Will Freeman and Ethan Mott are the two outgoing senior players on this year’s Corbin High School boys golf team. They both say that have enjoyed their time as Redhound golfers, but now that that chapter of their lives is coming to a close, they are looking ahead to what the future could hold for them in the sport.
“It has been really fun,” said Freeman, who has played golf at CHS since his sophomore year. “You get to come out and play free golf. That is the best thing. This is a sport that you can play your whole life, so to be able to come out and do it for free these past three years has been really fun. I’m going to miss it.”
Freeman got his start in golf just a couple of months before he decided to join the school team. “The first time I ever played was when I went with a friend of mine to Indian Springs Golf Course in Barbourville,” he explained. “He beat me, but I had so much fun. I thought, ‘This is the last time that he’s ever going to beat me,’ and I just started going out onto the course every day that I could. I just practiced as much as possible.”
With the 2024 high school golf season wrapping up, Freeman is now shifting his focus to the spring 2025 baseball season, where he and the baseball Hounds will be looking to defend their 13th Region championship crown. After high school, he said that he is thinking about attending Eastern Kentucky University and pursuing a golf management degree.
“That is something that I am really looking forward to,” Freeman said. “I feel like I won’t really work a day in my life if I get to do that.”
Mott has been with the CHS varsity golf team since he was a middle schooler. For him, this last year has been a bittersweet experience that marks the end of one phase of competition and what he hopes will be just the beginning of the next.
“It has been a journey, for sure,” Mott said of his high school career. “Starting off playing varsity at a young age is kind of different, but it has helped me to build up my game through the years.”
Mott said that he remembers his father and grandfather taking him out onto golf courses regularly as a young child, but it wasn’t until about the fifth grade that he decided he wanted to play for real. Since that time, he has honed his game and is now in a position where playing at the next level is a very real possibility.
“I am looking at a couple of different colleges right now, and I would like to eventually play professionally,” Mott said, adding that he thinks he has a good shot at making that dream a reality if he continues to practice every day and keep his mind on achieving his goal.
When asked about this past season, Mott said, “It has been great. I have spent a lot of time with these guys, and it has been really cool to watch them all grow up through the years. It stinks to be leaving, but it will leave a lot of opportunities for the younger guys. It will be exciting to see them go through some of the same things that I have.”
