"Homes Away From Home" Beneficial to Aspiring Young Golfers

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“Homes Away From Home” Beneficial to Aspiring Young Golfers

Mark Seiden reports on the friendship and support offered by local hosts and caddies to rising Symetra Tour players like Hannah Green on their road to the LPGA.

A “home away from home,” especially, near a tournament site, is beneficial to aspiring young athletes. Some folks who live near golf courses where Tour events are being held, find deep satisfaction in becoming local hosts for players.

Mrs. Cheryl Trembley of the Plantation community in Venice hosted Hannah Green for the 2016 LPGA Qualifying event in Venice. She was able to stay on with Cheryl the following week, which gave Hannah a much-appreciated “home away from home. From there, she was able to journey confidently on to nearby Sarasota for the Sara Bay/Symetra tournament the following weekend.

Hannah Green 20-year-old Australian golf star and her Venice Florida host Cheryl Trembley — 20-year-old Australian golf star, Hannah Green and her Venice Florida host, Cheryl Trembley

At Sara Bay in Sarasota in 2016, Australian, Hannah Green finished first — her first win of the Symetra Tour!

Hannah Green’s great 2016 Symetra Tour season began in Sarasota country, just a week after last year’s Symetra Tour qualifying event at Plantation in Venice, now her “home away from home.”

“It wasn’t just staying with her that one-time last year that has made me so grateful to Cheryl. I’ve visited five or six times this year as I traveled around the state. Cheryl lets me get things delivered here. I get my mail here. I do my banking here.”

In October 2017, with LPGA Tour card in hand (as the second-highest prize earner on the Symetra Tour this past year), Hannah stopped back in Venice for a luncheon at Plantation Golf and Country Club, hosted by Cheryl Trembley and other Venice friends — including the caddy from Sarasota who worked with Hannah at both the Venice and Sarasota events last year.

“He was very important for me,” offers Hanah. “He helped me think positively and not be too hard on myself. Everybody makes bad shots sometimes. Let them go. Think about the next shots and recovery,” Hannah volunteers. “My caddy helped me stay positive and calm. So-called stressful moments don’t bother me. I’ll be working with him again.”

Playing on the Symetra Tour actually, costs our budding golf stars big bucks. It’s $500 per tournament to enter most events. So if somebody puts a young golfer up for a week or two around tournament time, that’s a welcome saving.

And these days when it’s important for a country to support its young athletes, it’s a feather in America’s cap when we give young athletes “a home away from home” when they play in our neighborhoods.

So … Mrs. Cheryl Trembley has become something of a “grandmotherly,” “home away from home,” person for Hannah Green. With Cheryl’s help (and of course Hannah’s great game!) Hannah Green, age 20, earned $110,000 in Symetra Tour events in 2016!

Top Symetra money winners earn their much-coveted LPGA cards via that route. And of course, LPGA prizes are far more lucrative than those available to Symetra Tour players.

With LPGA Tour card in hand, Hannah is already “on the road again” for upcoming LPGA events. She’s flying off to events in Dubai and Japan, and then back home in Australia — where she’ll take a deep breath and get ready for LPGA events in the year ahead.

“Next year Hannah will be buying us lunch,” I joke on the phone with Plantation public relations person, Ms. Dawn Pentesco. “You’d better believe it!” replies Ms. Pentesco.

Mark Seiden is a former college professor of literature and writing who has reinvented himself in retirement as a golfer and golf columnist for the Venice Gondolier Sun. A book of his entertaining columns, “Golf’s Old Magic,” is available at Amazon. Mark and his wife Renee are dad and mom to five children and seven grandchildren.