Pressure-packed Lynch leading 59ers

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The coaches gathered around Dennis Pokropinski's golf cart chuckled when a reporter approached, asking for the whereabouts of Andrean junior golfer Matt Lynch.

"He might not want to comment today," one said. "He took the first circle 10 of his life on 13. He's probably not too happy about that right now."

Pokropinski, Andrean's boys head golf coach, smiled.

"Just tell him to pretend the 13th hole never happened," he said. "Then he ought to be fine."

As it turned out, Lynch wasn't sulking too much over the bad hole at Curtis Creek Country Club in Rensselaer for the May 9 Rensselaer Invitational. He even gritted his teeth and talked about what happened. Long story short: He bombed two drives off the tee box out of bounds left and the rest went downhill from there.

"I'd just gotten a couple of pars in a row on the front, and getting to that hole I was hoping that I could maybe save an 80 for the day," Lynch said said. "That hole definitely shot that idea down."

For about 95 percent of the time teams were on the course, players battled whipping winds and biting cold conditions on a gloomy, overcast day.

There were some scores for nine holes that would've been a couple of shots over par for 18. So, taken in context, Lynch's final round score of 89 actually wasn't that bad. And one score in the high 80s isn't nearly indicative of the talent Lynch brings to a deep 59ers team that has high aspirations.

His average score for nine holes this spring is 39.5, according to Pokropinski. He's also a solid scorer and has been for a couple of seasons. There is just one major area that his coach would like to see refined.

"We're trying to get him to be a little more upbeat sometimes," Pokropinski said. "He's been in a lot of pressure situations and that's really helped him in that respect. But he gets down on himself too much, and sometime we'd like him to take a step back and look at the positives instead of the negatives to help keep him pointed in the right direction."

Lynch knows it, too.

"Sometimes when I have a bad hole, I'll start to get down," he said. "It's a weakness. I don't start screaming and throwing my clubs or anything, but I just let it get to me a little more than I should."

Anybody who's ever swung a golf club can understand where he's coming from, and that includes the pros. Still, those who can forget about their bad shots and focus on the next hole are usually the ones holding the trophies and having their pictures taken after it's over.

That's exactly where Lynch wants he and his team to be this spring.

"I think we have a good shot at going to (the state finals tournament)," he said. "A lot of our guys can shoot in the 70s. We're pretty deep."

Lynch is one of those guys. And he can be even better than he already is if he can conquer the inner demons that come out on holes like that rotten 13th.

"It's hard to get to that next level," Lynch said. "If you have a bad hole, you just have to forget about it. I think it's all in your head." Golfers of the Week P-T Top Five On Deck