The Kid

Golf.com's latest list of the "Top 100 You Can Play" recently came out, which lead me to a few interesting discoveries:

1) I've only played 2 of the courses on the list (#6 Bethpage Black and #41 Taconic Golf Club).  This is vaguely unsettling.
2) On the state-by-state list, the #5 public course in Massachusetts is Shining Rock Golf Club in Northridge.  I've never heard of it!  (Or at least I hadn't until this list came out.)  Apparently it's new this year.  This flabbergasts me.  Obviously it vaults immediately into this year's "Must Play" list.
3) The #2 course in Connecticut is Wintonbury Hills Golf Club, which is a municipal course in Bloomfield.  This is notable because it's almost exactly 1/2 way between Boston and New York City, which makes it the perfect meeting place for my brother and I.  Here's what unfolded when we met there this past weekend....
Wintonbury Hills is a Pete Dye design, which obviously gives it some credibility right away.  As the starter told us on the first tee, it's a links-parkland hybrid, with the front 9 playing being mostly wide open with almost no trees, and the back side playing in the more forested surrounding area.  It's a par 70, clocking in at 6711 yards from the tips (72.3 rating, 130 slope).

The front 9 proved to be quite tamable: 6 pars, 2 birdies (including one 40-footer that was drained), and one bogey for a tidy 34 (-1).  Hit every fairway -- actually just about split every fairway right down the middle.  It was practically a clinic.

The back side (much like the actual terrain of the course) was a little more up and down.  There were definitely a few fairways missed, a few lapses of concentration on the greens.  Still the result was solid -- 38 (+3) for a total round score of 72 (+2).  Awfully close to even par.

Here's the thing, though: that wasn't me.  It wasn't my brother, either.

It was the 11 year old kid we played with.

Eleven.

His name is Jason Liu, and he was playing a practice round in preparation for a Connecticut Junior PGA event being held there the next weekend.  He's the defending champion in his age group.  He played the white tees on the front and the yellow (forward) tees on the back, but still... he absolutely smoked us.  Made us look terrible.  Hit almost every drive right down the middle.  Rolled putts as well as anybody I've every played with.  Gave little fist pumps on his 2 birdies on the front.

I mean, he shot seventy-two.

I shot 85.

Good luck this weekend, Jason.  I'm sure you won't need it.