Several weeks ago, I wrote about my goals for this golf season, one of which was to play in a tournament. I’ve been golfing for seven years, but I have only played in two tournaments.

It was a short time after that article ran that I received a phone call from my former third grade teacher, Mrs. Clark. She had read my article and wanted to invite me to play on her team for the Northern Chautauqua Catholic School golf tournament.

N.C.C.S. is the only remaining Catholic school in Chautauqua County. It’s where I attended school from kindergarten through eighth grade. Mrs. Clark taught me and possibly all of my six siblings, though I’m not sure exactly how many. She dedicated so much to that school and continues to give back today.

Of course I said yes, but she also had one more opening on the team and asked if I had an idea for another golfer. Without hesitation, I brought up Chris, with whom I’ve been golfing several times this year. He’s also a fellow Class of 2000 graduate of N.C.C.S. so it seemed too perfect.

In yet another crazy turn of events, Mrs. Clark’s friend and our fourth team member turned out to be Sandy, who lives just a couple houses down from me. We’ve waved to each other many times when she and her husband ride their bikes or when I take walks with family, but we had never officially met. Somehow it took this tournament to meet someone I’ve lived near for seven years. Go figure.

The tournament was held at Tri-County Country Club in Forestville. In the spirit of complete honesty, I have mixed feelings about TCCC. On one hand, it’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s on the short list of nicest courses I’ve ever played. I love being there and soaking in the scenery. Everything from the tee boxes to the greens is immaculate. On the other hand, gosh it’s a difficult course. Yup, that’s the only negative I can say about it.

Still, it was the perfect venue for this event.

“Our prep school science teacher, Dan Vona, is also a professional golfer and has a strong relationship with Tri County as their former head pro,” N.C.C.S. Board of Trustees president Jennifer Askar explained. “Tri County was wonderful to work with. They were professional, accommodating and were willing to support our efforts. I can’t say enough about the magnificent conditions of the course and how happy everyone was to play there.”

As an alumnus of the school (I also used to substitute teach there while in college,) I expected to recognize just about everyone at the tournament, but that wasn’t the case. There was a huge mix of alumni, parents of alumni or current students, friends of the school and corporate sponsors. Regardless of who everyone was, it was great to see so many people eager to support to school.

“The turnout was amazing,” Askar added. “We were also very pleased to have the support of the Buffalo Diocese as our superintendent, Dr. Mike LeFever and his family not only sponsored our event, but joined us for golf and the afterparty. I’m so grateful for all the community support and all the positive feedback our school is receiving. Our momentum is picking up and we’re just going to keep moving forward as a school.”

As for the actual golf, our team certainly didn’t compete for any top prizes, but we had a blast. There were plenty of jokes about Chris getting sent to the office and other shenanigans from when we were students of Mrs. Clark’s.

When you put a team together for a tournament, you hope that you have a couple people you can count on for consistent drives, someone else whose mid-game will carry the team, a few great short games and a confident putter or two. Long story short, we probably weren’t the perfectly built team.

We were all pretty solid off the tee. In fact, I’d wager to say it was my best driving day of my life. I had a couple drives that carried close to 300 yards right down the fairway. It was actually a little frustrating because it didn’t feel like I was doing anything differently from when I yank the ball on the ground to the left or slice it off to the right. Maybe I was just getting lucky.

Mid-game is where we all struggled, unfortunately. You’d think with four attempts at it (and usually coming off a great drive from at least one of us), we’d be on the green in regulation every time, but that was hardly the case. That’s easily the weakest part of my game, but it was even worse than normal for this tournament. That said, the women definitely carried us in this department.

On the green, my best putt of the day didn’t actually go in. It was for birdie on No. 6 (maybe – I’m not super familiar with the course and we started on No. 13, so I was very thrown off). It was straight uphill and probably 55-60 feet, but I hit the exact putt I wanted. The ball rolled straight for the cup, but hit the pin and spun out. I’m curious if it would have dropped without the pin in, but obviously there’s no way of knowing that now. Putting is probably the part of the game where we used an equal number of shots from everyone on the team. It’s always nice when the first person up just makes it and no one else even has to putt.

It was great to play in a tournament again. The golf was a blast (though I did tire out a bit as I haven’t played 18 holes in a long time) and it was fantastic supporting the school that contributed in a big way to making me the person I am today.

The best news is that this fantastic tournament will look to continue in the future.

“Our hope is that it will only keep growing,” Askar noted. “This is an excellent opportunity for sponsors to show their support and advertise at our event. So far, I have only received positive feedback, so any changes we do make will be additional to what we’ve already done. I’ve already received offers for large raffle and silent auction items. It will be great!”

Anyone interested in getting involved in the future can learn more on the official Facebook page for Northern Chautauqua Catholic School or on the events page of the school’s website, www.nccsschool.us. Registration packets and sponsorship forms are available by calling the school and requesting to be added to the mailing list.

“That’s another great thing at N.C.C.S.,” Askar concluded, “we are welcoming, we are kind and we are happy to get your call and help you however we can.”

As always, golf is great. Go get some.