When Olivia O’Connor was younger, her and her father frequented a Dick’s Sporting Goods near their home. Her father being an avid golfer, he spent many hours perusing the golf section with his elementary school-age daughter beside him.
O’Connor one day asked if she could give the sport a try. Her dad agreed to buy her a set of clubs, on one condition: she join a junior league.
That’s where O’Connor grew to love the sport and decided she’d play in high school. But she was unsure if she’d make Harford Tech’s team her freshman year. Even when she did, she was rarely her team’s best scorer. Over time, though, she blossomed into one of the area’s best golfers and, this season, capped a decorated high school career by being named The Aegis 2025 high school Golfer of the Year.
“I did not expect it at all,” O’Connor said, reflecting on her season. “I had one goal for myself, and it was to get a state medal. I was very surprised, because it’s not easy.”
O’Connor, who will play collegiately at Stevenson next year, was dominant all season long. She started her postseason with individual victories in the Hatem Division and Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference championships. Then at states in College Park, she came in second in the girls 2A/1A individual championship, the highest finish of any Harford County golfer. She’s perhaps even more accomplished on the track and field circuit, where she’s already placed at states several times. Taking home hardware for golf, which she calls “her sport” more so than track, was the one thing eluding her high school athletics resume.
She credits that success to two things: keeping her tee shots in play more often and fewer putts. Those are the areas of O’Connor’s game she feels she improved the most this season and fueled such a dominant senior campaign.
“I’m not really built super strong, but I really have learned as long as you keep your driver in the fairway, you should be set up to have a really good approach shot,” O’Connor said. “And one thing that improved for me was my putting, especially at states. I didn’t count how many putts I had in previous years, but I knew that’s what I needed to work on. All those tournaments, I noticed my putting was a lot better.”
O’Connor also attributed her accomplishments to handwritten notes from a former teammate, which she said helped her mental toughness during competition and prevented a bad hole from snowballing into a poor round. A Harford Tech senior at the 2024 state tournament wrote encouragements like “you got this,” “nothing to lose” and “one shot at a time” on small pieces of paper and stuck them in O’Connor’s bag. She’s kept them there all this time. Every time she goes to grab a new tee or reach for a ball, they’re there, a daily reinforcement of the attitude O’Connor aspires to golf with.
“It definitely helps,” she said. “It just remind me that I’m playing for myself, my team and my future, and I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Have a news tip? Contact Taylor Lyons at tlyons@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/TaylorJLyons.
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