Winds were blowing hard at Bonnie Brook Golf Course on Monday, Sept. 26, in Waukegan, but Susie Carlson had a plan.
Competing in the East Suburban Catholic Conference tournament, the St. Viator senior attempted to take the path of least resistance to the green.
“If the wind is blowing right to left, aim to the right, as the ball flies through the air and the wind will take it to the left,” Carlson said. “You hope the ball will go where you want.”
On the 10th hole, a 326-yard par 4, Carlson hit driver off the tee. The wind knocked it down 190 yards from the green. Carlson pulled out a 4- wood. With the wind blowing right to left, she aimed right and wanted a low ball flight with her second shot. Her shot landed on the green, three feet from the pin, and she knocked that in for birdie.
One birdie and four pars were the highlights of a round that saw her fire a 92, good for a medal-winning sixth place. And while Carlson capably managed the wind that day, it’s on the greens where she’s excelled in all conditions.
Yet back when the season started in August, Carlson found herself missing makable putts.
“I was losing a lot of strokes with my putting,” she said.
In an attempt to regain her timing and rhythm, she asked her older brother, John Carlson, for advice.
John Carlson, a member of the 2015 St. Viator boy’s golf team that went downstate in Class 3A, gave her a device from his golf bag. It was a putting aid that clips to the front of the putter and makes it imperative to strike the ball from the very center of the club face.
“They are the size of a quarter,” Lions coach Mick Drewes said of the brackets that jut out from the putter’s right and left edges. “If you putt and hit one of the brackets, it will fly in that direction.”
As Susie Carlson practiced putting with the brackets, she trained her eyes to hit the ball in the center of the club face. By doing so, she not only guided the ball where she wants it to go, but got a better feel for club grip and tempo in her backswing.
“You have to bring it back and through,” she said, “make sure you don’t break your wrists and keep them still. If you hit it on the toe or the heel, you know you have to adjust.”
Carlson said she estimates practice with the putting clips has cut 10 strokes on average for each 18-hole round this season. She added that she would not have broken 100 at the ESCC tournament with her old stroke.
As a team, St. Viator finished fourth at the conference tournament with a score of 423 (Benet won with a 331).
The Lions were slotted into Class 1A for this year’s state series and feed into the Pontiac Sectional, which will take place Monday, Oct. 10.
“(Class) 1A is different golf. In 2A, we’d be playing teams 100 shots better than us,” Drewes said. “We have a chance with the smaller schools. We have an opportunity to have a happy season.”
Jon J. Kerr is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @prepspioneer
