Playing in the sand, and other golf stories

The high school golf season is officially over, and I'm really going to miss it. I had a great time watching our Polson and Ronan teams compete over the past two months, and I sure learned a lot about golf, students and myself along the way.

I was a little bit of a jock in high school. I was one of those students who was lucky and blessed enough with natural talent that I could usually make the varsity squad with little or no effort. I played basketball and soccer and baseball growing up, and although I wasn't always the best player out there, I was usually in the top five or so.

All of which doesn't mean squat when it comes to golf.

I'm a hack. I stink. I'm not being modest — I mean, I really stink. My dad has tried for years to patiently coax me onto the course, but my day on the links usually is a frustrating one, as I watch my brother and dad tee off with ease while I flounder around in the sand, in the water, in the rough, in brambles and bushes and grass up to my knees — anyplace but the fairway.

I guess that's why I really admire the local students who can go out there and hit the ball with relative ease. Most of the time it goes exactly where they want it to, or at least within 20 feet of where they need it to go. I'm lucky if I tee off and my ball goes 20 feet, period.

When I sign up for a tee time, the golf pro has to book a backhoe operator to come fill in my divots. I hit divots farther than I hit the ball. I once birdied a divot on a par three. I was so proud of myself. To date, it's my only birdie.

That's probably one reason why I really admired the Ronan and Polson golf teams this season. Unlike most other high school sports that require size, speed, trips to the weight room, sheer muscle and other factors that I once had, golf is the anti-sport.

It requires patience, finesse, timing, constant practice to become even mediocre, and the ability to laugh at yourself.

I only have one or two of these traits, and while I have no problems making fun of myself in this column space, I hate looking like a hack on the golf course. It's frustrating when you were a varsity letterman in high school but you can't hit a little golf ball even 40 yards in front of you. I can hit it 40 yards directly to my right or left, and I can hit a divot 40 yards, but a nice tee shot 250 yards up the fairway is something that consistently eludes me. Heck, if they moved the dog legs 20 feet in front of the tee instead of 250 yards away, I'd be one of the best golfers in the world.

So it was with much wonder that I watch the local golf students do so well over the past two months. I really had a great time following them around the courses throughout the area, and got to know some really neat kids along the way — kids who are probably not hailed and revered like the typical high school jocks, but who can do things that few starting football, basketball, or baseball players can do.

There were some great moments this season, like watching Ronan's Josh Grenier sink what was about a 30-foot putt that broke three different ways up at the Bigfork Invitational, or Polson's Kellan Mills' 55-footer in sudden death play at the divisional tourney (Kellan is the first one to admit that he can't do that nine times out of 10, but hey, it was fun to watch nonetheless.)

During last week's state tourney, Polson's Jason Newton was putting for par on the 10th hole on Friday and sank a 15-footer that broke about a foot and a half to his left. "Get in, get in!" I yelled as it sank in the hole, causing one of the other players in his group to give me the evil eye for my exuberance (or maybe because he didn't have a photographer cheering him on). It was a putt Tiger Woods could probably sink in his sleep, but Jason was the only one in his group to par that hole due to the tough green.

It was really neat to watch Ronan's Shayla Couture and Polson's Kristine Samsel emerge as two of the better golfers in the girls competition in the last few weeks of the season. It was fun to watch Polson's Jenn Orchard and Ronan's William Foust compete with the best the state had to offer. They were right up there with the best of them, week after week.

Other times it was downright funny. I joked with the students that, as much as I hated to tell them this, the best golf pics are of them hitting out of a sand trap with the sand exploding all around them and me capturing the ball about two feet off the ground. Of course, I didn't want them to hit it in the sand traps, but if they did, I just wanted to be there to take some pictures.

I was teasing Ronan's Leslie Morigeau about that at the divisional tourney late last month.

"Doggone it, Morigeau, how am I supposed to get a good shot of you hitting out of the sand when you always put the ball in the middle of the fairway?" I jokingly asked her.

She laughed, and stepped up to hit the ball on an approach shot to the green, and promptly hit it into the sand trap I was standing next to.

I felt terrible. You could just see the other girls in her group looking at me. It was clear what they were thinking. He jinxed her. It's his fault she's in the sand. He's an evil person.

I would have felt better if Leslie had just clocked me over the head with her sand wedge, like I deserved, but she just laughed and gave me a look that said "Are you happy now?" and promptly hit it onto the green.

One student teed off and accidentally hit a vehicle that was driving through the residential area at the Bigfork Invitational last month. The ball bounced off and amazingly, landed back in fair territory. Everyone got a big kick out of that shot, and the student who hit it was able to laugh along with everyone else. (Her name is being withheld to protect the guilty.)

Jenn Orchard walked up to me on the fairway of the sixth hole at the state tourney last week and said "Hey, Ethan. I was getting ready to tee off and I saw some bald guy at the end of the fairway, and I knew it was you."

It's always nice to be recognized.

I saw a lot of great sportsmanship out there, too, and we have some really classy students in this county.

Last Friday, I was watching students practice at the driving range in Whitefish before state tourney action resumed, and I said "hi" to Ronan's Lindsey Cornelius. She actually stopped her practice session, stepped off the tee area, walked over to me, reached out her hand to shake mine, looked me straight in the eye, and said, "Hi, Ethan. Thanks for coming."

While I've had students thank me for showing up to an event, I've never had one walk up and shake my hand and say thank-you with such total sincerity like that. All of the golf students were like that.

What amazed me was just how supportive all the students were of each other and members of the opposing team. They'd high-five each other on a great putt while knowing that at the end of the day, that putt could be the difference between second and fifth place, literally. The Ronan and Polson students were equally supportive of each other, and while there was, of course, a healthy rivalry, it had none of the trash talking or competitive drive to "put someone in their place" that you often see in other sports.

But the best part of the season was probably just watching students half my age do something that I'll probably never be able to accomplish, or at least be very good at. For that, my hat's off to them.

But I'll make sure to wait and tip my hat until after they tee off. I don't want the glare to get in their eyes.