Published: 12:15 AM, Thu Mar 25, 2010
Pine Forest golfer Terrington Myles has high hopes for freshman year
By Earl Vaughan Jr.
Scholastic sports editor
For most freshman high school golfers, just getting the chance to play in the state tournament in the first year on the varsity team would be enough of a goal.
But that's not the way Pine Forest's Terrington Myles sees it.
At an early age, he said his parents encouraged him not to aim for anything lower than first. "It's the only goal I set for myself,'' he said. "It sounds like a longshot, but that's really the only goal.''
Myles has gotten off to a good start in his freshman season in the Mid-South 4-A Conference golf standings. He suffered his first round over 80 this year in Monday's regular-season match at Hope Mills.
Despite the slip, he remains one of only five golfers in the league with a season stroke average of 78.0, three strokes behind first-place John Michael Cole of Cape Fear.
Myles picked up the game from his grandfather when he was only 4 and began playing and practicing regularly at the age of 8. That early start plus watching the success of Tiger Woods on television encouraged him to stay with it.
He finally figured he was getting pretty good at it when at the age of nine he shot a score lower than his grandfather's. He won back-to-back Cumberland County junior championships in 2004 and 2005 and started to play regularly in tournaments.
By the time he got to Pine Forest, he felt his game was ready for high school competition.
"I drive the ball pretty well, and my approach shots are probably my strong point right now,'' he said. His biggest weakness, he said, is his short game.
Wayne Lee, who coaches the golf team at Pine Forest, said one of Myles' strong points is he understands his own limitations. "He's not scared to say, 'I don't need to be doing this,' '' Lee said. "He'll throttle his power back to try and hit a different shot. He's also not afraid to go after a shot if he needs to score lower.''
Lee thinks Myles will need more consistent scoring to make it to the state tournament as a freshman.
While getting to the state tournament remains a big goal, Myles said he's got another one that's almost as important.
"I really just want to keep getting better every day,'' he said.
Scholastic sports editor Earl Vaughan Jr. can be reached at vaughane@fayobserver.com or 486-3519.