I have been playing competitive golf since I was 14 years old. If I do the math correctly, that means I”ve been playing amateur golf with something on the line for the past 42 years. I enjoy competing at golf and as I explain simplistically to those people who wonder why, it”s a simple matter of no longer wanting to hit the curve ball, no longer having to put on the pads, and no longer watching my jump shot when I can barely jump.
Yet with all this past experience of playing golf, I have to acknowledge that last Sunday”s second round of play in the Lake County Open at Buckingham Golf and Country Club was the most distracted I”ve been on a golf course in more than 30 years. After first-round play, I was in a four-way tie for second place, a distant six shots off the pace. The leader after Saturday”s play was Nick Schaefer, the No. 1 golfer on the Kelseyville High School golf team. While I happen to be Nick”s coach, I”m also his dad. This time around, I had a lot more interest in what the leader of a tourney was doing than I normally would.
I had the 9:20 a.m. tee time on Sunday. Nick was paired with Norm Rentsch, Paul Moore, and Juan Lopez in the final grouping at 9:30 a.m. Moore and Lopez are past champions of the Lake County Open and both of them are talented enough that they can go low, each capable of shooting an under-par round. Paul and Juan had both acknowledged that their rounds on Saturday had been less than stellar and they expected to do much better on Sunday.
From my perspective as a parent and a coach, I was nervous for Nick. I had played with him during Saturday”s tournament round and he”d caught some good breaks, including a way-off line drive on the par-5 16th hole, a miracle shot through the trees and over the water. He ended up making a putt for an eagle-three. Had that tee shot been on any other number of holes at Buckingham, it would have gone way out of bounds. He also made pretty much every putt he looked at. A bad break or two could lead to a Sunday 77 for Nick while Juan or Paul could come in with a 70. I could see Nick”s chances of being the Lake County Open champ taking a hit from his more experienced pursuers.
Over the course of the first few holes, I found myself watching the foursome behind me much more than I should have. I reeled off three early pars, but I wasn”t very focused. On the fourth tee, playing partner Chip Bowlin had to remind me to hit my tee shot. I had been gazing back to the third tee, watching Nick”s group hit their shots to the green. At that point I figured I”d better get back to the task at hand and I spent the next seven holes simply playing my game and avoiding all contact with the group behind me.
While waiting on the 12th tee, Nick”s foursome hit their shots into the par-3 11th hole and walked past us. Nick had a twinkle in his eye and so I took a bit of a gamble and said to him, “So, how”s it going? How do you stand?”
My jaw must have dropped a foot when he stated, “Well, Paul and Juan are both playing pretty good. Both of them are 1-under-par for the day.” I wasn”t surprised by what Nick said as both Moore and Lopez are scratch golfers who have a history of tournament success. And then Nick added the kicker. “Oh, and by the way, I”m 1-under-par, too.”
I went back to being totally distracted once again. As I walked down the 12th fairway, I saw one of Buckingham”s pros, Jim West, cruising the golf course in his cart. I asked Jim to bring me updates every now and than so I would know how Nick was handling the first-time pressure of leading the Lake County Open against a strong field of experienced adult golfers.
After completing my 14th hole, West told me that Moore had birdied the 11th and 12th holes. Suddenly, Nick”s lead was down to three shots and he had the 13th hole ahead of him with out of bounds right and out of bounds left. Somehow the tee shot on the 13th must have worked because as I got to the 15th green, I saw Nick hitting first on the 14th tee. He had the honors, meaning he had the low score on the 13th. I later learned he birdied the 13th, and when he made par on the difficult 15th while Moore bogeyed it, his lead was back to five strokes.
While playing the 17th, I watched Nick and Paul birdie the 16th hole. Then while waiting to tee off on the final hole, I watched Nick successfully navigate the watery 17th. He made par, Moore made birdie, and the lead was a safe four shots with but one hole left to play. By then I was so distracted that I took out my driver on the 18th hole, made my usual compact, up-the-middle swing, and wildly hooked it 50 yards off line into the water.
Some 15 minutes later, Nick tapped in for par from 3 feet, becoming the youngest champion in the 18-year history of the Lake County Open. He shot a final-round 3-under-par 69 on a day when a former California State Amateur contestant threw a 4-under-par 68 at him. That”s pretty heady stuff for a 17-year-old.
As Nick walked off the 18th green, he came up to me and gave me a big hug. My mind raced back in time to that Christmas morning back in 1999 when I gave him a set of LaJolla junior golf clubs, the kind with shafts whippier than fishing poles. I got a big hug that day, too. As I walked back to the clubhouse with him, my disappointing fourth-place finish in the Lake County Open was far removed from my mind.
What was there to be disappointed about? I happen to be the parent of a very talented golfer. More importantly, I happen to be the dad of a really neat young man.
