Finally playing pain free, Cal (Pa.) golfer Cole Villa ready to ascend among region's best

The pain finally became too much for Cole Villa to tolerate.

For several years, Villa continued to play golf with an osteochondritis injury in his knee. It was an old basketball injury that caused part of his knee cap to chip off.

But Villa was hesitant to get surgery. He wanted to finish his senior season at Leechburg so he could get an opportunity to play college golf. Once he got to Cal (Pa.), he wanted to be able to establish himself on the team.

Once he did that — he averaged 76.5 per 18 holes during the fall season of his freshman year — Villa decided it was time to get surgery. The regimen of ibuprofen was no longer sufficient to dull the pain.

So in December 2021, Villa finally went under the knife. In the aftermath, he had to stay off the knee for six weeks then undergo several months of rehab.

Villa, now a sophomore, returned to action this past fall, routinely playing as the Vulcans’ No. 2 man. In 10 matches, he averaged slightly higher than the previous fall (77.3) and finished 19th at the PSAC championships.

“I wasn’t upset with it,” Villa said about his performance. “I think after my summer performance, before I even got back to the fall season, I was expecting a little bit more. … I had a lot of really, really quality sessions with my swing coach over the summer … so I was expecting a little bit more.

“At the same time, taking that much time off of competitive golf, it’s a completely different atmosphere going out and playing by yourself. There’s not as much pressure. There’s so many different aspects of the game that come into play. I’m not upset. I’m hoping to improve on it.”

Now, in the brief spring season, Villa will be looking to set himself up for a strong junior campaign. That Villa immediately established himself as one of the Vulcans’ top players was no surprise to coach Pete Coughlin.

“I recruit two kinds of kids: One has kind of had success at the junior level and can step in right away,” said Coughlin, in his 16th season as Cal’s coach. “And the other who plays other sports and is just kind of starting to scratch the potential of where he can be as a golfer. Cole is definitely in the first group.

“I fully expected him to be in the lineup as a fixture from the time he set foot on campus.”

And now he won’t have to worry about his knee. Villa said there is still soreness — he does exercises and ices it to keep it limber — but it’s nothing like what he endured when the injury was at its worst. He said he couldn’t even get in the practice repetitions he needed.

The biggest issue, he said, was being able to transfer his weight during his swing. Properly shifting weight through the golf swing is a huge part of the mechanics.

Villa said he was able to get by. For a while.

“Playing golf for as long as I have played golf, I can figure out ways to get around some things when I need to,” he said, “so it didn’t affect me that much.”

That type of determination is one of the qualities Coughlin said he likes most about Villa.

“What drew me to him as a coach recruiting him is he’s just a bulldog,” Coughlin said. “He’s just got that mentality that he’s going to put his nose down and get done what he has to get done. There’s no excuses.”

If there was a silver lining to his injury, Villa said it helped him to refine his already-potent short game. Once he was cleared to pick up a club again, he did endless chipping and putting drills until he was given the green light to start taking full swings.

Even when he did return to taking full swings, his distance didn’t come back right away. That eventually returned, but until it did, he had no choice but to get better with his short-iron play and his putting.

“I wasn’t hitting many greens,” he said. “I had to learn how to get up and down from a bunch of different situations that I wouldn’t particularly want to be in.

“The most important part of the game is under 100 yards, so if you can control that part of the game and you can get yourself to that part of the course, you’re really going to be able to capitalize and score.”

Villa said the key to his success — this season and beyond — will be his ability to get off the tee. Though not a bomber, Villa, Coughlin said, gets plenty of distance off the tee that no course will be “too big” for him.

If he is able to put his tee shots in favorable positions, Villa anticipates a strong season.

Coughlin said he can foresee Villa shooting consistently in the low- to mid-70s and becoming one of the top players in the region before he is through.

Now that he can play without pain, Villa said his goals should be much more attainable.

“I’m just trying to compete,” he said. “I’m trying to help the team grow and contribute to the team as best I can. I’m trying to be one of the best players in the region. I think now, having over a full year to fully rehab from this injury, I feel like I’m in a good spot both mentally and physically.

“I think I’m ready to make decent push for it.”