Knowledge is power, especially on home course
Lookout Point member tops U19 boys flight at junior tour stop
Ethan Siebert got into a winning groove on his home course at a Niagara District Junior Golf Tour stop Monday, but only after getting out of a rut.
“A couple of the first shots weren’t too good, but I started getting into a groove and it all worked out in the end,” the Lookout Point member said after carding a 2-over-par 74 for his first tour win.
He suggested all golfers come into a tournament hoping to top the leaderboard.
“But you never really know until you start getting into a groove,” he said.
On Monday, the numbers on the Blessed Trinity Catholic Secondary School graduate’s scorecard weren’t always to his liking. He had a double bogey on the par-5 seventh hole and finished the round with five bogeys in all.
“The three birdies on the back nine kind of helped me, and even par never really hurts,” said the 17-year-old who birdied the final hole.
Siebert said knowing the greens and some slopes that a lot of golfers don’t know about “definitely helped” him snap R.J. Derhodge’s three-tournament winning streak on this summer’s tour.
“I’ve been a member here for four years,” he said. “If you play enough times, you kind of get a feel for the greens.”
Siebert, who intends to major in sport management at Brock University beginning in September, didn’t feel any pressure as the home-course favourite at Monday’s tour stop.
“Not really, I just went out and
played,” he said.
Siebert began taking the game seriously about five years ago, and in that time learned not to take golf too seriously.
“You just laugh it off,” he said of the need to forget about a bad shot. “I used to be pretty hard on myself but, then again, it’s just a game.
“In the end, it is a game, we’re not playing for money yet, and, hopefully, we do get there, but we’re just kids and it’s just a game.”
With the tour visiting Legends on the Niagara Tuesday and Twenty Valley Wednesday, the four flight winners from the Lookout Point tour stop won’t have much time to celebrate their victories.
Siebert is taking it all in stride, though. He doesn’t worry about the next tournament, only the next shot.
“I can’t really look into the future,” he said. “You have to be in the moment, be in the present, just worry about what you have at hand.”
Derhodge shot a 3-over-par 77 and finished tied for second with Luke Delgobbo after reeling off tour stops wins at Rolling Meadows, Grand Niagara and Willodell.
Putter saves the day
Sukriti Harjai didn’t let two double bogeys, including one on the last hole, derail her game when the Niagara tour visited Lookout Point Monday.
Instead of getting mad, the former tour girls champion focused on getting even.
Even par, that is.
Harjai parred enough holes, 10 in all, and carded two birdies for a one-stroke victory over fellow St. Catharines Golf and Country Club member Taylor Simoneau.
Again, Harjai’s shot game came to her rescue.
“My putting saved me a lot today,” the Saint Michael Catholic High School graduate said after finishing six over par with a 78. “The back nine was kind of rough, tough. “I had two doubles I brought it out back in the front, which was good.”
Focusing on the next shot, while forgetting about the last one, especially if it was a one, is an important of Harjai’s game.
“It’s really important not to get mad out there,” she said. “It’s really important to have a strong mental game, concentrate on your own game and not focus on anything around you.
“Every round I just want to shoot my best. I don’t really care what place I come in as long as I am shooting my best and what I can do to my capability.”
Like Siebert, the under-19 boys flight winner, Harjai won’t start thinking about other tour stops this week — Legends, Tuesday; Twenty Valley, Wednesday — until she has to.
“If I start worrying about the other holes or about tomorrow, it starts to mess with my head a little bit,” she said. “I just try to concentrate on my next shot.”
In September Harjai will begin majoring in commerce and playing golf at University of Victoria.