Pirate senior Jon Mason exemplifies senior leadership in bringing Garaway back to State
That phrase gets banged around high school sports a lot, but perhaps that is because there is a great deal of truth to it when it comes to a team being successful.
On Wednesday, Oct. 2 at River Greens Golf Course, Garaway senior Jon Mason exhibited a ton of it.
In a talented Div. III field that featured no less than three perennial State tournament teams, as well as a few teams capable of jumping up and knocking those three teams out of the top four spots should they not play well, the Pirates knew they had to play well to advance to a seventh straight State tournament.
Their score of 325 wasn’t exactly what head coach Ryan Taggart was looking for, but Mason’s magical turnaround from an opening nine of 42, which he followed up with a stunning 37 for a team-low score of 79, was exactly the kind of thing Taggart wants and expects from a senior who has been so steady over the past couple of seasons.
“Jon battled,” said Taggart of his senior. “He struggled early, but he showed a lot of fortitude coming back the way he did on the back nine. That is exactly what a senior is supposed to do, be a leader, and Jon definitely did that today.”
Mason has heaped a great deal of pressure on himself to be an anchor for this Pirates team.
He has performed very well at times, but has fallen short of what he feels he is capable of at others.
The front nine was the latter, the back nine the former. But all the while, he maintained such a calm demeanor that someone watching him might not know if he was one-under or 10 over par.
“Coach just told me to hit the ball,” said Mason, advice that sounds quite simple but isn’t. “I was trying to guide it more than anything, and I needed to completely relax. I was incredibly tense the final four holes on the front side.”
He went back to Taggart’s ever-present quote of staying in the moment and doing what you can do. He focused on keeping his head still and eyes down on his putts, and things began rolling into the hole on the back side.
“I told myself today, that no matter what happened, I was going to play for my team,” said Mason. “I have had several not very good rounds prior to this, so I did some work with (Willandale owner) Jeff Willis, and we worked on just striking the ball more solidly and consistently.”
He also took the mind-set that he could make at worst a bogey from anywhere on the course, thus limiting damage should he get into trouble.
That never really arose on the back, as he attacked the course and hit the ball well tee to green.
“It was one shot at a time,” said Mason of his success. “That’s what coach always preaches.”