By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD — Evan Smith just wanted to “get in some practice” by traveling to North Carolina for a golf tournament last weekend.
He came back with more — the championship trophy in the 14-15 age group from the National Junior Golf Tour (NJGT) spring tour event.
The young golfer, a freshman at Bluefield High School, had not swung a club outdoors since before Christmas.
The first day of the two-day event at Sapona Country Club near Lexington, N.C., was “not too good,” Smith said. “I felt like my swing was off.” He was behind Andrew Carowan by five strokes at the end of the round.
“It was a hard course, like most of the golf courses down there,” he said.
The second day was different.
“I just got more confidence with playing the course, and with my swing,” he said. “I just wanted to go out and have fun, to play my game and not worry about where I was.”
Maybe the pulled-pork sandwich for dinner helped. He went out to eat with the family of Nathaniel Begley, a high-school golfer from Oak Hill. “They eat good,” Smith said. The Smith family and the Begleys alternate in taking their sons to long-distance tournaments.
Gradually, on Sunday, Smith closed the gap on the tournament leader.
“He played better than he did the first day,” Smith said. “I played a lot better. I putted a lot better. That’s where my strokes came from.”
Smith said he didn’t know how close he was to the lead.
“I wasn’t really sure where I was,” he said. “I was just trying to finish with a good score.”
Even after his 18-hole round was complete, he didn’t know what was in store. His final score was one of the first to go up on the scoreboard; Carowan was in the last group.
Smith’s round of 74 gave him a two-day total of 162, three shots ahead of Carowan, who had rounds of 83 and 82.
Smith’s father Mike Smith said his son has played golf “since he was a little boy. He’s showed such an interest. It’s been fantastic. ... It’s taught him a lot. He’s poised. He doesn’t get rattled.”
Evan Smith, who made the state golf tournament last fall as a freshman, said, “I just like to do it. It gives me something to do every day.” Like any competitive golfer, he added, “I like to get better.”
Mike Smith used the term “practice-holic” to describe Evan’s devotion to golf.
Barry McCann has worked with Evan and his sister on their golf games. “He’s really been great to the kids,” Mike Smith said. He said that Evan “has been able to hit the ball indoors. It’s not like being on a course, but it keeps the club in his hands.”
Evan Smith said he has “only played a few” NJGT events, “but this was the second one I’ve won.”
Mike Smith said the level of competition is good for Evan’s game. “He needs to step out and see what’s out there,” Mike Smith said, “and see what he needs to do to get better.”
The elder Smith would like to see more local students take up the game.
“I wish we could get some of those kids interested,” he said. “It’d be great to have 10 or 12 on the (Bluefield High) team.”
— Contact Tom Bone at
tbone@bdtonline.com
