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Huntley's Gordus bursts onto golf scene in big way

Huntley junior girls golfer Nicole Gordus has quite the "What I did on my summer vacation" story to tell.

Gordus, who has been playing the sport competitively for only 3 years, was named the McHenry County Junior Golf Association Player of the Year after turning in an impressive spring/summer performance that saw her win 7 events and log Top 3 finishes in three others. Highlights included winning the McHenry Co. Junior Amateur at Boone Creek, winning a playoff to take top honors at Foxford Hills in late July (an event where she sank a 50-foot putt from the fringe). She also won the J Patrick Lawler Crystal Woods Open and placed third in the McHenry Open.

Not too shabby for someone who still is a relative newcomer on the links. When she was younger, Gordus' exposure to golf consisted of a camp at she attended at Pinecrest in Huntley once a week for three weeks each year.

"I didn't know anything about golf," she said. "Then I was asked if I wanted to play in high school. When it came time for that I realized I actually did want to play."

So Gordus got serious about golf - really serious.

"The summer before freshman year helped me realize I didn't know a thing," she said. "I started taking more lessons and started playing more. I really wanted to do this."

Gordus eventually started working with PGA teaching professional J. Anderson, who works out of Crystal Woods Golf Club in Woodstock (he previously was at Golf Club of Illinois in Algonquin).

"It's amazing how much he's helped me," said Gordus of Anderson's teachings. "It's unreal how much I've improved from when I first started going to him. In the beginning, I would swing and miss almost every time. Now, I'm shooting in the low 40s for 9 holes. It's amazing."

Prior to her tear on the MCJGA circuit this summer, Gordus, for the second time, traveled with Anderson and a group of area junior golfers to Georgia over spring break for four days of nonstop golf at Kinderlou Forest in Valdosta.

"We wake up and go practice on the range and putting green for three hours, we go have lunch and then we play 18 holes," she said. "Those trips helped me focus more. It helped me start seeing where other people were at who were around my age. It made me want to be like them and get better. It drove me to practice even more."

Gordus recalled having a wake-up call of sorts the first year she went on the Georgia trip. "That was the first time I ever played 18 holes," she says with a laugh. "I could only play nine the first day and then the second day I played 15 and played 18 on the third day. It turned out to be a lot of fun."

Anderson calls Gordus' improvement "delightfully fast."

"Here was a beginning golfer who had never played a stick-and-ball game before," he said. "She has done extremely well for only playing golf for three summers. She goes to my winter training program at Crystal Woods. She works hard at this. It's mainly her attitude and desire to learn. She wants to be as good a player as she can be. When she first started she had a hard time getting an 8-iron up in the air to where now she's shooting low scores. Nicole has the skill to shoot 40 and below on a regular basis. I'm lucky to have a student who aspires to work and train hard."

Gordus looked back to her first time playing on the competitive summer circuit. One thing she did is pay attention to what other players were shooting. "The first year I played I took third place in the very last one I played in," she said. "I thought to myself, 'I can shoot the scores these other girls are shooting.' "

And indeed she has. That recent summer momentum has carried right into the high school season. Gordus broke 40 for 9 holes for the first time in her career during Huntley tryouts in August and recently was the medalist in the Red Raiders' Fox Valley Conference meet against Dundee-Crown.

"Getting under 40 felt so great," she said. "It gave me even more motivation."

Longtime Huntley coach Ann Christiansen is watching a different player on the course these days. "It's unbelievable what she's done from when she picked up a club the first time freshman year to where she is now," she said. "She works hard. It's not unusual for Nicole to practice five hours a day in the summer - not play, but practice."

Despite her meteoric improvement, Gordus isn't close to resting on her laurels. "I know I still have a lot to learn," she said. "It's only been three years. How much can I still improve? A lot. The scores I am getting still aren't the best. I know I can knock strokes off. I'm proud of how far I've come, but I can see where I can still get better. I'm not satisfied. I'm still in the low 40s. I shot that 38 at tryouts and not in a meet. That's going to come in time."

Gordus, who would like to play golf at the collegiate level, thinks about the long-term future - and, surprise, it includes golf. "I'd like to major in business in college," she said. "When I was younger I was really into fashion and used to draw a lot of fashion-related things. I'd like to design golf clothes for girls and women. Business can branch off into a lot of different areas."

For now, Gordus has designs on lowering her scores even further this fall and helping her Red Raider team achieve as much success as possible.

"Nicole is the same way in school," Christiansen said. "Whatever she does she puts her mind to it. People like her don't come around very often. She's very special."

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