“After I graduated, I kind of thought golf was over for me…” said Luke Bogdan.
He was wrong.
Bogdan’s family immigrated to Abbotsford in 1990. Without a ton of money, his parents enrolled him in cheaper activities, soccer being one of them. He played all the way up to gold level competition, before his curiosity was piqued by the game of golf.
“Maybe the year after, we all quit soccer and got junior memberships at Ledgeview Golf Club, and we played golf every day,” said Bogdan. The second he was dismissed from school, Bogdan would quickly have something to eat, and then be at the course until after dark. By age 13, he was heavily invested in the sport.
“I remember a few nights where we’d park our cars and put the headlights on over the putting green so we could chip and putt at night,” Bogdan recalled. Even when the course was closed for tournaments, he along with Nick Taylor, Adam Hadwin, Brett Webster, and Ian Mulder, were among the committed individuals who spent the day on the driving range or the chipping green instead.
Ledgeview is one of the few golf courses in North America that multiple PGA Tour players have come out of, and Bogdan is among the elite tier of golfers whose game was crafted there. According to Bogdan, what makes the course a unique challenge is the difficulty of their greens.
“Ledgeview is known for having very undulating greens, and so people learn from the slopes … they’re able to read [the] greens over time really well, but also just the landscape.”
The terrain of the course forces golfers to constantly adjust to different slopes and hit the ball from awkward positions — there’s not a lot of flat surfaces. “It actually makes you really good,” said Bogdan, “Because you’re learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
After graduating from Northwood University in Dallas, Bogdan took a job at an advertising agency in Texas. He couldn’t stand being indoors all day at an office, so he returned to B.C., eager for a career in golf. It was there when his game hit a wall.
“I got my game to a really high level. I was playing extremely well, but I wasn’t performing in the moments that mattered,” Bogdan explained. The hours he spent practicing with great success weren’t translating into tournament wins.
Golf, like all sports, relies on emotional and mental strength just as much as physical. Bogdan struggled with handling his emotions during the biggest moments early in his career. This prompted him to seek the advice of mental coaches and tweak his approach to tournaments.
“One of the biggest differences [between] Nick [Taylor] and I was that I felt like he handled the mental side of things better than I did … I felt like our games, in terms of physical ability, were always the same. I didn’t feel like he could do anything that I couldn’t do, but when it mattered in tournament settings, I felt like Nick was always slightly above,” he explained.
After coaching at Ledgeview for seven years, Bogdan packed up his things and hit the road. “I sold all [my] stuff, and moved down to Arizona. I bought a travel trailer and a one ton pickup truck … [and] I basically started from scratch,” Bogdan said. He would live in his camper for a year, driving to mini tour events in the Arizona area and attended nine or 10 Monday qualifiers.
“I started my first one in Las Vegas … then all the way to Texas, and then to the East Coast — all the way down to the Wichita area; North and South Dakota — then I went back down to Texas.”
Getting the chance to compete in more tournaments was a great opportunity to showcase his talent for potential sponsors, but Bogdan felt he wasn’t always at his best under the circumstances.
“I felt like my mental game was in a much better place. But one of the things I didn’t take into account was how much of a toll driving takes on your body.”
Since then, Bogdan now holds a variety of different course records, and is focused on becoming “unconsciously competent,” a trait he feels is shared amongst top athletes.
You can book Bogdan as an instructor at https://www.cheamgolf.ca/.
