SEQUIM — Jack Shea made the leap from being a golfer capable of occasional moments of great play to a consistently excellent player during his junior season.
Shea trimmed 3.3 strokes from his sophomore scoring average, earning the Olympic League MVP award after posting an average of 36.3 shots per nine holes.
He fired a blistering 3-under-par 69 to win the league championship on his home course, Cedars at Dungeness, in May, and followed that with a 10th-place finish at the Class 2A state tournament at Liberty Lake Golf Course.
Shea also has been picked as the All-Peninsula Boys Golf MVP by area coaches and the Peninsula Daily News sports staff.
Shea’s state appearance included playing the final 31 holes at even par.
“I was happy with the season kind of the whole way through,” Shea said.
“I think the main difference from this year and last year was I analyzed my game better and figured myself out more.
“My good shots were about the same as last year, but my misses were better than last year.”
Golf can be a mentally taxing sport. Bad shots tend to linger in a players mind.
“That’s the hardest part of golf, to realize not every shot is perfect and I have to let some shots go,” Shea said.
Shea’s relaxed temperament allows him to avoid dwelling on those mistakes.
“Jack’s really patient and has a great disposition out on the course,” said Bill Shea, Jack’s coach and father, and the director of golf at Cedars, where the younger Shea works in player services.
“He doesn’t get flustered with a bad score on a hole, or a bad break.
“He just does the best he can and moves on to the next hole.
“I saw it many times this season where he’d have a blowup hole then bounce back with a birdie, or at least a par.”
That perseverance on the course is a result of physical and mental growth for the 6-foot-3 Shea.
“He’s become more athletic and in terms of overall coordination. It’s helped his golf game,” Bill Shea said.
“The biggest jumps for him have been on the mental side. To manage a course and play it the way it should be played and not try to overpower it.
“He’s really become a smart golfer, one who has known what holes to attack and when to lay back.”
Shea had a busy athletic slate as a junior. In the fall, he was an All-Olympic League second-team defensive lineman for Sequim’s football team and in the winter played for the basketball team.
Still, he found time during the golf offseason to practice his best sport.
“Waking up early on weekends, coming out to the course for 30 minutes and chipping, or chipping in the back yard,” Shea said.
“This year, I even started hitting a pingpong ball with a wedge inside the house. My mom won’t like to hear that, but whatever free time I had, I worked on it.”
That commitment to the game grew during the golf season.
“He works extremely hard,” Bill Shea said.
“During golf season, he was there every day of practice hitting balls and getting out on the course and playing 27 holes on the weekends.
“Jack’s overall work ethic for golf is strong.
“A lot of kids, once they see success, it motivates them to work harder and put in more time, and he’s one of those kids.”
Despite a golf season full of his own individual success stories, Jack Shea’s favorite moments came while playing as a duo with senior teammate Travis Priest.
“I liked winning the best ball tournament in Chimacum [at Port Ludlow Golf Course] the best,” Jack Shea said of the tournament in which he and Priest combined to shoot 2-under-par.
“It was Travis’ last year, and we made it a goal a few years ago to win that tournament.
“We’ve been playing golf together for about three years, and to finally win the tournament that we had set our minds to was fun.
“And then we also won the [Duke] Streeter in Port Angeles together.”
Jack She’s season also impressed Bill Shea, the father.
“There’s been several proud dad moments, really,” Bill Shea said.
“I think the consistency of his season, to get to the top and stay there, was impressive.
“To step it up in big moments, like winning league at several under par, or his performance at [the] Egbers [Invitational, at which Shea finished 14th in a 36-hole competition with some of the state’s best players].
“Some players are a big fish in a little pond, and you wonder if you take them away from their hometown, what they do on the bigger stage.
“And Jack is really starting to show how he’s capable of performing.”
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
