Youth is served
FRANKLINTWP — Golf has been pretty good to Nathan Bilski over the past weeks.
The 20-year-old Butler resident joined the Heritage Tour toward the end of July and promptly finished second in his first crack at that series at Blackhawk.
Bilski followed that up with Heritage Tour victories at Glengarry Golf Links in Latrobe at the end of July and at Lindenwood Aug. 2.
Sunday at Lake Arthur Country Club, Bilski carded a 3-under-par 69 to win the Butler Eagle Amateur Open by two strokes over former Eagle Amateur champions Mark Young and Jim Hepler.
Bilski joins 2003 champion Chris Marron as the youngest golfer to ever win the Eagle Amateur. He is also the tourney's 11th different winner in as many years.
"The Heritage Tour this summer marked my first win at a USGA special event,"Bilski said. "I feel good about my game right now.
"I try to play four times a week and get out to the driving range a couple of times after work to just pound the ball off the tee. I got into a groove that way."
Bilski took control of his round Sunday by sinking birdie putts on five out of six holes:No.'s 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8. He began his round on hole No. 14.
"After the turn (No. 18), I started turning it on, I guess,"he said.
Young and Hepler carded their 71's during the morning round Sunday. Bilski played in the afternoon session.
Young won the Eagle Amateur in 1995 and 2002, both times at Lake Arthur. He was surprised his 71 was good enough to share the lead after the morning round was completed.
"I didn't think it would win," he said. "This whole field is excellent. Somebody was gonna get into the 60s.
"I bogeyed No.'s 10 and 11 and that wound up hurting me."
Young plays most of his golf at Hiland, but has played consistently well at Lake Arthur.
"This course just seems to agree with my game. I putt pretty well here,"he said.
Hepler won the Eagle Amateur in 1996 and plays in a golf league once a week at Stoughton Acres.
He said two bad shots hurt him Sunday.
"I was trying to keep my drive off the first tee toward the right and I pulled it into the trees," Hepler said. "Then I sliced my 3-wood on the second shot on No. 8.
"The 3-wood is usually my best club. It was that way most of today — just not on that shot."
Hepler scored consecutive birdies on hole No.'s 15, 16 and 17 to get under par. He bogeyed his final hole.
"I'm surprised more scores aren't lower than ours,"he said. "There are some tricky pin placements out there, but I figured it would take a 68 or 69 to win this thing."
Bilski made sure that was the case.
Butler County Community College uses Lake Arthur as its home course. Bilski was a member of the Pioneers' golf team the past two years as the squad finished second in the state and in its regional tournament in 2004-05."I play here all the time,"Bilski said. "I know this course inside and out. That definitely helped."It also helped that he knew what score he had to beat from the morning session — even though he didn't want to know."I would have preferred not to know,"Bilski admitted. "I didn't want it to affect my play. But once I got through the front nine at 3-under-par, I knew I only had four holes left to play."All I wanted at that point was to par those holes. Just don't do anything stupid."Bilski tried walking past the leader board without taking a peek, but couldn't resist."Yeah, I had to look at it," he said. "When I saw the leaders were 1-under-par, at least I knew it was attainable. Keep the ball in front of me and put the putts in the hole. That's pretty much all it was."A little prayer in church Sunday morning didn't hurt, either."I went to 10 a.m. mass at St. Paul's and asked the Lord for a peaceful day on the course ... and let the putts drop,"Bilski said.Bilski is transferring to Robert Morris University this fall and hopes to play golf there. He will major in marketing.Sharon Goncz was presented a trophy shaped like a golf cart for being the lone woman in the 144-golfer field. She shot an 83, five strokes off the lead in the second flight."This was my seventh time playing this event,"Goncz said. "It's run very well. I wish more women would play in it. There's nothing that says this is a men's tournament."I had a nine on the No. 6 hole or I might have challenged for first in my flight."Steve Skerbetz shot a 75 and won a tiebreaker over Austin McCarren in the first flight. Mike Scarver shot a 78 to win the second flight.Anthony Malacaman shot an 86 and won a playoff over Scott Cramer to win the third flight.With handicap, Scarver won the seniors (age 50-over) division title with a 63, four strokes better than Tom Tompkins and Don Leslie.
