Junior achievement on golf course
15-year-old heading to nationals as the Ontario under-19 champion
Nolan Piazza is Alberta-bound.
The A.N. Myer Secondary School student qualified for the Canadian Junior Boys Golf Championship July 30-Aug. 2 in Medicine Hat by capturing the Ontario title earlier this month.
To say that youth was served at the provincial championships played at Loyalist Country Club in Bath, near Kingston, would be an understatement. A fourstroke victory over a final field of 60 at the under-19 tournament was a belated 15th birthday present for the son of Mark and Sandee Piazza of Niagara Falls.
Though the Grand Niagara member was among the youngest golfers at the Ontario championship, he was more interested in the numbers on his scoreboard than the ones on his birth certificate.
“I was just focusing on making the cut after the first two days,” recalled Piazza, who celebrated his birthday be playing in the tournament’s practice round.
At provincials, Piazza, who started playing golf eight years ago and has competed on the Niagara District Junior Golf
Tour for the past three years, wasn’t intimated going against players more than three years older.
“Not too much, I’ve played in under-19 events before, like in the International Junior Masters last year,” he said. “I was 13 playing against 18-year-olds and I came in sixth in that.
“So I sort of knew I could play at that level with those older boys.”
Piazza was in no danger missing the cut at provincials. He was
“If I shoot a good score and somebody comes in lower, they just played better than me. I’m not worried about how they’re playing, I’m just worried about playing
the best that I can.”
NOLAN PIAZZA
Ontario junior golf champion
2-over-par and 2-under on the first two days.
“I think 11 over was the cut — it was a pretty high cut — so I was 11 shots clear, but I was also seven shots back of the lead.
“I still wasn’t thinking about winning. I was in the top 10, so I was focusing on finishing in the top 10.”
After he carded another 2under-par round on Day 3 the possibility of topping the leaderboard began entering his mind.
“But it really sunk in that I could win turning onto No. 10 on the final day. I had a four-shot lead going into No. 10.”
Piazza didn’t begin to feel pressure as the front-runner until he was up by four strokes going into No. 16 on the final day.
“That’s where I started to feel the pressure,” he recalled. “I hit two pretty bad drives in a row, but my short game came up big the last three holes.”
He was up by three strokes with two holes remaining in regulation.
“I hit an awful drive and I thought maybe it was going to come down to two or one, but I made a really nice up-and-down for 50 yards to get in back to four.”
Piazza’s play was consistent throughout the four-day tournament in eastern Ontario.
“I hit the ball really well — probably the best I ever have — and I was trying to stay patient hitting fairways and greens,” he said.
“There was nothing like crazy that happened to my rounds. I was just making pars, birdies and bogeys, I wasn’t making any huge numbers.”
Consistency is one of Piazza’s strengths as a golfer, right up there with his short game.
“It’s not like I’m going out each week and shooting 65 and then 90,” he added. “I’m consistently in the high 60s, low 70s.
“Once in a while, I will shoot a bad round, but everybody has got those.”
He tries to ensure that a bad shot won’t throw off the round completely.
“I try miss it in the right spot,” he said. “If I know there is water left, the miss is out to the right.
“It’s just making sure your miss is not going to penalize you. It’s a safe miss instead of an awful miss.”
Piazza, who this summer is working part-time stocking shelves at the No Frills on Lundy’s Lane in Niagara Falls, doesn’t worry about the field when he’s playing in a tournament.
“If I shoot a good score and somebody comes in lower, they just played better than me,” he said. “I’m not worried about how they’re playing, I’m just worried about playing the best that I can.”
Scheduling conflicts will prevent him from competing close to home on the Niagara District Junior Golf Tour.
“I would miss five, six or seven events, I don’t know the exact number, but I would miss quite a few because I got a tournament every week and a half now.”
Piazza said he will miss playing on the Niagara tour this summer.
“I love playing with those boys, and I love John,” he said, referring to John White, the tour’s director. “John’s done so much for me, he was one of my first coaches and he sort of got me really started in golf and got me on the right path.”
Piazza used to play hockey and basketball before committing himself exclusively to golf two years ago. He now golfs year round, but has yet to get tired of the sport.
“It’s not like it’s the same every day,” he said.
“Golf is so different every single day,” he added.
“I never get tired of it, because if you get tired of it you don’t play well.”