Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008

Journey ends for Odette Clemente

After a year of golf lessons, the USC senior matches up with her stepfather

After a year of practice, instruction, playing rounds and more practice, this is what it came down to for Odette Clemente on a chilly Sunday afternoon:

The 22-year-old USC senior — who committed to a year of golf instruction from Columbia area professional Brad Frick to turn her from rank novice to accomplished player — stood on the 18th green at Hidden Valley Country Club, eyeing a 20-foot putt to defeat her stepfather, Danny Watson.

In fact, since she was getting a stroke on the hole, all she needed was a two-putt to win. But how much more meaningful would it be to beat her 59-year-old stepdad — a 15-handicapper who plays at Greenville’s Pebble Creek Country Club — straight up?

Clemente settled over the putt, stroked it firmly and ...

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

The past 12 months, Clemente learned more than just the mechanics of golf. She assisted Frick with children’s clinics at Par Tee Driving Range in West Columbia, worked in the pro shop at Charwood Country Club, and competed with a pair of local sports-talk radio hosts (whom she beat) and two of the better female players at the Country Club at Woodcreek Farms (to whom she lost).

Frick’s initial goal was to make her a scratch player, but later scaled that back a single-digit handicap. That, too, went unfulfilled; her average score hovered around 90-100.

Clemente, though, made competing with Watson her priority. The two are “competitive in everything,” said Odete Watson, Clemente’s mother and Danny’s wife of eight years. “They always played a lot of basketball in the yard.”

Who won most of those? “I did,” Watson said with a grin. “But she’s real competitive. I won’t say she learned it from me — but I helped instill it.”

Now it was Clemente’s chance to turn the tables.

The two teed off on Hidden Valley’s back nine, and Watson’s “rustiness” showed when he hooked his drive on the dogleg-left par-5 10th hole into an unplayable lie, and dumped his next shot into the hazard. Clemente easily won to go 1-up.

Then it got interesting.

The two halved the next three holes, Watson playing well tee-to-green but struggling with Hidden Valley’s greens. At the short, uphill par-3 14th, Watson made a bogey while Clemente found a bunker and made double, squaring the match.

But Clemente didn’t fold. At the par-4 15th, she was short of the green, pitched to 12 feet and made it to stay even. Then, at the par-5 16th, Watson’s poor drive resulted in a double bogey, and when Clemente chipped to a foot for bogey, she was 1-up again.

They halved the 17th with pars, and Clemente needed to halve No. 18 to win. What came next was a product of their competitiveness — or just nerves.

Clemente hit two approach shots into the pond fronting the green — but Watson drowned three. He finally tapped in for a 10. Clemente’s eighth stroke rolled past the cup to the front of the green; she lined up her next putt ... and sank it.

“That’s the way to play, honey!” Watson shouted, hugging his stepdaughter while his wife beamed.

Afterward Watson praised Frick for “teaching her great technique” and fundamentals. “She’s come a long way, especially putting,” he said. “She’s got bragging rights now. But there’ll be another match; we don’t take losing lightly.”

Watson laughed. “If we’d had a bet,” he said, “it would’ve gone 18 (holes).”

Frick called his year with Clemente “a learning experience for me, too. If I had to change anything, I’d get her out to the golf course earlier, instead of all the work on the range.” Rounds of 44 early on, Frick said, made him think “she’d be in the low- to mid-80s by now. But that’s golf,” he said.

Clemente said she wished she’d done more and told Frick she’d be back to practice. Then she grinned.

“I reached my goal,” she said, eyeing her stepfather. “This was definitely worth doing.”

Reach senior writer Bob Gillespie at (803) 771-8304.

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