On Monday, some of the Mohawk Valley’s youth launched Boilermaker week … with their drivers.
The ground the tee shots covered is on the same grounds that more than 11,000 people will run through on Sunday, competing with the same hills and, most likely, the same heat.
The golfers that participated in the Mohawk Valley Junior Golf Tour Boilermaker Classic said golf was their way of being part of race week.
“I run a little bit,” Joel Bailey of Boonville said. “But I’m probably a better golfer than I am a runner.”
When they cross the finish line on Sunday, many of the Boilermaker finishers will be weak-kneed. Bailey was weak-kneed after his first-ever ace on No. 14.
“I hit it high,” he said. “I thought it came up short, but it rolled like 2 feet. I almost couldn’t stand. I didn’t know what to say.”
Bailey, an Adirondack graduate headed to Clarkson University, said even as far north as Boonville, the people get a dose of Boilermaker fever, although he’s still not tempted to run.
“It’s a long race that I probably wouldn’t finish,” he said.
One of the girls threesomes on Sunday have had mixed Boilermaker experiences. Gabby Cadieux of New Hartford has run the 5K and said she remembers the post-race party the most. Tarah Brand, a three-sport athlete at Remsen, said the golf tournament was her way of participating, while New Hartford’s Kasia Jandura has heard the buzz but isn’t sure what to expect. Jandura is from Messina and said she’s curious to find out what all the fuss is about.
“It’s a big deal,” she said.
While the granola bars and the water came courtesy of the Boilermaker, the golf and the camaraderie is what the young golfers said attracts them to the course. For instance, Brand plays on a boys team at Remsen, where there’s no girls golf team. So, for her, it’s nice to swing with some of her peers for a day.
The Mohawk Valley Junior Golf Tour is more than two decades old and features some of the best scholastic golfers in the area. Tour director Kitty Cupp said merging with the Boilermaker seemed like a natural fit.
“It always was around the same time we were playing here, and the Boilermaker involves a lot of the area’s youth, and that’s what we try to do,” she said.
Cupp emphasized that the Tour reaches out to all different economic levels in order to keep its members golfing.
“We just have some great kids,” Cupp said.
