Dick takes swing at golf

For most people, taking up golf for the first time can be a very frustrating experience.
Not so for local golfer Mike Dick, a 50-year-old drywaller from Devlin who never seriously took up the game until just eight years ago. Yet he’s preparing to make his first appearance in the Manitoba amateur championship later this month.
Dick qualified for the provincial showdown after firing an impressive 76 (four over par) under blustery conditions at the La Verendrye course in La Broquerie on July 5.
That score was tops among the contingent of local golfers who vied for a berth at the amateur.
Not bad for someone who never competed in a tournament qualifier before–and who bought a golf membership for the very first time this year!
“A friend of mine moved to [Vancouver] Island where we used to fish for salmon and he said to me one day, ‘Why don’t you take up the game of golf,’” Dick said, recounting how he got his start.
“I started playing and I like it. I’m always having fun in this game,” added the personable left-hander.
He liked it even though his scores were nowhere near where they are today. But after hitting hundreds and hundreds of balls, picking up copies of Golf Digest whenever he could, and caddying for players on the CPGA Tour School in B.C., Dick began studying the game.
The results have paid off.
Dick, a former nationally-ranked snooker player in the mid-1970s, said it’s not what you did with their last shot, it’s what you do with the one in front of you.
“I believe this game is more mental than physical, and the key to playing good golf is in the mind,” noted the 6’, 176-pounder after a round Saturday afternoon at Kitchen Creek.
“I don’t think about pressure,” he added.
Although he knows how tough the field will be next week, Dick prefers to uphold the philosophy that the game is him “against the course” rather than against each player.
“You have to stay focused and within yourself,” stressed the five-handicapper. “I have to absolutely go there with no expectations and just try to play two solid rounds of golf, which is the toughest thing in any tournament.
“It doesn’t depend on how good the other guys are–I still have to make my shots.
“All I can do is try my best, and even if I’ve given my best and played poorly, I’ll just try to enjoy it,” he added. “I have fun at everything I do and I love to play the game.
“If I make a bad shot, I can’t let it bother me. I have to keep at it and work on my inadequacies,” he noted.
Dick said the key to playing at the provincial level is to try to maintain a par average on each hole. If he does that, he should be in contention on the final day.
“The game is played off par and a par is an excellent score,” said Dick, who carded pars on 16 of the 18 holes at the qualifier. “If you get a birdie, that’s a bonus, but I don’t have the physical capabilities to do that all the time.”
What tends to separate Dick from the rest of the pack is his short game. Using the eye-hand co-ordination he picked up while playing snooker, he admitted his putting and chipping often save him from a less-than-stellar round.
“My short game is pretty decent and it’s improving–I usually don’t hurt myself if I’m putting well,” he noted.
Dick will be joined at the amateur by locals Greg Ward and Brian Beers, who also qualified last week, and John Lundon, who earned an exemption from the qualifier based on last year’s performance.