Experience in Division II pays off
Golfer returns to final season on Niagara tour after first year at university
Taylor Simoneau’s education wasn’t limited to the classroom in her first year majoring in kinesiology at Lake Superior State University.
Playing with — and against — golfers with some more years and many more rounds under their belts taught the 19-year-old St. Catharines native a lot about her game as well as about herself.
“You learn a lot, especially as you play with older girls on tougher, stretched-out golf courses,” she said after topping the girls flight at a Niagara District Junior Golf Tour stop Wednesday at Rolling Meadows in Niagara Falls.
“It’s really nice to come back and to feel like I really learned a lot and improved.”
The St. Catharines Golf and Country Club member’s biggest eye-opener playing Division II at the Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., university was helping put her game into perspective.
“It’s tough to explain, but playing with older girls has really helped me acknowledge they hit the ball as far as I do, they struggle with certain shots like I do.
“It really helped put into perspective that even on days when you don’t feel so great, you’re still a really good player.
“You still have confidence, even when you feel you’re not at your best.”
She wasn’t at her best entirely at Wednesday’s tour stop, but her 10-over-par 80 was good enough for an eight-stroke victory.
“It was up and down, I had a couple of rough holes, but I made a few birdies to bounce back,” said Simoneau, who won four stops on the Niagara tour last
year.
On the golf course the Governor Simcoe Secondary School graduate, only stresses about the things she can control.
“I more look at it that I’m playing the golf course as opposed to playing other people,” she said, “that helps me stay focused more on shot instead of score.
“I know that if I can hit good shots, the score can take care of itself.”
‘‘ “I know that if I can hit good shots, the score can take care of itself.” TAYLOR SIMONEAU 19-year-old St. Catharines golfer
Short game comes up big
Unlike at last Friday’s Niagara District Junior Golf Tour opener opener at Rockway Vineyard, the putter was the best club in R.J. Derhodge’s bag when action shifted to Rolling Meadows.
“I really turned my putting around today. That was helping me make par,” the 17-year-old from Niagara Falls said after his 1-over-par 71 topped the under-19 boys division Wednesday.
In addition to getting a handle on his short game from the outset of the round, the Grade 12 student at Saint Michael Catholic Secondary School made a point of not letting the pressure of competing at a tour event get to him.
“It just gives you confidence for the round,” he said of sinking his putts early. “You just have to treat it like it’s any other round, like when you’re playing with your buddies.
“That’s what I did today, I just went out there and I just set a goal to go out there and putt well, regardless of what’s happening, just go out and hit it.”
Derhodge, who hopes to attend University of Arizona “so I can play all year round,” finds that having confidence links all the parts of his game together.
He suggested his leaderboard-topping round at Rolling Meadows was testament to that.
“I came out today and I knew I had the game to do it.”
He opened this year’s tour carding a 78 at Rockway Vineyards last Friday.
“It was OK, it was like scrappy golf a little, but I was still making decent pars,” he said.
“I was just struggling a little bit with the putting.”