Valparaiso’s Dubsky making course corrections

Updated: May 9, 2012 9:49AM

Everything is a teaching moment for Harley Dubsky.

Even the 66 the Valparaiso sophomore shot early in the season at the Rensselaer Invitational had some lessons in it.

The point is, everything has a purpose for Dubsky. If she can’t learn from it, what’s the point of doing it? When she hooks a shot into the rough, she asks herself why. The same goes for when she blasts one down the center of a fairway. Why?

“Even if I win, I still take lessons from it,” Dubsky said. “Even if it’s not golf related, maybe it’s something attitude-wise or how you think about something. That’s one of the things that’s nice about golf; it always has a lesson somewhere. You just have to be positive enough to look for it. You can always get better.”

Highly touted coming into her freshman season a year ago at Valparaiso, Dubsky finished the year by placing fifth at the state golf tournament. In other words, she proved herself. And she’s not going to lie; there was pressure that went with it.

“I wanted to do well,” Dubsky said. “You want to do well, especially when it’s a team sport. I wanted to do well for the team, for myself, and for my family. It wasn’t easy from the get-go, but I got the hang of it, and that slowly eased the nerves.”

Dubsky spent the second semester of her freshman year in Florida with her mother. Dubsky attended the Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy, where she went to school for part of the day and played golf for the remainder. Then she played in the U.S. Junior Golf Championships this past summer, taking on some of the nation’s best at the famed Olympia Fields in Illinois. She missed the cut, but she gained a wealth of knowledge about her game and about herself.

“It’s kind of crazy, because you think to yourself that you’re so far away from that level, and you go there and play and realize that you’re not that far,” Dubsky said. “It’s just the little things that make them that much better.”

Dubsky is a power player. Valparaiso coach Bill Miller said she might be the longest player in the state, averaging about 270 yards off the tee and cranking the occasional 290- or 300-yard drive. But with that power comes a smaller margin for error. And there have been fewer and fewer errors these days in her game.

Dubsky’s worst score for 18 holes this season is 75, compared with last season when she reached into the 80s a couple times.

“This year, she’s just become a lot more consistent,” Miller said. “She’s a phenomenal player, don’t get me wrong. And she was consistent last year. But this year it’s just that her total game from driving accuracy to putting to her iron game, everything is more consistent.”

She enters Saturday’s LaPorte Regional at Beechwood Golf Course after carding a sectional-record 72 at last week’s Valparaiso Sectional at Valparaiso Country Club. Dubsky’s main goal for Saturday is to help her team advance to the state tournament. Her second goal is to at least get back downstate as an individual.

“This year, with our three freshmen, we’ve got to stay in the present,” Dubsky said. “It’s one step at a time, one hole at a time. Nothing is guaranteed. Something crazy can always happen, and we can’t get ahead of ourselves and plan our trip to state. You’ve got to stay in check, and hopefully we make it.”

Scouting the LaPorte Regional
When: 9:30 a.m. Saturday
Where: Beechwood Golf Course
Teams: Penn, Marian, South Bend Adams, Crown Point, Lake Central, Munster, Twin Lakes, North Newton, Rensselaer, Chesterton, Valparaiso, LaPorte
Local individual qualifers:
Allison Smith, Hobart; Mackenzie Barcelli, Portage; Elizabeth Price, Hanover Central; Vickie Nichols, Lowell; Tara Beere, Kankakee Valley; Emily Tucker, Kankakee Valley; Christy Azur, Griffith;
Maggie Connelly, Merrillville

Outlook:The great big battle for medalist should come down to Kari Pellville of Penn, who shot a 71 at the Pat Ford a couple of weeks to take individual medalist honors and Harley Dubsky of Valparaiso and Kelly Grassel of Chesterton. Both shot 73 at the Pat Ford while Dubksy shot 72 at Valparaiso Country Club, with Grassel firing a 73. The Vikings were able to hang with the Trojans, only losing by four. It’s possible they’re peaking at the right time. Penn is the heavy favorite here having won easily two weeks ago. Valparaiso and Chesterton will also likely get out.

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