The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Xavier’s Fosdick looks to build on big year
Xavier High’s Chris Fosdick had a fantastic June on the golf course, winning the State Open championship to cap his junior year, and then the Connecticut Junior PGA Championship to kick off his summer season.
He was well on his way to adding the Killington Junior Golf Championship title to his collection before the unlikely happened Thursday.
Holding a four-shot lead with four holes to play at Green Mountain National, he started thinking about the two players chasing him and he lost command of his own game. He finished bogey, par, triple bogey and triple again to wind up third.
The fact he unraveled doesn’t diminish all he’s accomplished as one of the state’s top junior golfers and the promising future awaiting him, but the 17year-old from Middlefield, who this fall will sign a letter of intent to play at Florida Southern in 2019, spent some time kicking himself for overthinking things in Vermont.
“I was really angry. I had the lead and that was my tournament to win, and I basically gave it away,” he told the Press. “I’m definitely going to learn from that and hopefully nothing like that will ever happen again.”
The 54-hole Killington event is one of many on the American Junior Golf Association’s summer schedule. Fosdick shot 68 and 66 in the first two rounds for a two-day total of 8-under 134 and got as low as 13 under on the back nine on the final day, with a chance to match the 66 or go even lower.
By the time he got to the 18th tee, he had fallen into a three-way tie at 9 under. Fosdick had to play his second shot through trees and said he went for broke, knowing one of the coleaders was in a position to make par. He finished three shots back at 6-under 207. It turned out to be an important learning experience.
“Once I got to the final stretch, I started to think about where the other kids were (on the leaderboard) and play more defensively and it backfired,” he said, adding, “it didn’t make any sense. I started thinking too much instead of playing the golf I had played for the first 50 holes. I didn’t want to hit stupid shots that were unnecessary and would have added strokes. They were all mental mistakes.”
Fosdick can’t afford to mope, knowing he has four big outings this month, starting with the Connecticut Junior Amateur at Watertown GC, an AJGA tour-
nament at the Country Club of Halifax (Massachusetts) and a U.S. Amateur qualifier at Bull’s Bridge in South Kent.
The week after the qualifier, he as well as rising Coginchaug senior Tyler Woodward are off to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, where they will play in the Junior PGA National Championship starting July 31. Both qualified for the field out of the Connecticut Junior PGA at Yale, where Fosdick beat Woodward by three shots.
Valhalla was designed by Jack Nicklaus. Since opening in 1986 it has hosted golf ’s fourth major, the PGA Championship, three times as well as the 2008 Ryder Cup.
“Week to week it’s a different golf course,” said Fosdick, who’s grown up minutes away from Lyman Orchards and said he recently became a member at Wallingford CC. “My goal during the tournament might be different just based on the difficulty of the golf course. I haven’t played at Valhalla before. If it is set up really tough, I want to grind it out and play smart. I can’t set a goal just yet, but I would really like to play under par.”
More than that, he believes his ability matches that of any junior golfer that has qualified to play at Valhalla. Fosdick said he usually drives the ball between 300 and 310 yards and his short game and putter are strong enough to keep him high on leaderboards and winning since his freshman year at Xavier.
“My goal in life with golf is to make it to the PGA Tour,” he said. “That is my ultimate goal. Obviously, it’s a really tough goal to achieve, but I think if I put in a ton of work I can reach that goal.”
JIM BRANSFIELD DEDICATION
The city and American Legion Post 75 will hold a ceremony at around noontime on Sunday, between games of Middletown’s Zone 3 doubleheader against Madison, to dedicate the baseball and football press boxes at Palmer Field in memory of Jim and Dana Bransfield.
All fans attending will be admitted free as part of Fan Appreciation Day at the ballpark. Post 75 seasonticket holders will be eligible to win a $300 gift certificate from Gene’s TV. The drawing will be held at the end of the second game.
The baseball press box originally was named in memory of Jim’s teenage son, Dana, following his death in 1990. Jim Bransfield died in February. He was known as the voice of Middletown sports, had immeasurable influence on thousands of students as a social studies teacher at Middletown High, and covered the sports scene for the Press for decades. By my count, he was behind the microphone for Post 75 baseball for almost 50 years.
The long-term forecast looks very sunny. It promises to be a great day at the park for all.
25 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
Some jewels in Middlesex County history, straight out of the Press’ archives:
⏩ The Middletown Sports
Hall of Fame and Museum opened its doors to the public. Bill Pomfret was the president back then, and the 15-member inaugural Hall of Fame class was inducted the following winter.
⏩ Quarry Ridge was in its first summer of operation. The mountaintop course in Portland was developed, designed and built by John Kelley, who also built Portland Golf Club in the valley (1972) and Portland Golf West in the low wetlands (1983). Quarry Ridge made for a triangle of good, distinctive layouts.
⏩ Billy Joel spent parts of two days in and around the county to shoot a video for the title song of his album, “River of Dreams.”
⏩ Old Saybrook hosted Vin Baker Day for the eighth overall pick of the Milwaukee Bucks. I was outside town hall that day covering the festivities. A memorable event. Back then, Baker was the University of Hartford’s alltime leading scorer and flying high with a 10-year, $10 million contract from the Bucks. He went on to average 15 points per game over 13 NBA seasons with six teams, including the Celtics.
⏩ Mike Pitruzzello was both manager and player for the Herb’s Sports Shop entry in the Greater Hartford Twilight League. Well into his 40s by then, Pitruzzello had six hits in his first 13 at-bats that season. His son, Mike Jr., was on the roster. Mike Sr. coached soccer and baseball at Cromwell High, was the AD at Cromwell and later at the “new” Middletown High, was the National High School Soccer Coach of the Year in 1994 and part
of the Middletown Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2001.
THIS AND THAT
⏩ Isabella D’Aquila and California’s So Cal Blues U17 club soccer team are national champions. D’Aquila, whose father Tom is a Middletown High graduate, scored two goals in the semifinals and another two in the championship match of the Elite Clubs National League tournament in Virginia over the weekend.
⏩ When the Lakers are winning, it helps the NBA, so LeBron’s decision to play in L.A. is a good thing in that record. The Lakers haven’t made the playoffs since 2013, so how they fare in the top-heavy West this season will be fun to watch. Then you have the Knicks. Outside of Kristaps Porzingis, the Knicks have a dreadful roster. But as the Lakers have done this month, New York is in a position to add talent next summer.
⏩ Finally, Edith Kabatznick left us last week “after 97 years of incredibleness,” her obituary read. I knew her as the mother of Gloria, who taught math in the Middletown school system, and brother of Hal Kaplan, the principal and educator whose name will soon grace the new tennis courts on Newtown Street. Edith lived on Murray Street, just a few doors down from my future wife. She hired me as a teenager in the 1980s to cut her lawn. When she was home, we always had a nice chat about life. When she wasn’t, she left two sodas and 10 bucks for me on top of the mower in her garage. She was a lovely woman who lived a full and wonderful life.