An OLLU student who turned a dream into a reality
SAN ANTONIO – Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) student, Victor Peña Cortes, has created a name for himself in the golf community. Cortes was recognized as the Red River Athletic Conference Men’s Golfer of the Week for March 27 – April 2. This was the fifth golf award for the spring season. Despite his impressive golf career, Cortes started his athletic career in tennis, until he suffered an injury. “Throughout my life, my main sport growing up has always been tennis, but when I was 15, I suffered an injury on my elbow,” Cortes said. “Ever since that injury, I lost interest in continuing with tennis, which is a decision I regret now, but my parents introduced me to golf in 2019.” In the summer of 2022, a childhood friend of Cortes introduced to him the idea of college golf when his friend received a scholarship to study in Missouri. With the idea in mind, Cortes began to do research and came across OLLU. “I stumbled upon OLLU, and after researching the golf and academic program, my father and I decided to contact the head coach for the golf team, Arnie Martinez,” Cortes said. “After a few Zoom meetings with Coach Martinez, I decided that joining OLLU and the golf team would be a great opportunity for me to develop my golf game to its full potential as well as get to a new part of the world.” With the challenges of being a student-athlete, Cortes continues to keep his goal in mind. “Being a student-athlete is very demanding, but it is worth all the trouble,” Cortes said. “Being part of a competitive golf team has helped me develop myself as a golfer and as a person too. From what I have seen, I strongly believe our Golfteam is capable of performing at a high level.” Cortes also won the club championship at Abu Dhabi City Golf Club as a freshman in college and plans to continue his golf career outside of college. “The main reason why I came to the [United States] was to improve my golf game, so far I believe I have done a decent job,” Cortes said. “My primary goal in golf is to pursue professional golf. However, I also enjoy medicine, and pursuing a career in medicine will be something I will also consider. But as for now, my main focus is golf.” Cortes is majoring in biology with a minor in mathematics and will start a job as a math tutor in the next academic semester.There is no ads to display, Please add some
