Area youth qualifies for Augusta competition

Kennedy Swedick returned from the Drive, Chip and Putt competition at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., having qualified for the big prize: a chance to compete at Augusta National in the spring.

There weren’t any reports of flying cars from Boston to Albany — Jetsons style — this past Sunday. But if there were, it would have been the one Kennedy Swedick was in.

She was securely buckled-in returning from The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. That was the site of the Regional Finals of the national “Drive, Chip & Putt” competition where she qualified for the big prize: Augusta National in the spring.

“I feel just amazed that I made it, that all my hard work paid off,” sweet Swedick told me, taking a brief break from studying science. The fifth grader at Albany Academy had several quizzes this week but already passed the toughest one. She had worked hard ever since her friend Nicole Criscone of Clifton Park made it to the DCP finals at the home of the Masters this past April.

“The drive was not very good,” Swedick admitted, “but then I went over to chipping and putting and just had to forget about it and move on ... every time it was my turn, or the person ahead of me, I felt the butterflies in my stomach.”

Swedick, from Voorheesville, turns 10 in early November so she was already competing in the girls 10-11 age bracket. She won by 21 points (D-21, C-35, P-55). Her 30-foot putt stopped an inch from the cup and she knew right then (she’s good at math, too) no one could catch her.

Kennedy has been working with Peter Gerard at Mill Road Acres for two years and, since February, Anders Mattson at Saratoga National, who also coached two other Regional Finalists — A.J. Cavotta, 14, and Will Braxton, 13, both from Saratoga Springs.

“I owe so much to Coach Peter and Coach Anders,” Kennedy said. “They brought me this far and I’m just so thankful.”

“There weren’t any expectations,” mother Karen Swedick said. “We did not want to put any pressure on her. She did not have any pressure and that’s why she did it.”

“We are super-excited for Kennedy,” Mike Cavotta, the golf coach at Shaker H.S. said. “With her attitude, she’s just a ball of fire so it’s fun to be around.”

His son A.J., a freshman at Saratoga Springs High School, finished second (D-47, C-15, P-50; 112 points) in the Boys 14-15, six points behind the winner. He led after driving and chipping but his flat stick failed him, leaving the crucial 30-footer well short.

“It was pretty fun. I was going up against the top players in the area,” Cavotta said, adding, “I was right there ... just the experience of playing a nice course where a lot of history has been.”

Meanwhile, Braxton finished third (D-38, C-32, P-45; 115 points) in the Boys 12-13 division, 10 points behind the winner.

“It was a great experience,” said Braxton, who was in his first year of playing competitive golf. “It was a great time being there and third place obviously is not the best but it could be a lot worse.”

Braxton, an 8th grader, wants to be a politician one day and was dialed into Monday’s debate. This weekend, he will be dialed into the Ryder Cup. His favorite player Bubba Watson didn’t make the team as a player but is an assistant captain.

“Ryan Moore, he has the hot hand,” Braxton said.

Arnold Palmer

None of them knew that The Country Club was the site of one of Arnold Palmer’s toughest losses, the 1963 U.S. Open, when he lost one of his three 18-hole playoffs, to Julius Boros. But they all know about his drink.

Dottie Pepper told me a story about how Mr. Palmer helped her. In 2003, she thought she had Lyme Disease. She called the former commissioner of the LPGA, Charlie Mechem, Jr. and asked: “Do you have a doctor that you would recommend me seeing, because I’m just not sure about this?”

Mechem told her to stay by the phone “and let me make one phone call to Arnold. And he called me back within the hour and Arnold said you will see my doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Get on a plane tomorrow morning, it’s all taken care of. And it was all taken care of. They turned me inside out, upside down.”

That doctor is still her regular doctor, she said. Can you imagine? Mr. Palmer said: “Tell her to get on a plane, it’s all taken care of.”

Kay McMahon of eduKaytion Golf worked for Mr. Palmer’s company for 10 years. She told me a story of a time in Palm Springs.

“The first time he walks in we’re all very excited,” she said. “He walks in and looks us all up and down and said, ‘Well, I’ve only got a threesome’ ... and he looks at me and says, ‘Do you want to play?’ I thought the guys were going to drop in their shoes.”

Hole-in-One

Carl Leninger had his second ace on No. 11 at Airway Meadows Golf Club in the past two years. It came Saturday, Aug. 9, on the par3, 163-yards with his 7-iron. It was witnessed by Jimmy Peters and Ed Fero.