Sports

Families of Cavs golfers lend support in Phoenix

• Just because the Darton College golf team is way out West in Arizona doesn’t mean many of the golfers’ families were afraid to make the 2,000-mile trek right along with them.

Greg Demmit
Special to the Herald

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Darton College might be 2,000 miles from Phoenix, but that didn’t keep several of the Cavaliers’ parents from coming out here to support them.

“We’ve been taking our vacations for Evan’s golf tournaments since he was in fourth grade,” said Winston Hanna, Evan’s mother. “Now it’s starting to pay off.”

Randy and Winston Hanna and Chester and Julie Gunn, parents of

Chesley, have been watching both young men since before their days at Tift Country High School.

“From junior high on, we’ve been hanging around a long time,” said Winston, a hairdresser in Tifton.

The two couples from Tifton took a side trip to the Grand Canyon after Wednesday’s early round.

“It’s awesome,” Winston said.

Randy would agree.

“I started taking (Evan) to the driving range when he was about 10 years old,” Randy said. “I cut down a little nine iron for him. He wanted to go with me and I let him. Georgia’s got a pretty good program for kids to start in.”

Chester Gunn, a salesman with Estes Express, said there came a time when he encouraged Chesney to focus on golf.

“We were doing basketball, baseball and football,” he said. “I said, ‘Dude, let’s just pick one sport and focus on it — we’ll pay for some lessons.

“Golf seemed to be the right sport for him. He had the hand-eye coordination and the right temperament for it.”

Both men had played against Matt Smith when he was at Coquitt High School, and Smith’s his Jamaican-born parents, Stephen and Jackie, now living on Moultrie, joined the gallery Thursday. They brought Matt’s younger brother, Joshua, and girlfriend, Lindsay Hargrove. His sister, Alexandra, is on a mission trip in the Czech Republic.

“I think I want to come back here to play golf,” said Stephen, who works for the International Poultry Breeders. “(Matt) just picked it up from me going and then he took it from there. He took like three lessons.

“I think what probably pushed him over the edge for golf was when he was 11-years old and we were living in Virginia Beach. He played in a closest-to-the-pin contest where the first prize was a Big Bertha driver and he won it.’

Jong Chung, father of Jin, also made all four days of the tournament. He doesn’t speak a great deal of English but always knows the scores.

“He wants to go to every golf tournament I play,” Jin said. “When I make par, I hear him clap.”

Darton coach Dale Dover said its good to have the parents in the gallery.

“I always want some support,” he said. “Some of them play better when the parents are here, some get a little edgy. It doesn’t bother Evan. When he hits his first shot he goes into a trance.

“Chesley used to be bothered — he’s gotten a lot better.”

Dover then concluded: “There came a point when I had to say, ‘If he needs chewing out I’ll take it from there,’ My expectations are already high for them. They don’t need it from all sides. They want some support.”

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