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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, January 20, 2 0 1 7 | 22 Sports Golfer Nicole Gal rises to challenge Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burNngtonpost.com "Connected to your Community" By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff In the four years they had worked together, golf instructor Carrie Vaughan had always marveled at the positive attitude displayed by Nicole Gal. But golf is game that will put even a play er' s greatest strengths to the test. And after a bad practice session by Gal in August, Vaughan was concerned. The 12-year-old had a strong summer, shooting a career-best 8 4 to qualify for the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship in North Carolina. Since then, she had devel oped a quirk in her swing that was turning even routine shots into an adventure and they had been working three weeks to cor rect it. "I called her mom after practice and asked, `How's she doing?'" Vaughan recalled. "She said, `I w on't lie, there were some tears.'" W hen Gal and Vaughan met for the next practice, the tears were gone. Gal was ready to go back to work, confident things would work out. "Her mind's her biggest strength," Vaughan said. "That was a tough time for her. We were all struggling to figure out what was going on with her swing. She has so many strengths but her ability to accept that things aren't going well and turn it around really stands out." · · · · F o u r m onths later, Gal entered the third and final round of the C anadian J u nior Golf A ssociation W orld Ju n io r C hal lenge in Flo rid a w ith a tw o -sh o t lead af ter b ack -to -b ack 8 7 s. By the fou rth hole, her lead had grow n to five. Her playing partner, Florida' s Andrea W oods, slowly cut into the lead. Woods was within three at the turn and on the par5 13th hole, Gal double-bogeyed, allowing Woods to tie. Gal had never won a tournament outside of her own club, the Oakville Golf Club, where she' s the junior girls' champion. Now playing in an international tournament with players from four countries in her division, her biggest strength was again being put to the test. "I try to stay positive. If you get sad you can really mess up a hole," said the Grade 7 student at River Oaks Public School. "Once I hit a bad shot, I try to make a better shot so I can save par or bogey." Gal regained her two-shot advantage on the next hole, only to have Woods gain a shot back on the next two, leaving them tied through 16 holes. On 17, Gal delivered a clutch par, her sev enth of the day while W oods suffered a triple bogey Gal would finish with an 86, taking the peewee girls' championship by three shots and becoming the only Canadian to claim one of the six division titles. "I had finished second, I had been in a playoff, I kept coming super-close to win ning," Gal said. "I guess this was my turn." · · · · Gal started golfing at the age of five when her dad took her to the course. "He wanted to see if I would like it and I fell in love with the sport," she said. "I really like challenges." Golf provided her with 18 new challeng es every round. And when things go awry, Nicole Gal won the peewee girls' division at the CJGA World Junior Challenge in Florida. Gal had a three-day total of 260, shooting an 86 in the final round to win by three strokes. | photo by Graham Paine - Oakville Beaver while most golfers look at those shots as a negative, Gal simply sees another challenge. She demonstrated that in Florida. "My recovery shots really saved my rounds," she said after shooting three con secutive tournament rounds in the 80s for the first time. Gal faced other challenges on her way to v icto ry Usually a w eek off during the season is enough to let bad habits creep into her game. She had not played a round since m id-N ovem ber w hen she arrived in Florida ju st five days before the tou rn a ment. 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