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Like father, like son?
A superintendent's son is getting his swings in as a top-notch junior golfer in Maryland.
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He has an invitation to get swing analysis with David Leadbetter’s golf school. Nick Price gets regular updates on his progress. He can play equally well left-handed or right-handed (try that!). A poll would find that most American golfers would fear a match against him. And he is only 7 years old.
At first glance, you wouldn’t expect Jake Viera to smack the ball off the tee 200 yards, or to play par golf from 120 yards in. But the 4-foot 4-inch, 60-pound second-grader has been playing this kind of golf since ... well, since he was a kid.
How good is Jake? The last two years he has far out-distanced his competition in the U.S. Kids Maryland Championship and gone on to finish 20th in the Kids World Golf Championship for 6-year-olds in 2005 and 50th among 7-year-olds after “a very bad day in the bunkers” at Mid-Pines Golf Club in Pinehurst this past summer.
Jake loves golf. He lives it. And it’s no surprise that, as a baby, he cuddled with a plastic golf club in his cradle. It’s also no surprise that his father, Ray, has a little something to do with the golf business. Ray is superintendent at The Members Club at Four Streams in Beallsville, Md.
A 5-handicapper himself, Ray says, “When Jake was real small – say, 3 years old – it was really unbelievable to watch people see him play. If they are marginal golfers, they are blown away. He carries the ball over water, has great bunker shots. He’s got a lot of talent, and they recognize that.”
Jake himself is nonplussed by his play. “I’m amazed, too,” he says.
He says he loves the game and the feeling of hitting the ball.
“Nothing else is as much fun,” adds Jake, who Ray says also excels on the ski slopes.
Ray and his wife, Nancy, say they have never pushed their son to play golf.
“As soon as he could, he naturally started hitting things with the little club – plastic balls, things on the floor and so forth,” says Ray, a 14-year GCSAA member. “He didn’t start actually putting until he was walking, but he started immediately after he was walking. We have videos from parties where Jake would be off hitting balls in the back yard. We had a putting green in the back yard, so kids would congregate on it.”
Adds Nancy, a non-golfer: “We’re not obsessed with (Jake’s golf). We’re more concerned with whether he has a good time and has learned from the experience.”
Ray believes there is a definite line where kids are being pushed and over-coached. “There is a lot of over-coaching and making golf more serious than it needs to be at this young age,” he says.
Steve Bosdosh, a Golf Digest Top 100 Teacher and head of the golf academy at Four Streams, teaches Jake. And Ray takes him out on the course or the practice range three days a week for a couple hours, spending three to five hours each week on his long game and another three to five hours putting.
“Once a week we play 18 with a cart on the Eastern Shore, or at Four Streams,” Ray says.
Jake, whose lowest score is “29 or 30 for nine holes,” says, “It’s cool to meet new kids (in the championships). Some of them I am friends with.”
“He loves the competition,” Ray adds. “He’s into wanting to win. He likes to get his position and know where it’s at. He knows each stroke is valuable. We’ve worked on him to not get upset by a bad shot or a poor round.”
“The thing that made me the proudest,” Nancy Viera says, “is that (at Mid-Pines) he never wanted to quit even though he was having a very bad day for him. He never threw a club, he wasn’t crying. There were kids that were doing all of that. He knew he wasn’t in the top 10 or 20 but it didn’t matter.”
Ray dreams that some day, like TPC at Sawgrass superintendent Fred Klauk and his son, Jeff, he will be able to caddie for Jake on the PGA Tour.
“It’s a far goal,” he says. “But if Jake stays as determined as he is now, he has a chance. I’d love to see him turn pro and I’d love to carry his bag on tournament. If Jake gets some notoriety and goes to college with a golf scholarship, we’ll be there for him 100 percent.”
Jake’s not so sure about his future, but he does have thoughts on some things. His favorite club? “My pitching wedge,” he says, “because I chip real good and I’ve chipped it right into the hole about five times.” His favorite golf course? “Four Streams.”
Of course. Something else his Dad can be proud of.
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