Around Iredell Sports

2008 Jun-09

Nelson remains cool under pressure on the course

Mooresville’s Josh Nelson finished within three strokes of par eight times in the nine North Piedmont 3A matches this season, with the only exception coming after he was injured in a pre-match fall.

By Brad Norman

All the hours Josh Nelson spent on the links last summer, all the practice drives and putts essentially came down to one moment this season.
And the Mooresville senior didn’t blink.

Nelson was the leader in the North Piedmont 3A season standings by two strokes with two holes to play in the NPC tournament.

Lake Norman’s Travis Taylor was hot on his heels, having birdied three of the previous four holes as the two approached the second-to-last hole.

Taylor lofted his tee shot onto the green of the the par 3, putting all the pressure on Nelson to duplicate that feat.

“Travis had just hit the green, and you know he’s at least going to make par,” Blue Devils coach Charles “Hoppy” Hopkins said. “So this next shot is big. Josh hits it and knocked it to within 10 feet. You talk about pressure — if he doesn’t get this on the green and put himself in position to make birdie, Travis may catch him.”
“That sealed the deal, and it was pretty sweet. It was just clutch.”

That’s the perfect way to describe Nelson’s senior season — clutch.

The reigning NPC champion faced challenge after challenge in his quest to repeat, but Nelson grabbed the conference lead toward the end of the season and never relinquished it.

“It was actually a lot harder. this year,” said Nelson, the 2008 R&L county golfer of the year. “Every single one of Lake Norman’s players stepped it up a lot. I had to play at the top of my game pretty much every round. I was runner-up in five matches, and it was to a different Lake Norman guy every time.”

This season saw a more relaxed and patient Nelson, one who favored position on the fairway over gargantuan drives off the tee.

“I worked a lot on my short game,” Nelson said. “I also became a lot smarter on my tee shots. I didn’t hit many drivers.”

Using a conservative 5-wood off the tee, Nelson kept his ball on the fairways and amassed just one penalty stroke during conference play.

That sort of steady play was critical. Nelson kept his score under 40 in every match but one, and that should come with an asterisk.

With a steady rain and gloomy conditions in the third match of the season, Nelson slipped and tumbled while walking down some stairs.

“It was really wet that day,” said Nelson, who carded a 44 that day. “ I sprained my ankle and sprained three of my fingers. I kept going into bunkers over and over again. It wasn’t really very fun.”

But Nelson had plenty of fun the rest of the season as the Blue Devils advanced to the regionals as a team with Nelson leading the way.

Knowing Mooresville was a long shot to advance to the state championship match as a team, Hopkins had a heart-to-heart chat with his No. 1 golfer.

“I said, ‘Look dude, this is for you,’ ” Hopkins said. “ ‘The chances of us making it as a team aren’t very good. You go do what you have to do.’ ”

So Nelson qualified for the state meet as an individual, where he would finish in the top 20.

“I played really good, but I putted terrible,” Nelson said. “I missed 12 putts inside of 8 feet. And those were the two best rounds I struck the ball.”

Nelson’s future college coach, Dave Nelson of Brevard, walked with Nelson during the entire state tournament.

His analysis?

“He said I had the worst luck he’d ever seen in a player,” Nelson said with a chuckle. “But I just have to keep working on my game. I’ve only been golfing for three years. Hopefully things will be good in college.”

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