Be the right club - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

What luck, for you, that the winner of the closest-to-the-pin competition at last Friday’s Charlie Shaw Memorial Golf Tournament has a weekly column in an award-winning local newspaper. Might he share some wisdom? He just might.

 

It’s true, dear readers, it’s true. Last Friday, I hit the links with John Stephenson, Deb Sholdice and my friend Scott Wandless to play in the tournament for the third year. Our line-up has changed every year, but we have always made a point to be there and represent The Citizen at this great community event. 

 

I used to golf semi-regularly and even had a membership at a club for two years, back when I was younger, a membership was cheaper and I had a lot more time to golf, so I knew I could get my money’s worth. But, in recent years, I have been relegated to about two or three rounds of golf per year. During the pandemic, there were years I didn’t even touch my clubs.

 

So, it was nice to be back. In the first year of the tournament, I carded my first-ever eagle on the first hole of the course (a par five). I didn’t keep up that energy for the rest of the round, but no one could take that eagle away from me.

 

Then, this year, on the second hole of the course (a par three), I dropped it to within the length of a putter and a half, besting the previous leader. Thanks to the shotgun start, we were all about as far along in our rounds as each other, so I knew there were only a handful of groups behind us, so my chances of taking home the prize at the end of the day were good. 

 

What a success story and a lesson for the kids out there to just never give up and never let up when it gets late in the round. There’s always hope and you too could find yourself the winner of the newly-named “Shawn Loughlin Closest to the Pin” prize. (Just a quick, legal note on that announcement: That name is not finalized, nor has it even been proposed, however, as a member of the Blyth Lions Club and the winner of this prestigious competition with tremendous community influence, feel free to read between the lines. I get things done on the golf course, as well as off, if you follow me.)

 

It’s been a long road to here. I remember some of those early days - going to a pretty bare-bones driving range just north of Pickering (you paid and got your bucket of balls in a trailer - TopGolf, this was not) with my dad. I can’t honestly say that I honed my craft as one of the area’s premier golf practitioners much in those early days. Why? Well, because I was made to use right handed clubs. Did he fear the devil being at play in matters of witchcraft with my left handed-ness? I don’t think so. It was more that we had a set of right handed clubs already - presumably his many years ago, but, at that point, I had played baseball for probably eight years and was pretty sure of my orientation. 

 

Nevertheless, he persisted. And, despite the hope that came every time I connected with the ball somewhat from the right side, I eventually bought my own starter set of clubs. I worked for Jim Lunau in those days, helping him place and service candy machines for cash in the summers and one of the places he liked to stop in at was a secondhand sports place to talk to a friend of his. As they caught up and I browsed, I would eventually find something I liked and Jim would buy it for me, subtracting the total from my coming payday. 

 

Once I started golfing left handed, things really came together. I golfed a lot with my baseball buddies and the rest is history. Thanks to everyone I’ve golfed with over the years - I couldn’t have done it without you.