Rideau View looking up
By Don Brennan, Ottawa Sun
www.ottawasun.com/2011/07/27/rideau-view-looking-up
When it comes to the Ottawa golf scene, there’s nothing like "The View" from Manotick.
The Rideau View men’s intersectional team — led by Justin DeVroome, Paul Spare, Bill Holzman, Steve Fritsch, Tim Sullivan and Adam Kingsbury — became the first in the region to win a sixth consecutive championship earlier this month.
Member Brad Fritsch made the cut at a PGA event for the first time, when he finished tied for 71st at last week’s RBC Canadian Open, outplaying the likes of young stars Matt Kuchar, Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim.
Another member, Susan Pearl, has remarkably won three Quebec majors already this season: The Mid-Amateur, The Players Cup and the Senior Provincial championship.
Another member, 21-year-old Allison Timlin, won the Citizen Amateur title this week. Next month she heads to Fresno State on a golf scholarship.
And three junior members — Grace Howie, Estee Deschamps and Paxton Mayer — are B.C.-bound to compete for the national championship after finishing in the Top 16 at the provincial championships.
Yes, when it comes to the Ottawa golf scene, the view at "The View" is from up top.
"There’s a lot of good stuff going on," said Rideau View head pro Paul Sherratt. "There has been for a long time."
Rideau View hosted the Canadian junior championships in 1976, the Canadian PGA Championship in 1995, the Quebec Open in 2001, the RCGA Future Links Championship in 2009.
The clubhouse is nice, the food is good and the beer is cold. But none of the amenities distinguish themselves.
"People join because of the golf course," said Sherratt. "The club really distinguished itself some time ago. It’s a real player’s club."
Past members who made a name for themselves in the game internationally include Tony Romani, Allison Hayes and Henry Brunton, the Canadian team coach.
While the competitive course record is 64, Fritsch and fellow Canadian Tour player Lee Curry have carded 63s.
But you can barely swing a club without hitting a good golfer at Rideau View. A third of the membership at Rideau View has a single-digit handicap index, and almost 50% under 15.
"When half your golfers are breaking 80, that’s pretty significant," said Sherratt.
Pearl, a former tennis pro at the OAC, has already achieved a personal goal this summer shooting a sub-par round.
"It’s been pretty awesome," she said of her season to date. "This is sort of the culmination of a lot of years of working hard. I sort of call these my junior years, because I never played golf when I was young. I didn’t come across golf until my 30s. I took up golf to get off the tennis courts, because I spent so much time on the tennis courts.
"I work hard at my game. And I have a lot of support certainly from Rideau View, it’s awesome. We have a great group of guys there."
Pearl, who has always been a fitness buff, says part of the reason her game has improved is the TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) program Rideau View’s staff have had her on. TPI is a collection of golf-specific health and fitness information incorporated to improve one’s preparation and performance.
"I’ve been doing it for two years now, and it’s paying off a lot," said Pearl. "I always worked out before. My whole life is sports. But this made a big difference, because it was very specific to the thing I loved to do."
Checking in with a 71 in her first event set Pearl on a good path.
"That was pretty darn exciting," she said. "Then to back it up … because you sort of think, oh, one-off, you know, but that was good for the confidence. It’s the same old thing you see on the Tour. When you start winning, and you start doing well … we all sort of have the potential to do that. But it’s really really hard to put it together in a round, and it’s hard to put two rounds together, let alone three rounds together. It’s hard to really stay in the moment and get rid of the distractions.
"Once you win, and once you shoot low, that gives you the confidence to think I can do that again."
One distraction she appreciates greatly are the messages she gets from family, friends and fellow Rideau View members.
"The main thing is, none of this stuff matters unless you have people to share it with," said Pearl. "When I’m out there on my little tour, because I’m all over the place, my husband is my biggest fan, but then you have all these people sending you messages. You don’t realize who’s following you, that they’re actually looking at the scores online. It makes it like you’re doing it for everybody. You’re having fun with everybody."
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