Mike Nedoszytko heads to Michigan on golfing scholarship
Neil McNeil’s golf team is going to have a big hole to fill once Mike Nedoszytko leaves.
The grade 12 links star has led the Maroons golf team to two OFSAAs in 2009 and 2010. He’ll be attending the University of Detroit Mercy in September.
“He definitely raises the profile (of golf),” Neil McNeil coach Tony Fiorino said of Nedoszytko’s role. “These guys come to us with their skills already developed.”
Nedoszytko found golf at age 10 during a camping trip. His dad got him hooked and he hit the green running.
“I like the fact that it’s an individual sport,” he said. “There is no one really out there that can help you, especially on the golf course.
“You definitely have to use your own individual skill and talent to be successful.”
A member the Golf Association of Ontario’s under-19 team, Nedoszytko has been working with swing coach Graham Castanheiro since he was 10.
“This summer I’m really hoping to play well to get recognition to play on Canada’s national team and go from there.”
The national team watches how the whole year has progressed for any given golfer but it’s not necessarily results-based. How a golfer handles himself on the green is also important.
So that means proper decorum on the links — no four-letter words that Nedoszytko’s favourite golfer, Tiger Woods, often utters.
But Neds — as he is known to his coaches at Neil McNeil — has faith Tiger will get his game back.
“The fact is, he’s not even playing well to his standards but he’s still performing well,” he said.
Nedoszytko is receiving a Division I scholarship for the University of Detroit Mercy, but there’s one problem.
“I won’t be eligible to be on the provincial team anymore,” he says.
As for the future, Nedoszytko is taking it one chip shot at a time.
Golf takes patience, commitment, time and effort, he says.
“Last season near the end of it I struggled a little bit but you know, perseverance,” he said. “Golf is a game where it can go either way and you definitely have to stick with it.”