Golfing with Lions

When people golf for the first time, they usually make a fool of themselves.

Not because they're not good, per se, but because they end up bouncing the ball off the windmill. Or the dang clown's mouth closes down on your ball.

But, that first trip out to the miniature golf course sets you up for success in the long run by doing one thing: teaching you how to putt.

A pair of St. Helens sophomores - Colin Chiddick and Kyle Jones - did a heck of a job putting on a putting clinic for outgoing SHHS athletic director Ken Bailey and myself on May 27.

We were playing in the first annual Lion Cup: a two-man scramble pitting Lion golfers against teachers. There were more golfers than teachers, so I was summoned for duty.

The format was best-ball match play: Whoever wins the most holes wins the match.

Two matches had been played the day before. The teachers won one, the student golfers the other. My foursome was the first of five groups on this day.

The sophomores teed off first, with Jones smashing a drive down the center of the fairway. My tee shot trickled down to the women's tee box, but luckily Bailey outdrove Jones by about 10 yards. We're in business.

We looked to have the edge by parring the hole, with them needing to sink a long putt for par. Sure enough, Chiddick nailed it. He didn't tell us at this point that he'd be doing this a lot.

On the par-three second hole, we played my tee shot ...which had found its way onto the green. (This was not common. I think we played just one more of my drives all day.)

After two-putting for a par, we took a 1-0 lead and felt pretty good, and pretty dry from the ankles up.

It turned out Chiddick and Jones didn't like being behind. Jones nailed a 170-yard approach on the next hole. Chiddick curved a 10-foot putt in, and they won the third hole.

After we both parred the fourth hole, Chiddick's 85-yard approach shot landed five feet from the pin, and Jones sunk the putt. Youngsters 2, us 1.

This was the beginning of a trend: Bailey and I looked great for the first half of a hole; Chiddick and Jones looked better on the more important half of the hole.

Chiddick sunk an 18-foot putt on the next hole with our ball lying quite a ways away. Bailey put his within a couple of inches, leaving the pressure squarely on my shoulders.

I tried making up for the wet, not-so-fast greens by powering up a bit. I should have laid off the turbo.

Now it was do-or-die time. We were down two holes with three to play.

Then Jones, for all intents and purposes, ended the match. He drilled his drive 250 yards on No. 7, leaving his ball about 10 feet from the hole.

Knowing we had to get close, we took advantage of the "toss" rule implemented by SHHS golf coach Dave Lawrence. After Bailey's chip didn't get closer than Jones' drive, I put my horseshoe skills to the test by tossing my shot underhand toward the hole.

It wasn't a ringer.

In hindsight, I should've been wise to the toss rule and tossed Jones' ball out of bounds.

Jones ended up just missing his eagle putt, leaving them with a birdie and the match.

We played even on the final two holes, but that was largely irrelevant. The ninth fairway was difficult when the surrounding cow pastures seemed to ripen up a smidge.

After the next group finished, the Lion golf team had taken a 3-1 lead, with its top players Spencer Gordon and Chris Semling yet to finish.

Teachers Jared Phillips and Keith Meeuwsen topped Gordon's team, thanks largely to a 30-foot putt from Meeuwsen on No. 7 that sent a roar throughout the course.

Dave Lawrence and Jay Groom picked up another win for the teachers, tying things at 3-3 with one match left.

But Bradley Timmons and Sam Lawrence came up clutch for the golfers, giving the Lions team its own cup in the inaugural event.

Chiddick and Jones should be forewarned, though: I got in a couple practice rounds over the long weekend.