By Kim J. Harmon

When Rock Ridge Country Club pro Bill Flood was looking for a salve for his wounded golf game – which had been torn asunder at the 75th Connecticut PGA championship at Longmeadow Country Club in Massachusetts – he turned to an old Ping© putter, tinged with rust and covered with cobwebs.

It must have worked because only a few days later, on a Beat The Pro afternoon, Flood broke the Rock Ridge record with an 8-under-par 62.

“I struggled so badly with my putter (at the PGA tournament) I was thinking about putting the sticks away for the winter,” said Flood, who missed the cut after two days. “It was so bad, I took out a long putter, but then switched back. I had lost all my confidence.”

Soon after, though, he went hunting around in his basement and went to a big bag of putters, digging one out that he last used maybe 20 years ago. There were cobwebs on it and a touch of rust and when Flood took it into the pro shop his assistant, Jeff, laughed at it.

So, who’s laughing now?

Barb Taylor, Joan Calbo, Jayne Dubraski, Linda Nathenson and Sue Polcyn of the Ladies 18-Hole League challenged Flood on a Beat The Pro afternoon and the mojo was working right from the get go as he carded a 3-under on the first trip around the nine-hole course.

“It kind of got my confidence back up,” said Flood, who already shared the club record of 7-under 63 with a host of other players (he tied in some 10 or 11 years ago, when he was assistant pro at the club). “I hit ever 15- to 20-footer I had. It was like being in the zone. It was funny, too, coming from where I had been (at the PGA).”

The key to scoring at Rock Ridge, Flood said, is to get on right side of the hole on the small, quick greens. He took that knowledge to heart and on the second turn around the course, he birdied the 10th and 11th, parred the 12th, and then birdied the 13th, 14th and 15th.

“I knew I had it then,” he said, “if I just parred my way in.”

He parred his way in and now the record belongs to him alone.

“It was a big thing,” admitted Flood, who has been to Scotland and Pebble Beach in a jam-packed 2006, “because every pro wants to have the course record. It was a heck of a day and I have had a heck of a year.”