Jamie’s drive to succeed

DAVID HALL

sport@kiamaindependent.com.au

SHELL Cove Primary School’s Jamie Krzyszczak is the toast of the school following his selection in the NSW Primary School’s Sports Association’s (PSSA) golf team to contest the national titles at the Rosebud Country Club at Melbourne in November.

Eleven-year-old Jamie is a regular at the Shellharbour Links and has the significant honour of being Shell Cove Primary’s first state representative.

His promising golf career started simply by chance when one day, as a five-year-old, he was watching golf on pay television.

He told his grandfather he thought it looked like fun.

“I had five grand-children and none had shown any interest in sport and when Jamie mentioned golf, I went straight out and bought him some cut-down clubs and a heap of balls and he took to the sport straight away,” his grandfather Tony said.

Jamie said there was an instant attraction to the game and loves getting out on the course every chance he gets.

“When I first got my clubs, I was hitting 500 balls a day – I just couldn’t wait to get home from school to get started,” he said.

“I started playing men’s competition at the Links when I was seven on a 32 handicap and even won a few events.

“I’m now down to hitting 100 balls a day, but at least I now know what I am doing,” he said.

Under the coaching of Shaun O’Toole at Port Kembla and John Hogben at The Links, Jamie has continued to flourish, with an outstanding list of achievements in 2009 any golfer would be proud. He started the year by winning his age division at the annual Prime 90 in January.

This was followed by him taking out the scratch title Camden Cup in the Under-14s, winning the net division in the Under-14s at the Gerringong Junior Classic, being the gross winner in the Under-12s at the Macarthur Masters and also shining at the NSW PSSA titles, where he finished second with a 36 hole gross score of 162.

During the year, his handicap has dropped from 14 to just 11. Jamie said he owed a lot to his grandfather, who is not only his chaffeur, but also his caddy and major supporter as well. He also thanked the more than 480 people who had bought raffle tickets that helped sponsor his trip to Melbourne.

Coach John Hogben said he liked what he saw in Jamie.

“He is a young man with a lot of confidence and ability and the sky really is the limit if he keeps going the way he is,” he said.