Dianne Fenlason proudly admits she is one of them — a golfer who is driven by her passion to walk the links and slap around a dimpled ball at least four times a week.
The greens become her summer residence, and if she could, she would build an indoor putting green in her home to cope with winter.
“If I could, I would eat, sleep and drink golf, but I have to work,” said Fenlason, who is a first-year golf coach at Spruce Mountain High School. “I have been playing for about 20 years.”
“What draws me (to the sport) is it is all about you. If you hit a bad shot, that’s you. If you hit a good shot, that’s you. I am very competitive with myself. If I play with a person, I don’t care what you guys shoot, but boy, I want to play well myself. It is all about that individual thing.
“What I like about golf is I can play with an 8-year-old or an 80-year-old. It doesn’t get any better than that. It teaches a lot more than just a sport. I love it.”
Her patience and devotion to the game is why Spruce Mountain athletic director Lee Hixon gave her the job after Rick Carlton stepped down this season.
“She works here in the school. She’s a music teacher over here,” Hixon said. “Last year, when I came up on board, I asked if she knew about golf. I knew she was a golfer.
“She does very well, and I said, ‘How about coming along on board and just helping out,’ and she did. And this year, when Rick Carlton backed down, she stepped right into that role and we are very, very pleased to have her there.”
During her 27-year teaching career, Fenlason has coached a variety of sports and was an athlete in high school, but when she took a swipe at golf ball, she was hooked for life.
Last season, when she saw that stipend coaching positions at Spruce Mountain were being advertised, she submitted her application for the golf job.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh no, we don’t have a coach. It would be a shame for the kids to not have a coach,'” Fenlason said. “I submitted my name. Lee Hixon called and said, ‘We already have a coach.’
“He said, ‘How would like to come in and interview anyway?’ I am like, ‘Oh, sure.’ He said, ‘Do you want to volunteer?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I helped the kids and that’s how it happened. I would go around and play a couple of holes with them. I never walked into this thing thinking I would be the head coach. I didn’t want them to go without somebody.”
Of course, the first-year coach is facing challenges, like teaching the basics of golf to participants who never played the game. So for Fenlason, the season will be about fundamentals.
“So we are as wet as wet can be,” Fenlason said. “The biggest thing is to make sure they are having fun while they are playing this awesome game.”
“She’s a wonderful lady,” Hixon said. “The kids love her. It is all about life lessons with her. I just couldn’t be more happy.
“She and I played in a tournament this summer and I got to see her in action, and she’s the real deal. She does a great job.”
Coaching offers Fenlason a huge perk, too: It gives her another excuse to be on the links and golfing with her players.
“I told my husband, ‘I have to see the kids,'” Fenlason said laughing. “My husband said, ‘Yeah, right Dianne.'”
-
- Spruce Mountain golf coach Dianne Fenlason.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
