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Change swings season Hunt's way
The Buffalo News / Wednesday, November 1, 2006
By Bob DiCesare -
News Sports reporter
 There were times this summer when Kathy Hunt didn't know what to make of her golf swing. She was lacking distance off the tee. Her iron play was erratic. A precise short game was keeping her competitive, but how long was that going to last is the rest was lacking?
Hunt decided in late June, after some prodding from her husband, Jack, that the time had come to address her concerns and retool her swing. If that meant the rest of the season would be a bust, so be it. She was prepared to endure a temporary setback so long as her game improved in the end.
Hunt went to work with her long-time fitness trainer, Bob Gosch, who oversees fitness training for the Buffalo Athletic Club while moving toward certification as a golf teacher. They shortened Hunt's swing, emphasized body turn. They identified specific exercises to assist in the transition.
If Hunt hit the wall during the makeover, well, everyone should hit it so softly. For the second time in three years Hunt, who plays out of Brookfield and Crag Burn, finished atop the points standings when Western New York's women's amateur golf season drew to a close.
Hunt puts her own asterisk next to this year's title. She submits that Lindsay Cornell, a sophomore at Xavier who plays at Fox Valley, would have finished atop the chart had Cornell played in May events or not been summoned back to school earlier than planned. Hunt says that, had the number of tournaments entered been equal, the points race likely would have pitted Cornell against Orchard Park's Kelsey Johnson, a freshman at Elon University in North Carolina.
It's tough keeping up with youth, not that Hunt is complaining. The wealth of talented young players in the area played a prominent role in inspiring her to change her swing, acquire more distance and prepare to do battle in the years ahead.
"I'm not going to go down so quietly," said Hunt, 53. "That's good though. I love it. I love playing them, and watching them. I love seeing them win, too."
Competition on the local women's summer circuit has stiffened as a girls golf tour overseen by Betsy Ulmer has begun to take hold. Natalie Wisniewski, 16, out of East Aurora Country Club, made it to the round of 32 at the state women's amateur. Coming up behind her in the ranks is Rene Sobolewski, and early teen out of Transit Valley and Crag Burn who shot 176 for two rounds in the BDGA Women's Championship at Gowanda in mid-July. The kids are stepping up to the area's top tournaments seasoned and with plenty of game.
"They go through the ranks," Hunt said. "And by the time they're 16 they have a little single-digit handicap."
Hunt's season got off to a quick start when in May she won the Women's Golf Association of Western New York Championship, shooting 82 on a Country Club of Rochester course made all the tougher by challenging conditions. In September she qualified for the U.S. Women's Senior Amateur for the second time in three years by shooting an 80 at Brookfield, a round that included a triple-bogey and two doubles.
What that score told her is that her game is getting close to where she wants it to be.
"I can't wait to practice now," she said. "I just know it's going to work."
Other notable finishes for Hunt came at the state women's senior amateur, where she was second, and the state women's amateur, where she won a match over a college player from Siena while advancing to the round of 16. And to think she still sees a lot of room for improvement.
"My swing was too long and lacked power," Hunt said. "I was getting 180-190 out of my driver. Now I'm hitting my 4-wood 180-190 off the deck, which is wonderful." |
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