JUNIOR WORLD GOLF : Their Clubs May Be Shorter, but Not Their Drive
The leader boards are conspicuously low, making it necessary for the adults to crouch down for a serious look. A small crowd of thigh-high golfers strain their necks around these looming figures in hopes of stealing a quick peak at the boards, placed conveniently at their eye levels.
The families of these young athletes busily jot down names and scores at the Presidio Hills Golf Course. They are keeping tabs of how their offspring fared on the first day of play in the Optimist Junior World Golf Championships. These are the juniors of the juniors. The 10-and-unders.
David Antinone, 6, is the youngest entrant in the tournament. Antinone fidgets on the grass near the first hole. His love of the game is genuine, if not simplistic.
“I like hitting the ball,” he said. Antinone pulls at his cap and says he began playing golf when “I saw it on TV.” He entered the Junior World “because I thought it was going to be fun.”
Antinone attends Sunnyside Elementary School in Bonita and has played golf for two years. He, like most of the young golfers interviewed, said he plans to become a professional.
“I’m playing a lot,” he said, unfazed by the reality that the most delicate balance of factors works to catapult even the greatest of players to the top.
Although TV influenced Antinone’s decision to take up the game, most of the young golfers said it was a family member who struck the chord of interest.
“I started playing golf because my older brother was playing,” said Victor Bustamante of Chihuahua, Mexico, through a translator. Bustamante, 10, won a Mexican junior tournament last week that made him the top age-group golfer in Mexico. He was in second place going into today’s second round.
Bobby Nysewander, 9, of Oceanside, is another junior golfer whose interest was aroused by a family member.
“My grandpa got me started,” he said. He plays five days a week with his grandfather--”I usually beat him,” he said--and believes that he, too, will someday be a big name on the PGA Tour.
“I’m gonna stay with it until I get on the tour, when I can make a lot of money,” Nysewander said. His eyes lit up. “You can make 2 million (dollars) in two years,” he added, a little incredulous himself.
Angie Yoon has her grandmother to thank for her entry into the golf world. Yoon, 9, is a student at San Diego’s Benchley-Weinberger Elementary School. She is in a three-way tie for the girls’ 10-under lead and is playing in her second Junior World tournament.
“My grandma taught me how to golf when I was 2,” Yoon said. “I was real interested in it. You just swing a golf club and it’s easy.”
Natalie Nakamura, 9, of Hilo, Hawaii, also in the three-way tie for first, said her father motivated her to give golf a try.
“My dad bought me some clubs and put me into junior golf,” Nakamura said. She has been playing for only a year, but already she seems to have a good idea of what is important in the game and in her style of play.
“I like to chip and putt,” she said. “If you can’t chip and putt, you won’t do that well, ‘cause you won’t know how to do the drives. Chipping and putting is the most important part of the game.”
Plotting strategy, analyzing what went wrong or how best to play catch-up may be utmost on the minds of the older golfers, but the unaffected younger set of this tournament has other ideas.
It’s not that they don’t care. Indeed, there are some serious medals at stake here.
“I like to get first places,” Yoon said. “I like to get medals.”
Said Bustamante: “I’m a little nervous, but I’m happy to be here because I want to win.”
Golf Notes
Clinton Whitelaw of South Africa tied a course record, shooting a six-under-par 66 at Torrey Pines South to lead the 15-17 boys’ division. San Diego’s top finishers were Kevin Riley (73) and Troy Barnes (74). . . . Lisa Kiggens of Bakersfield shot a one-under-par 73 at Torrey Pines North in the girls’ 15-17 division. Leta Lindley of Carlsbad shot an opening-round 74.
In the 13-14 divisions, played at Balboa Park, Michael Ruiz of San Diego is in second place at 73, two strokes behind the leader. Debbie Kim of Poway is in fourth place at 82, three strokes out of first.
At Mission Bay, Eric Shortz of Pacific Palisades and Suzanne Mio of Watsonville lead the boys’ and girls’ 11-12 divisions. Shortz shot two holes-in-one and Mio shot a tournament record 56 on the par-64 course. No San Diego golfers are in the top 10. . . . In the 10-under divisions at Presidio Hills, Kevin Cabiles of San Diego is third in the boys’ competition after posting a three-under-par 53. There is a three-way tie for first among Angie Yoon of San Diego, Whitney Heemeyer of Salt Lake City, and Natalie Nakamura of Hilo, Hawaii, at 65.