Two years ago, Nick Dafnis was all about baseball. It was the only sport he played for Noll, and he was a good prospect to start his junior year at third base. But that all changed when the coaching staff chose to go another way and cut him from the team.
He knew he wanted to play another sport in the spring so he had two options, either track or golf. He did not care for any events in track really, so he chose to golf. Now, at the end of his senior year, he is slated to be Noll’s No.1 golfer.
Dafnis has been around golf since he was young, but has only one year of competitive experience under his belt. What attracted him the most to it was not only how peaceful and relaxing the sport is, but also how it still has that competitive edge to it.
The sport itself can be seen as easy leisurely or very competitive, you are allowed to have fourteen clubs in your bag that you can use. Nick said that his favorite club to use is “The driver because you can hit the farthest with it.” Which is understandable because you start off most holes using that club.
With fourteen different club options, sometimes it is hard to master all of them, and Nick is no stranger to this problem, he has already gone out this season to practice and he said that is wedges need work because he is hitting less than satisfactory with them.
In golf, the lower the score the better. The benchmark score is known as par, or seventy-two on most courses. With him only having only one year of competitive experience he has already gotten his average score down to 101, which is 29 over par which is average for most golfers are age, what sets him apart is his is progress towards par which should be attainable within the season if he gets his fundamentals down. Last year, he won the award for most improved from the Bishop Noll Golf coach Dennis Koliboski.
Nick dedicates his love of golf to his mom. “Everytime I step onto the course I do it to make my mom proud.” She always wants to see him do the best he can do so he plays to the best of his abilities.