SHETTLE PICTURED CENTER.
the 3rd tournament day. “I just had a few tough holes. My game was good enough at the time to do really well there, but there were a few crummy holes and mentally I got frustrated. I need to learn to do that and keep playing… that mindset is what eventually helped me win the FJT at the Country Club at Naples.” l DALLAS, TX, FOUR SEASONS TPC LAS COLINAS. “They have the course for the AT&T Byron Nelson for the PGA. Twenty colleges were there.” l MYRTLE BEACH, SC, BAREFOOT RESORT & GOLF, NORMAN COURSE. “This was during my birthday in August, and this was my best one. I qualified for this one. Shot a 74.”
Probably [University of] Florida too, I guess. Everyone always goes to college for at least a year. Spieth went to the University of Texas for two years, played well in college tournaments, and then qualified and got sponsors exemptions to go pro.”
Since his summer of golf, Shettle played in the FJT (Florida Junior Tournament) in Naples in September; right before heading into the District tournament for Canterbury, where he claimed Runner-Up out of 45 players with an even par of 72.
No matter what, it will always be a part of his life. “In golf, there’s always more room for improvement. And golf courses are completely different from one anoth-
He also played in the Connecticut AJGA tournament in October. That one will be his last one for the year because “you can only play 5 AJGAs a year,” he says. “I shot an 83/80. It doesn’t sound good considering the score itself, but it’s a very tough course. It was the hilliest course I’d ever seen--nothing like a Florida course. I got there a day early for my practice round and there were probably only two or three other kids who had never played a course like that--because most kids from the Northeast grow up playing courses like that--in the cold too, it was like 45 degrees. The elevation changes made it hard to concentrate where to hit it, but the greens were the really tricky part. You’d read the putts expecting it to go one way but it would go another way. My grandpa told me it always breaks away from the mountain, from the high point. Now for the future I can use that thought and make more putts. The speed is the thing that made them extremely tough.” Shettle hopes to play in college, and then professionally. “I’m looking at Auburn, Baylor, USF, Samford and a few others.
STATS l 2015 DISTRICT RUNNER-UP out of 45
players score of 72, even par. l 2015 REGIONALS 4TH OUT OF 45
PLAYERS, score of 83 l Is on the AJGA JUNIOR SCHOLASTIC
HONOR ROLL which is for students with a 3.5 or higher GPA plus Top 10 in an AJGA tournament this year.
SHETTLE’S GOLF TIPS l I think about [bad scores] a different
way. Now, after I make a bad score in a hole, I don’t panic and try to make the strokes back as quick as possible. GOLF’S NOT REALLY A GAME OF SPEED, IT’S JUST PATIENCE. YOU HAVE 18 HOLES. l Always think about the easy holes coming up that you know you can birdie. “If I was playing this by myself, could I birdie it?”--focus on those holes. l You need to use the senses to make a putt. Every putt on the course has some sort of break to it. You have to read into
er--you get to see pretty scenery, so it’s more peaceful. All baseball fields look the same, you know? It’s an individual sport so you don’t need anyone to play with, you can always play. And you can play when you’re older--there’s a ton of benefits.” it to know what it’s going to do. I’M TAKING PHYSICS THIS YEAR--IT KIND OF ACTUALLY HELPS TO CONSIDER THAT STUFF. l When it’s mental vs. physical, mental is always more important. When it comes to physical, driving vs. putting, short game is a much bigger deal. MOST PEOPLE THINK DRIVING [DISTANCE] IS IMPORTANT, BUT THINK ABOUT EACH STROKE IN TERMS OF TAPPING THE BALL. THAT’S WHY PUTTING IS THE KEY THING TO IMPROVING IN THE SPORT THE QUICKEST. That’s what has helped me most in recent months. l My dad says, “YOU CAN’T LET GOLF DETERMINE HOW YOU TREAT PEOPLE.” Don’t let it depress you, though that can be easy to do. If you shoot a good round you’ll be happy, and you shoot a bad round you’ll be sad. Think about shooting better scores the next day rather than trying to feel sorry for yourself about what could’ve happened. It’s impossible to control everything--there are so many variables. FALL 2015 |
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