NORFOLK
He couldn’t putt.
The short game was the worst part of Evan Beck’s golf game.
Beck, a Norfolk Academy junior, broke putters. He changed putters — eight times. Then he decided to stop fiddling around so much and start working with his beloved Scotty Cameron putter.
Now, Bulldogs coach Paul Feakins said, “His short game is the envy of everybody on the team.”
It also makes Beck one of the top contenders to be the medalist this week at the TCIS tournament. The event concludes Wednesday at Cedar Point Country Club in Suffolk.
Like two of his favorite golfers, Davis Love III and Chris DiMarco, Beck now swears by the unorthodox “claw” putting grip. By resting the left fist on top of the handle and the right hand below, the right is taken out of the stroke and merely swings through it — as if the golfer is using only the left hand.
With his improved short game, much of his frustrations about golf are gone, too.
“If I get frustrated and feel like I can’t play anymore, I’m back out there the next day,” Beck said. “It’s just a game.”
Feakins feels lucky to have Beck on the golf team. He could be playing lacrosse, another sport Beck excels at.
He’s also a starting forward on the Bulldogs’ basketball team, and soccer and tennis were other sports he enjoyed when he was younger.
His father started him in golf early. By age 8 he was winning tournaments at Bow Creek, Kiln Creek and Deer Run. He plays every day during the summer, often at his favorite course, Princess Anne Country Club, where Beck recorded his best score, a 5-under 66. This summer he plans to travel to Mississippi, Georgia and North and South Carolina to compete in tournaments.
An All-TCIS golfer, Beck said his most memorable accomplishment came last summer at Boone Valley Golf Club in Augusta, Mo., at the U.S. Junior Amateur. More than 3,000 players enter the event, which Tiger Woods won three times.
“It was a huge deal for me,” he said. “They treated us like pros.”
Feakins said Beck has one of the qualities of a top pro — mental toughness. At a tournament at Duke last year, Beck had all kinds of problems on the 16th hole but birdied 17 and 18 to win.
“A lot of players would have dissolved,” Feakins said. “He knows how to overcome adversity.”
More about Beck:
Class: Junior
Sports: Golf, basketball
His dream foursome: Beck with Davis Love III, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods
Bet you didn’t know: He listens to rap (his favorite is Tupac Shakur) and was in a table tennis league last summer.
Se habla: Beck is president of Norfolk Academy’s Spanish club.
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