Golfers sometime talk about being in the zone when they're out on the course.
Metchosin's Casey Parsons has taken that feeling to the next level.
He was in just such a place last Sunday (May 1) when he lowered the Metchosin Golf Club 18-hole course record to 61, eclipsing the 62 shot by veteran tour professional Jim Rutledge some years back.
Having had less than a week to let that settle in, the club staffer went out yesterday with course superintendent Mike Hodgetts and assistant Rollie Haselden, and longtime club member Forrest Lockhart. Parsons shot 9-under 60 to lower his own short-lived record by a stroke.
Asked about his recent accomplishments as he trooped around the nine-hole course for his regular Sunday morning round last weekend, Parsons came across as the epitome of zen-like calmness.
"I have to say, these past couple of weeks I've been able to stay in the present," he said. "It's easy to get thinking too far ahead, but lately I've just been in kind of a good space."
He and his regular playing partners have spoken about Rutledge's record in past, wondering what it would take to beat it.
Playing with fellow Metchosinite Mike Van De Water during the May 1 round, Parsons made the turn after nine holes at a modest 1-under par. Then he caught fire, smoking a drive close on the 290-yard first hole and sinking his putt for an eagle. He went on to birdie the next three holes to get to 6-under, at which point, he said, Van de Water mostly forgot about his own round.
"It's kind of like a pitcher who's working on a shutout, nobody wants to say anything about it," he said. "But Mike was really encouraging me."
On Saturday, Parsons continued to play with supreme confidence, driving well and seeing the cup as if it were six feet wide.
At one point, Haselden said, someone yelled "fore" while Parsons was in the middle of his backswing.
"He kind of chunked his shot and left it short. So what does he do? He chips it in," Haselden said, grinning. "You can sometimes tell when someone's out of the hole (unable to score par or better), but he's never out of the hole."
Parsons, 26, was athletic through his youth, at Cowichan secondary in Duncan and later at Camosun College, where he played varsity basketball for the Chargers from 2007 to 2009. He started getting a little more serious about golf five years ago, when he and some friends decided to got a membership at Metchosin Golf Club.
A nearby neighbour to the course, he began working there three years ago in between semesters working on his education degree at the University of Victoria.
He said he'd like to play even more this summer and get out to some other local courses. In general, he said, he's happy to be back living in Metchosin, where peace and calmness reigns and the golf is good.
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