LOCAL SPORTS 27
CHAUTAUQUA STAR
FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2014
Golfer's
D i a ry
THE FIRST ROUND OF THE SEASON WENT PRETTY WELL
By Stefan Gestwicki (if you haven’t gotten
out already) are itching
badly to get out and
hit some balls. Well,
The Golfer’s Diary is a
weekly column for golf lov- I think the weather
ers. I am entering my third might finally start cooperating.
season as a golfer, so I’m
not sure I totally qualify as Before I start talking
a novice anymore, but I’ll
about the actual golf
discuss different courses,
on this warm, wet,
weather effects, new equip- windy day, I’d like to
ment and more relating to
remind golfers that
the game we love.
if you’re looking for
Our feet got a little wet, new equipment —
but I was finally able to shoes, clubs, tees,
balls, gloves, bags, ball
get out and play nine
at Pinehurst Golf Club markers, polos, hats,
grips, etc. — please
in Westfield with my
visit your local pro
buddy Bryan.
shop before buying
It was a long, cold
online or at a megawinter and I’m sure all retail store. Will you
of you golfers out there save a couple bucks?
Star Sports Editor
Maybe. But you assuredly won’t get the kind
of personable service
and satisfaction guarantee that you’d get
from guys like Ryan
and Nolan Swanson
at Pinehurst or Steve
Wintersteen at Cassadaga Country Club.
So onto the golf, shall
we?
Neither Bryan nor I
had been to a driving
range or indoor facility
of any kind all winter.
So that first tee box was
the first time either of
us had hit a golf ball
in six months. Now
that I’ve written that,
it’s sinking in just how
sad of a winter we just
had. Needless to say, I
used my “I haven’t hit
a ball in six months”
mulligan after my first
tee shot rolled about
50 yards. My second
one, however, I would
have been happy with
mid-season. Granted,
we had 25-30 mph
wind gusts at our back,
but still it was a nice,
straight drive.
I struggled mightily
with the irons all day. I
was making okay contact for the most part,
I just couldn’t get the
shot I wanted. When
I had the wind at my
back I couldn’t get the
ball up into the air and
when I was going into
the wind I couldn’t
get those nice low line
drives. The first few
iron shots were especially bad and it led to
a bogey and a doublebogey on the first two
holes, respectively.
My luck (probably not
skill) changed on No.
3. If you’re not familiar
with Pinehurst GC,
this is a really neat
hole where your drive
is over a creek and
between two groves of
trees. If you’re really
good you can hit a bit
of a draw to go around
a slight dogleg left. My
drive wasn’t great and
left me in front of some
trees, but without any
leaves on the trees I
had a pretty good look
at it. I had to hit a very
good iron shot and I
actually did. I got it up
and through the “uprights” of a tree and
got the ball within a
few yards of the green.
It was easily my best,
and possibly only good
iron shot of the day.
Holes No. 4 and 5
were easily the highlight of my round.
Both resulted in par,
but neither was particularly pretty. No. 4 is
the fi rst of two par 3’s
on the course. My tee
shot was embarrassing.
There’s no two ways
about it. I hit a dribbler that didn’t even go
halfway to the green.
Perhaps I was thinking
too much about the vicious winds going right
to left. So I still had
to use a 9-iron with
my second shot and
aimed way to the right,
hoping the wind would
bring it back. Well, I
hit it even further right
than I aimed and it
still got pushed all the
way back to the left
side of the green. It
looked like a trick once
it got up in that wind.
My putt was absolutely perfect. It was
probably 25 feet and
breaking downhill and
right pretty hard. I got
the ball rolling, letting
the downhill momentum do the work and it
went right in. Honestly
I probably couldn’t do
it again in 10 tries but
I hit it when it matters.
No. 5 saw another
amazing putt. A decent
drive was followed
by an okay long iron
shot that left me just
short of the green.
Unfortunately my chip
attempt was pretty
weak and left another
20-plus-foot putt. Obviously I’ve talked it up
enough that you know
I made the putt. I must
say too, I had a pretty
good fi st pump when
that ball dropped in
the cup.
Unfortunately I wasn’t
able to maintain any
momentum from those
two holes, fi nishing
with a 6, 5, 7 and 7.
On No. 9 I actually
felt lucky to avoid the
dreaded snowman. I hit
not one, but two flubs
from the fairway after
a pretty good drive.
When two shots travel
a combined 30 feet,
you’ve got problems.
But chalk that up to
having not playing in
six months.
The courses will continue to be wet over
the next few weeks as it
looks like the forecast
will call for a normal,
rainy Spring season,
but get out there when
you can. Even if you
don’t have time to play
nine holes, get out and
hit some balls at the
driving range. The
range at Pinehurst is
open and you can definitely work out some
of the winter-induced
kinks when simply hitting a bucket of balls.
If you have any charity
tournaments you’d like
me to mention in the
Golfer’s Diary, simply
shoot me an email at
[email protected].