Bucknell women’s golf senior Morgan Sohosky learned first-hand that sometimes you don’t realize the impact of a lifelong pursuit until it is no longer in your life.
The daughter of a PGA professional, Morgan was born and raised in nearby Bloomsburg. Her father, Gary Sohosky, is a longtime teaching pro in the area and is currently the head men’s and women’s golf coach at Bloomsburg University. He is the former head pro at Frosty Valley Resort in Danville and has also had stints at numerous other clubs such as TPC of Scottsdale, which is the site of the PGA Tour’s Waste Management Phoenix Open. So naturally, Morgan had a golf club in her hand at a young age.
“My dad has made a career out of golf, so my younger brother [Ben] and I grew up on golf courses and the sport definitely became a big part of our lives. I think I started playing in tournaments around the age of five, just in some local five-hole events. I was super competitive. I remember a boy shot a 27 in one of those five-hole tournaments and all I wanted to do was beat his 27.”
That competitive spirit led to Morgan becoming one of the top junior players in Central Pennsylvania. She played on the Philadelphia Junior Tour and won tournaments held at Penn State and Elmhurst Country Club. Playing for Bloomsburg High School, she won four straight PIAA District 4 titles, she won the 2017 East Regional championship, and she was a rare four-time state qualifier. Morgan finished as high as fifth in the state during her senior year, and the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise named her their Fall Sports MVP.
But when it came time to think about college, Morgan felt that competitive golf had taken her far enough, and she took her hopes of becoming an engineer to West Virginia University. But it didn’t take long for Morgan to discover just how much her sport meant to her.
“I was only a few weeks into the semester at WVU, and I felt like I had this big hole in my life. I didn’t realize just how much of my identity belonged to golf. It was such a huge part of who I am, and suddenly it was gone. My daily routine just didn’t seem the same, I wasn’t being challenged academically as much as I had hoped, and I knew I was going to have to make a change.”
Morgan finished out the 2019-20 academic year at West Virginia, the last few months at home as the pandemic shuttered classrooms all across the country. She explored a few transfer possibilities, but the best option was right in her backyard.
Morgan had played the Bucknell Golf Club numerous times growing up, and she also had a few connections to the Bison women’s golf program. Her playing partner at the 2017 PIAA state championship was another sophomore from eventual state champion Sewickley Academy named Tatum McKelvey, who was in the midst of an outstanding rookie season at Bucknell when the season was halted in March. The two had kept in touch, and Morgan reached out to Tatum to find out more about the program and the team culture.
At the same time, Bucknell Athletics Hall-of-Famer Bob Marks, a former standout football player and now a prominent attorney in Danville, knew Gary Sohosky from the local golf scene. Marks reached out to former Bison coach Lisa Francisco, who was well aware of Morgan’s junior accolades and offered her a chance to try out for the team if she were to be accepted to Bucknell as a transfer student.
Morgan seized the opportunity, shooting a 1-over-par 71 in the first round of the team qualifier in August 2020. All of a sudden, she had a blue and orange bag embroidered with her name, and golf was back in her life.
“I was so happy to not just be playing golf again, but also to be part of a team. I was a little worried about being an outsider coming in as a sophomore, but everyone was so welcoming. Tate was a huge part of that. It’s amazing to look back and remember playing with her at states when we were sophomores in high school, and now we’re seniors and we’ve become best friends and roommates and teammates.”
Morgan was certainly a welcome addition to the team that fall, but there were no tournaments to be played. Sports were canceled all across the Patriot League due to the pandemic, and the team played a limited schedule in the spring. While unfortunate, Morgan recalls that it actually worked out well for her as a newcomer.
“Obviously we all wanted to be playing in tournaments, but we made the most of it. We did some fun little team competitions, and in the spring we got to do a couple of matches with Lehigh that we would not have done ordinarily. It wasn’t the way I envisioned the golf season going, but I also felt like I was part of the team.”
Morgan shot 74 in the home dual match with Lehigh, the second-best score in the field, and she made the starting lineup for the Navy and Bucknell invitationals later in the spring. She admittedly struggled a bit during the 2021-22 season, battling the mental side of the game, particularly on the greens.
“I’ve always been a long hitter and very confident in my ability from tee to green. But putting was a different story. Most players are thrilled to be on the green, but if I had a long putt I was praying not to three-putt.”
The spring of 2022 was also the time of a coaching transition, as Francisco stepped down in January. Men’s coach Mike Binney doubled up as the women’s coach on an interim basis during the spring, and then the Bison turned to another longtime fixture in the local golf community, Laura Tyler-Cook.
Tyler-Cook was formerly the head pro at the same Frosty Valley club that Morgan had grown up playing, and she is highly regarded as one of the top golf teachers in the area. While Morgan had never previously taken a lesson from the new Bison coach, she recalled an interaction during a PIAA state championship round when Tyler-Cook complimented her on her play. The positive reinforcement meant a lot.
“Laura really emphasizes the mental side of the game, and I think not just me but our entire team has really improved in that area over the last year. I feel like this spring I was playing my best golf, and it was all about being confident with my putting.”
Indeed, Sohosky was a regular in Bucknell’s top five this spring. She finished T-10th at the SMSU Spring Classic in Arizona in February, she shot 79-75 at the St. John’s Invitational in mid-April, and for the first time in her career, she made the six-player lineup for the Patriot League Championship.
Morgan not only earned a spot on the Patriot League team, but she had a great week, shooting 78-76-75 to finish in a tie for 14th place, only a few spots away from an all-conference medal. Led by a T-7th finish from freshman Paige Richter, the Bison posted their lowest 54-hole postseason tournament score (907) in team history, a whopping 20 strokes below the previous best.
After that stellar finish to her collegiate golf career, Sohosky is now fully ready to turn the page to the next chapter in her life. The small-town Central PA kid, who was just named to the Academic All-Patriot League Team, is headed for the bright lights of New York City, where she will be working as a wealth management analyst for Bank of America.
While initially interested in engineering, Morgan caught the finance bug while watching what friends were studying. She ended up majoring in markets, innovation, and design in Bucknell’s Freeman College of Management, and she served as the VP for communications for her company in the school’s innovative Management 101 course.
Morgan did two summer internships in New York City, first with Double Verify just after the company went public in 2021, and then with Bank of America last year. She was hired full-time by Bank of America in the fall and will be off to the Big Apple after graduation, where she will check off another life goal.
Morgan says she always thought it would be fitting if one day she could live in New York’s “Soho” neighborhood, noting the parallel with her last name. Last summer’s internship included housing at NYU, and her roommate will become her flatmate when the two return to NYC this summer.
“I am so excited to live and work in the city. It’s obviously very different from where I grew up, but having lived there the last two summers for my internships, I can’t wait. I already know the area where we will be living. There are a lot of young professionals and it’s a safe area with lots to do. Everywhere I’ve gone in the city I run into Bucknell alumni. I always heard that one of the biggest strengths of Bucknell is the networking opportunities, and I’ve already experienced that.”
Like many rookies working in the finance world, Morgan won’t have a lot of spare time for golf, but this time around she is at peace with that, particularly after the strong finish to her career.
“I am so thankful for my opportunity to learn and play golf at Bucknell, and now I am ready to see what the future brings.”
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