Practice. Practice. Practice
And even when your hands start getting numb, you stay on the range, and hit a few more balls.
That’s life for Oliver’s Declan McDonald these days.
The 17-year-old, a recent graduate of Southern Okanagan Secondary School, now works at Fairview Mountain Golf Club.
When not working at the golf course – at jobs ranging from clearing the driving range to working in the pro shop – McDonald can be found practicing on that very same driving range. Or, he can be found at the FMGC Short Game Facility, truly one of the best practice areas around. Or, he can be found playing a round on the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour.
Golf consumes Declan’s life, something he knew from the first time he stepped on a golf course.
“When I moved to Canada (at the age of 10), I played a round with my father at a little nine hole course, and from there I fell in love with the game,” says McDonald, who was born in Norwich, England. “I spend usually two to four hours practicing/playing each day and eight hours working six days a week.”
All that work has paid off for McDonald, whose handicap is just over 1.
He has been playing tour events throughout the summer, struggling at times, but gaining valuable experience along the way.
At the July 28-29 event at the Harvest Golf Club in Kelowna, Declan shot rounds of 79 and 78, leaving him at 157, 17 shots back of the tournament winner.
He competed at the August 11-12 event, held at Vernon’s Predator Ridge Golf Resort, scoring a 79 on opening day, but ballooning to an 88 on the second day to finish with a 167, and 23rd out of 32 golfers.
An injury hampered his abilities in the second round, something every golfer has to contend with.
“The first day of the Predator event started off pretty good. I was minus one through five holes, missing a few short birdie putts on top of that. Unfortunately I would have back-to-back holes where I would have unlucky bounces off trees where I would end up having to re-tee, and made double bogey on the holes. I would play the next five or six holes a couple under but once again one bad shot cost me a double and a triple bogey. I may not have scored the best but I played well,” recalls McDonald. “The second day I had tweaked something in my back and after failing to save par on almost every hole on the front, I lost focus and decided to just enjoy the day and have some fun.”
The Cleveland Golf Order of Merit standings on the tour currently have McDonald sitting with 10 points, well back of the 300 held by leader Jake Scarrow of Dewdney, BC.
While playing the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour has been rewarding, at times, it has also provided McDonald with a better understanding of where improvements are needed.
“MJT was not as good as I would have hoped. This season has been a big improvement but I still feel like it should have been better,” says McDonald, who had to pull out of this week’s event at Hazelmere in Surrey due to some family business. “I hope that next season will be better.”
While taking a break from his practice routine recently up at Fairview Mountain, McDonald was asked if he is playing the best golf of his career.
He was quite candid in his response.
“It’s tough to decide if this is the best golf I have ever played. Earlier this year I was scoring better but the swing did not feel as good,” he responded. “I would like to say this is the best I’ve ever played, but until I start scoring well, I cannot.”
McDonald, a leftie, has been influenced by many people, both professionally, and at home.
“The player who has influenced me the most on the PGA Tour would most likely be Phil Mickelson. I don’t believe the man knows the definition of “layup” or “safe shot.” The fact that he goes 100 per cent at every shot he hits is unreal. His short game is also the most imaginative thing I have ever seen,” says McDonald, who also gives credit to ‘the hand that feeds him,’ so to speak.
“My parents have played the biggest role in the improvement of my game, first off introducing me to the game, and helping with transportation, hotel, and entry fees. It would not have been possible for me to discover this wonderful, dreadful, frustrating yet rewarding game known as golf (without them).”
McDonald has been accepted into Victoria’s Camosun College for a diploma in business management based around golf. He has decided to take a year off to try new things, and to make sure golf is indeed the career path he wants to choose.
In the meantime, McDonald will continue to practice his game, and earn a paycheque at Fairview Mountain.
Down the road, he hopes, money will come in from playing the course, as opposed to working on it.
Dale Cory
Oliver Chronicle
