Dallas’ Ryan Roman chips on the first hole at Fox Hill Country Club in Exeter during the District 2 individual golf championships Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Dallas’ Ryan Roman tees off on the 16th hole at Fox Hill Country Club in Exeter during the Tom Tryba Tournament Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Dallas’ Ryan Roman chips on the first hole at Fox Hill Country Club in Exeter during the District 2 individual golf championships Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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DALLAS — The temperatures are bottoming out as Old Man Winter descends on the Back Mountain.
Local golf courses are shut down, and the greens are covered to prevent from damage associated with snow, ice and the winter months.
Inside Ryan Roman’s basement, the Dallas junior is at work.
With a net set up and a video camera focused squarely on his swing, he’s like a chemist working through different equations and theories in his laboratory.
His driver cuts through the air. The ball smacks squarely into the nylon.
Roman watches the video, analyzes what he saw and makes slight corrections.
“I always recorded my swing the most in the winter, and that’s when I really analyze everything. During the season and summer, it’s more about getting the feel and just playing. It’s motivating to grind down, and look at every motion in the swing to perfect it as much as possible,” Roman said.
What did he see?
“Usually, my tendency is to take the club path on the outside at the very beginning of the swing,” Roman said. “And for me, that’s an old bad habit to take it outside and go very flat with it, and in turn, I’m stuck at a terrible position at the top. There is no way to really rotate around. For the first two weeks after making an adjustment, it’s tough because it doesn’t feel natural. Once you do get it and come back in the spring time, the consistency and accuracy is 1,000 times better.”
No doubt, it has been for the Mountaineer.
Coming off a first-place finish at the District 2 Class 3A match, Roman will head back down to Penn State for the PIAA championships that start Monday. It’s his second time qualifying for states, making it there as a freshman.
He was well on his way last season, but it was the flu that sidetracked his journey.
“ My goal was to make it four years in a row, but it was a bummer. I got the flu, and couldn’t play. I was very focused to make it to states and do as well I can,” Roman said. “It was very disappointing because I put a lot of work in. In the end, you just say to yourself that it is what it is, and there is nothing you can do. You just have to think that it’s all God’s plan.”
That provided him the motivation during those cold, winter months.
The disappointment of missing an opportunity for states? Smack the ball into the net.
The pure motivation of making sure it didn’t happen again? Drill a ball into the net.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
“I spent a lot of time working with my dad in the winter, and he’s a good golfer, too, and he knows my swing in and out. That really set me up well. I wasn’t happy with how I started at the beginning of the season, but I just kept building and building,” Roman said.
He had a tremendous year in the Back Mountain.
Coming off a third-place finish at the annual Tryba Tournament, the junior ripped through the regular season. He shot a 76 at Fox Hill to win the pre-district tournament, three shots better than Wilkes-Barre Area’s Brady Gerrity.
At the District 2 Class 3A tournament, also at Fox Hill, he carded a 71 to finish four shots better than Gerrity.
“I shot even par, which was the same thing I shot freshman year. It’s a good feeling,” Roman said. “It’s about staying calm under pressure. It’s easy to get nervy when the pressure starts to mount. I was happy to shoot a 34 on the front. When you are the first group, you don’t know what anyone shot. You put your score on the board, and you don’t know what’s going on behind you. The 34 was one of the lowest on the front.”
He was looking to shoot a 2-over the first nine holes, which admittedly, isn’t his best opening nine.
He was 2-over through five, but never wavered.
The response? Chip-in eagle on No. 6. A solid par on No. 7. A birdie on No. 8.
“I was looking for anything under 2-over on the front because that front at Fox Hill usually gets me. The funny thing is the holes I usually do the worst on – Holes 5 through 8 – were the ones that I did good on,” Roman said. “That was a massive momentum shift. I was 2 over after five, which wasn’t too bad, but once I got that eagle, I knew I could steady the ship and just play golf.”
Now, its onto Penn State where he’ll tackle the Blue Course.
Roman has been waiting for this moment for a year. He gained that valuable experience as a freshman. The course, itself, is long – which the junior thinks fits his game nicely.
It’s about consistency on the first day.
Roman knows he doesn’t need to throw up a huge number, but he also knows, a bad one would put him out of contention early.
“I know the land there, and the course. I’ve been playing a lot of practice rounds there to get comfortable because it’s the kind of course that you need to be comfortable with,” Roman said. “There are a lot of long, scary holes that you need to know where the shot has to be. I’m excited. I feel like I can do well this year.
“Really, the first day, it’s about consistent golf. Just play the game, and not put up any big numbers. I feel like I have the distance for it, and it’s a longer course, so I like the setup. I would like to get a couple under par or even par. When it’s 30 degrees out, it’s a mental game. Earlier this year, I played at a big tournament in Hershey, and it was like 105 degrees. It was brutal with no wind or no cloud cover. I was able to shoot 1-under. I didn’t win, but I was tied for 15th in a tournament with like 130 people and a cut line. When you have these tough conditions, the mental aspect is 10 times more important.”
Originally Published: October 17, 2025 at 4:32 PM EDT
