NHS Winning At Home, Struggling On Road—

Home Course Advantage Proves Invaluable  To Young Nighthawk Golfers

By Andy Hutchison

In sports there is always that home court or field advantage but, typically, the stronger teams can find ways to win no matter where the game is played. When it comes to golf, however, home course advantage is quite substantial. Just ask members of the Newtown High School boys’ golf team. The Nighthawks have won just one of their five away matches, while coming out on top in their first five rounds at the familiar confines of Rock Ridge Country Club.

Newtown finally lost a home match on May 9, shooting a 167 to Pomperaug of Southbury’s 160 in a nine-hole round on the par 35 course, dropping the Nighthawks to 6-5 overall. Pomperaug improved to 10-1. By comparison, the Panthers shot a 165 and Newtown a 177 in their first meeting, at Heritage Village Country Club in Southbury on May 3.

In the home loss to Pomperaug, Vivek Tedla shot a 40, Brian LeBlanc a 41, and Rob Marona and Abbey Doski each a 43. Doski, who missed some time during a class trip to China, was going to have to earn a spot in the top four again, NHS Coach Bill Flood said, but put in enough extra practice hours upon her return that she was able to jump right back into the mix without missing a match. She had a shot a team-best 43 in the loss at Pomperaug in her second match back, and also shot a 43 in a 169-171 win over New Milford at home the day before.

Newtown’s scores, for the most part, have come down at home as the season has progressed, although the team had a rare off day at home on May 10, shooting a 179 in a loss to Weston (154). LeBlanc’s 42 was Newtown’s best score. The Nighthawks have a mostly inexperienced lineup of underclassmen; only junior Abbey Doski who competes with the boys since there is no girls’ team, is a returnee who cracks the top four scorers.

“With all of the rookies we have, none of them have seen any of these courses we’ve played on the road — none. So, just to have a chance in an away match is pretty difficult when you’ve never played the golf course,” said Newtown High Coach Bill Flood, who doubles (and triples) as the head golf professional and general manager at Rock Ridge.

Tedla, one of the freshmen in the lineup, said the golfers have researched opposing team’s courses online, giving them some background on “distances, hazards, places to be, places not to be — stuff like that.”

“Rock Ridge is pretty much ‘what you see is what you get.’ Most of these other courses have a lot more course knowledge involved,” Flood said. “We have walked this course extensively. They know every shot to hit.”

Flood is quite familiar with Rock Ridge, having played and worked at the course since the middle 1990s. He holds the course record with a 62 in an 18-hole round and provides plenty of insight for his team members.

What’s more, Flood said, the team is granted extra practice opportunities and he thanks Rock Ridge President John Kortze for allowing the NHS golfers the chance to take advantage of extra practice opportunities on the course.

“We practice five times a week and the Rock Ridge membership has really gotten behind us and wanted to help us in any way they could. This has been a great thing for the team — it’s been phenomenal,” Flood said.

The coach said he is going to set a goal for each of the NHS golfers to get out to and practice on the opposing team’s courses during the summer offseason. “It’s going to be great next year. We’ll come in and we’ll be flying right off the bat,” Flood said.