Sportsmanship 101
Patrick Albanesi
Article By Mike Moraghan, CSGA Executive Director
Spend enough time on golf courses watching highlevel tournament golf, and you’re bound to observe isolated but memorable acts. Somebody cuts the corner over the trees and drives the green on a par four, or holes out from the fairway, or skips one off a pond and ends up ten feet from the hole. Cool stuff. You remember these little events because they’re rare. They’re on that highlight reel in your head when you think back on some of the amazing things you’ve witnessed. I saw something at the New England Junior Championship this year that I won’t forget. It was a simple, but beautiful act of sportsmanship. Team Connecticut’s 17 year-old Patrick Albanesi, who lives in Avon and plays at Hartford Golf Club, was playing the 16th hole at Connecticut National. It was the afternoon round of the ?rst day when everyone plays 36 holes. Patrick played a great ?rst round, shooting a one-under par 70, but he was riding a rollercoaster in the afternoon. In a shotgun start, he began at the third hole with three straight bogeys, then scratched out a par before going birdie-bogey-birdie. He picked up two more birdies at holes 12 and 13 to get his round back to even par, only to suffer back-to-back bogeys at 14 and 15. If he’d been annoyed, distracted or entirely discombobulated while playing the 16th it would have been understandable. But after playing his second shot, while walking toward the green, Patrick heard a tee shot from the group in front of him (on the 17th tee) rattle around in the trees between the two holes. He saw the ball drop into the long fescue on a mound located far from the 17th fairway. Patrick couldn’t see who hit the tee shot on 17. It might have been one of his teammates; it might have been a kid from Massachusetts or Vermont. That didn’t matter to Patrick. He knew the player would have trouble ?nding his ball, and instead of just ignoring another competitor’s plight, Patrick walked over to where he’d seen the ball land, and placed his half-full Gatorade bottle a few inches from the ball. Patrick’s own afternoon round wasn’t necessarily helped by his charitable act. He limped in with a four-over par 75. But the next day he bounced right back with 67 over the ?nal 18 holes. It was the low round of the tournament and helped produce a well-earned 5th place overall ?nish. But his simple act of placing an obvious marker close to a possible lost ball was a refreshing reminder that even in the midst of serious competition there are golfers who are not completely self absorbed, and who are willing to help another player. I like to think the Golf Gods will show kindness to Patrick Albanesi throughout his career. I think he deserves it.
Connecticut State Golf Association 25