Learn to get comfortable with your clubs
Published 7:36 pm Sunday, January 21, 2018
<p class="p1">Local coach and teacher Bear Suarez said that golfers, particularly when they reach a certain age, should be comfortable with their clubs.</p><p class="p1">Hubert Boales, a McNeese Hall of Fame member who had a longtime career as football, golf and baseball coach with the Cowboys, is one who fully agrees.</p><p class="p1">He’s been playing the same clubs for the past five years and he’s very comfortable with them.</p><p class="p1">Boales said he had to do something.</p><p class="p1">“I went to all fairway woods, a No. 3 to a No. 19,” the 86-year-old golfer said. “I just lost so much distance with the irons. You have to adapt to what is good for you.</p><p class="p1">“I think that the weight of the clubs influence me more than anything else. I don’t like heavy clubs. Confidence is it to me, as long as I can feel I can swing a club properly. If it feels too heavy, I will hit it dead right every time.”</p><p class="p1">Besides the woods, the only other clubs Boales has in his bag are a pitching wedge and a sand wedge. His driver is a TaylorMade.</p><p class="p1">His putter is a long-shaft Scotty Cameron.</p><p class="p1">He says that his go-to clubs are the 5-and 7-woods.</p><p class="p1">“The only thing that gives me a problem is when the fairways are cut real short and they are hard,” Boales said. “I have to struggle with the lie because the clubs have a tendency to bounce.”</p><p class="p1">Boales said he can’t remember when he last shot over his age.</p><p class="p1">He carries a 7 handicap at Mallard Cove, playing from the forward tees, and his scores will run between 76 and 84.</p><p class="p1">He said a problem he has is which clubs to knock out of his bag to get to the limit of 14.</p><p class="p2">l</p><p class="p1">Former Lake Charles city champions Robby Going and Blake DeReese combined to win the recent Polar Bear two-man scramble at Gray Plantation. They shot a gross 10-under-par 62.</p><p class="p1">Net winners were Logan Kuehn and Jake Smith in the first flight (62), Bill Terry and Cody Shiamara in the second (58) and Jaxson Caldwell and Cody Caswell in the third (58).</p><p class="p1">Next up at Gray will be a two-person Super Bowl tournament on Feb. 3. Entry frees are $50 for club member and $75 for non-member (fee includes cart and green). There will be a noon shotgun start.</p><p class="p2">l</p><p class="p1">The local junior travel teams produced top-five efforts in last week’s junior tournament at The Woodlands in Texas. The tournament was shortened to one round because of weather.</p><p class="p1">The boys team finished in a tie for fourth place as Brayden Wright led the way with a 75 and a tie for fourth. The girls squad placed fifth with Carly Whittington shooting 74 to finish fifth.</p><p class="p2">l</p><p class="p1">Mallard Cove announced that the Billy LaRocca Memorial par-3 super dog fight will be played Feb. 17. Tee times will run from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and the sign-up deadline will be Feb. 7.</p><p class="p3"><strong>Upcoming</strong></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><strong>Feb. 3</strong></span> — Texas/Louisiana junior tournament, The National (Westlake).</p><p class="p2">l</p><p class="p4"><strong>Louis Bonnette</strong> has written about local golf for the <em>American Press</em> since 1971. His column appears each Sunday. Contact him at 274-5689 or lbonnette@mcneese.edu</p>
