By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – After her game deserted her for a maddening fortnight, the Sammie Nusbaum everyone knows, and most love, returned to expected form.
With her driver issue solved and her confidence restored, Nusbaum came roaring back from struggles to sensational, carding a career-best 75 at Otis Park during the annual BNL Invitational. She missed medalist honors when Castle star Kate Edwards staked a wedge shot and slithered home a short birdie putt on the first playoff hole, but that wasn’t the big news of a picture-perfect, Chamber-of-Commerce Saturday on the golf course.
Nusbaum is back. Tears are cheers once more. Like the line from the hymn “Amazing Grace,” what was once lost, is now found.
Her recovery round was the highlight as BNL finished second in the nine-team tournament. The Stars carded 361, far back of No.6 Castle as the Knights swung their swords with style while posting 334. Seymour was third at 381.
Just a few matches ago, Nusbaum was a mental mess. She couldn’t launch a driver more than a few yards, couldn’t get it airborne, and that club has always been the best in her bag. It was inexplicable, yet a common swing flaw was spotted and corrected. After extra hours on the range, after therapy sessions with her coach, after her confidence had plummeted to dangerous depths, she came roaring back. That’s golf. One day it hates you, the next you love it again.
“She’s one of the hardest working kids I’ve ever coached,” BNL coach Carly Stigall said. “It was a little rattling. Her tee shot is her strength. But I don’t want her to rely on that. She has to learn to use other elements of the game when something is going wrong. You have to adjust and move on.”
Her day didn’t start the best. She was muddling, already 3-over after three holes. In the past, “she was the kid who would hit the panic button faster than anyone,” Stigall said. Not this time. Nusbaum played the next 15 holes brilliantly, starting with a birdie on the par-5 sixth. She followed that was a birdie on the 12th and another on the 17th (which included her signature fist pump in quiet celebration).
The mental block had been scaled.
“I learned a lot through it,” Nusbaum said. “I had to rely on my short game, my irons and recovery shots, just had to play bogey golf and accept what the course was giving me that day. And I just knew we had put in the work, every night after practice.“
In the playoff, on the par-3 10th, Nusbaum lofted a wedge to five feet, but Edwards was even better with her approach to three feet. Nusbaum’s putt skimmed the left edge of the cup. Edwards was perfect with hers.
Castle’s advantage was other scorers in the 80s. BNL had none of those. Emma Voris carded 90, Bella Warren had a 97, and Kadynn Canada capped the team scoring with 99.
”I’m not satisfied with some of those scores,” Stigalll said. “This is our home course, and shooting above your average on your home course is not settling, it will not get us anywhere in the postseason.”
Paoli’s Camley Whitfield was third in the medalist race with an 80.
BNL will face Bloomington South at Stonecrest on Monday.
