Tour victory four years in the making
Twenty Valley member cards first win on Niagara junior tour
Competition first brought Payton Bennett to the Niagara District Junior Golf Tour, but it’s the camaraderie that keeps the Twenty Valley member returning year after year.
“I’ve met so many friends from it,” the 15-year-old said. “We just have a lot of fun, all the time, and I find that’s where I play my best.
“We’re just having fun. I look forward to seeing the girls more than trying to go out there and trying to shoot a good score.”
Being surrounded, and supported, by her friends on the summer tour helped Bennett overcome a start that was a “little rough” at a tour stop at par-72 Willodell Friday in Port Robinson.
“I made a bogey on the first hole, which I wasn’t expecting because the first two holes are two short par-5s,” the student at Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary School in Stoney Creek said after earning her first victory in four years on the tour.
That was her last bogey until the 17th hole when she shot two over.
“My goal the whole day was not make anything more than double.”
Bennett’s problem the past three years was the need to overcome a “blowout hole.
“I would play consistent the whole way and then make an eight or a nine,” she said. “To not have that today really helped.”
She didn’t begin thinking about her first win tour victory until the final hole, and even that was conditional on winning a playoff. Bennett thought she had to par the last hole to force a playoff but instead won by one stroke in regulation.
“I thought I was putting to get into a playoff,” she said. “I was putting for birdie and if I made it,
I win.”
Third win in a row
R.J. Derhodge remains on course to end the Niagara District Junior Golf Tour with the championship in the boys under-19 division.
A 2-over-par 74 was low enough to give the 17-year-old Niagara Falls native his third victory in a row and fifth in two years.
The Grand Niagara member’s round at the fourth stop on this summer’s tour was in no way remarkable. He was “scrambling quite a bit”
“Everything was kind of OK, it wasn’t really functioning,” the
St. Michael Catholic High School student recalled.
“My swing was letting me down a little bit, but I made a couple of putts out there to make some birdies.”
Once again, his short game carried the day.
“One per cent, for sure,” he said. “I wouldn’t be shooting these scores without it.”
Equally positive for Derhodge was the lack of a particularly big number on his scoreboard.
“You’ve got to stick with what you’ve got, and know your misses, know where to miss it so you can avoid that big number.”
In the clubhouse he touched on the the mindset of being on a roll and heading into three tour stops next week feeling some pressure as the golfer with the hot hand.
“I put myself in that position
(to win every tournament), I try not to focus on it so much, though,” Derhodge said. “I don’t want to get into my head.”
“I still have to play golf, I still have to play my own game.”
There are three stops on the tour next week: Monday, Lookout Point; Tuesday, Legends on the Niagara; Wednesday, Twenty Valley.
Bernd.Franke @niagaradailies.com 905-225-1624 | @TribSportsDesk