old, a little plastic thing,” Owen said. “Going out in the backyard, we have probably 150 yards, so being that little, I could hit [with the] driver.”

Despite his passion for golf, his real love was the competition. In high school, he was a three-sport athlete, as he played soccer, basketball and lacrosse.

“I enjoyed the competitive atmosphere of sports,” Owen said. “And that [was something] I wanted to do in college.”

Owen was on the varsity soccer team for three seasons. In 2014-15 as a senior captain, he led his team to a solid campaign and was even named MVP of the boy’s soccer team at Horseheads High School. Aside from his personal accolades on the pitch, he also made his presence known on the hardwood. He played varsity basketball for two seasons and was able to do something no Horseheads basketball team had done in over 15 years.

In 2015, he helped the Blue Raiders win the Section IV Class AA title for the first time since 1999. The senior used his outstanding court-vision to help the team defeat Binghamton comfortably by a score of 49-34. His team’s achievements also helped him reach some of his own, as he was awarded the Varsity Coach’s Award for boys basketball. Because of his efforts, Owen was named Horseheads High School athlete of the year in 2015.

As a freshman at Oswego State, Owen tried out for the soccer team, but he was cut from the team. The former soccer captain turned to his love of golf and tried out for the golf team, despite missing the first day of tryouts.

“He was going to try to play some soccer, and there was a conflict where soccer tryouts overlapped with golf tryouts,” Oswego State golf coach Mike Howard said. “He missed the first day of tryouts, and we had already made some cuts, so it was hard to work him in. In hindsight, we should have let him play that year because he would have helped [the team].”

Owen was rather disappointed he did not make the soccer team; however, he is still satisfied with his place on a golf team, something that was completely new to him.

“Soccer was my main goal. That is what I focused on for my whole life,” Owen said. “I didn’t play golf [competitively] in high school. My first time was sophomore year in college.”

In his first year playing golf competitively, he played an integral role on the Lakers, who earned fourth place in the Eastern College Athletics Conference Championship. In that specific tournament, Owens finished at plus-7, which was tied for 22nd out of 91 golfers. His 151 two-day total was good for third on the Lakers, just three strokes behind Oswego State’s top finisher, Corey Marshall.

Aside from the top-25 finish, he placed third at the Oswego State Spring Invitational, which was the best finish for the Lakers that weekend. Owen also helped the Lakers to a second-place finish at the Elmira College Fall invitational at the Elmira Country Club, a course he is quite familiar with.

Growing up in Horseheads, Owen was just a short 15-minute drive from the Elmira Country Club. As a result, the course is like a second home to him.

“It is a tough course, the front especially,” Owen said. “The greens are really tough, so playing on them growing up, knowing how they break is a huge advantage.”

After a brief hiatus from the team last spring due to a study abroad program, Owen is back and ready for his senior year. This season, however, his focus is on more than just him, as he is helping the younger golfers out as a seasoned veteran. The new faces on the team, like freshman Ryan Fecco, help pull the team up.

“They bring a new energy to the team, and we are pleased to have them,” Owen said. “We are confident [Fecco] can put up good numbers, and it helps everyone else step their game up, too.”

This season, his play has reached a new gear. In four tournaments, his worst finish was at the St. John Fisher Invitational, where he landed in fourth place. He was in first place for two of the tournaments, including the Empire 8 Fall Championship in which he propelled the Lakers to first place. Aside from his raw talent, it is how he trains that really sets him above the rest.

“[It’s] his work ethic and time he puts in at the golf course to get better,” Howard said. “He is the type of guy that would play 18 holes somewhere and then come back to Oswego [to play another nine holes] and hit balls and putt in between.”

Despite the three seasons of competitive golf, his passion still comes from that little plastic driver his father bought him as a toddler. Owen loves the game for the purest of reasons, he said, to spend time with the people he loves.

“Going out playing with him,” said Owen. “There is nobody I would rather play golf with than [my dad].”

Graphic by Shea McCarthy | The Oswegonian