Hal High's Rob Lewis captures COSSA gold in golf

We're hopin' that ol' Bagger will be somewhere
around barrie this week as Rob lewis competes in OFSAA>

By Terrance Gavan - PTE Managing Editor

Golf’s a funny game.

   Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you’re playing the course or the course is playing you.

   Some days it’s a sunny stroll: spoiled.

   And some days golf literally pops with poesy, like the bright red maple leaves strewn on dew-laden green fairways.

   Rob Lewis, a young Hal High Red Hawk swinging prodigy, is as subject to the vagaries of this confounding game as most weekend warriors.

   However, last Friday at the eloquent fairways of Port Hope’s Dalewood Country Club - a tough par 71 6,400 yard track - Lewis experienced one of those Bagger Vance days.

   He expunged demons; he narrowed sight lines; and he eschewed any thoughts of gusting winds and idle thoughts.

   Old Bagger woulda’ been dancin’ along the beach.

   Lewis put together one of the best rounds of his young career.

   And more important, he did it with the heat on and the water bubbling on the stove.

   Lewis shot a spellbinding 75 and earned the respect and praise of his coach Paul Longo who was absolutely ecstatic with his young protégé’s play last week.

   His 75 was the second best round of the day says Longo, but the 74 score was posted as part of the team event, and thus Lewis who was golfing as a single – his Hal High teammates were eliminated in the Kawartha play downs – was awarded low round and an automatic entry into the prestigious OFSAA play downs slated for the Barrie Country Club next Wednesday and Thursday (Oct 13-14).

   “He played really well,” says Longo. “The course plays tough and there was a stiff wind for most of the round, so we’re really proud of him and I know he’s pretty happy.”

   Longo says that the gold medal performance is made even more poignant by the fact that Lewis is only in Grade 10, meaning that he’s got two more years to anchor Hal High’s links team.

   Now that youth factor may come into play next week in Barrie where most of the golfers that Lewis will be facing – among the 100 or so competitors province-wide – will be in grade juniors or seniors.

   But after watching Lewis’s performance on Friday Longo has no doubt that he’ll be equal to the task.

   He adds that Lewis has been under the tutelage of Ken Rosenberg working out of the Pinestone Resort here in Haliburton.

  “Kenny and Rob have been working together for a couple of years now,” he adds.

   Longo says that Lewis came out if not with a chip on his shoulder, at least with something to prove after just missing the OFSAA cut last year.

   “He’s just a really nice young man, and his goal was to be there (OFSAA) this year,” says Longo. “He was only a few shots off last year and he had it in his mind to be there this year.”

   We might call that mission accomplished, but Longo says that he’s not there just to participate; Lewis is there to play the rounds of his life.

   “I think he’ll be out playing every night this week and he and his dad may make a trip to Barrie on Thanksgiving weekend,” adds Longo. “He’s allowed to go play a practice round on Tuesday, but that would entail taking another day off school.”

   Longo is hoping that the weather cooperates and has been scanning the long range forecast since last Friday night.

   “We’re hoping for two nice days,” says the coach.

   And Lewis will be hoping for another two of those “walk in the sunshine” rounds.

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