Andy Ogletree is looking forward to some much-needed time off from golf.

This week’s qualifying tournament for the U.S. Amateur Championship marks the fifth event in as many weeks for the former Union High School standout, coupled with a busy spring season at Georgia Tech. 

The rising senior said he will take to the gym instead of the links next week before traveling home from Atlanta to Little Rock for the Neshoba County Fair. 

“It’s been all golf since January,” he said. “I’m a little worn out, but I’m looking forward to the break and getting my body back where it needs to be.” 

Ogletree will still play while home, traveling the short distance from his parent’s fair cabin to practice at Dancing Rabbit Golf Club. If successful this week, he’ll play in the U.S. Amateur Championship for the third straight year.

As part of the busy last several weeks, Ogletree won the Monroe Invitational Jun. 15 in Pittsford, N.Y. by two strokes with a 1-under-par. 

He said he was relieved to get over that hump. 

“It was huge for my confidence,” Ogletree said. “It just showed me that I could play in any condition. I could play under that pressure and get it done. It was very satisfying to say the least.” 

The victory was the culmination of a highly improved short game, something Ogletree wanted to focus on after what he called a disappointing fall season at Georgia Tech.

“I felt like I wasn’t getting enough out of my golf game,” he said. “It felt like I was hitting it good enough, I just wasn’t scoring well, and it was just super frustrating.” 

He met with his coach after the fall and together they determined that it was indeed his short game that needed help. 

“He didn’t think it was where it needed to be, and I didn’t think so either,” he said.

He started dedicating more and more time in practice to those parts of his game, getting more repetitions on putting and having a better feel on chipping. 

In the spring season for the Yellow Jackets, Ogletree finished first for his team in six of eight events and had four top-10 performances, including a second-place finish in the ACC Championship. He missed the cut at the NCAA Championship.    

“In the spring, I honestly felt like I didn’t hit it as good as I did in the fall, but I just played way better because my short game was ten times better,” Ogletree said.

He was named to the All-ACC team and the Golf Coaches Association of America All-American second team. He attributes the accolades to his chipping and putting. 

“I neglected that part of my game for a while because I was working on swing stuff,” he said. “But the whole spring and this summer I really tried to commit to making the short game a necessity.” 

Ogletree plans on finishing his senior season and graduating with a degree in business administration before turning pro and trying his hand at the PGA Tour Canada.