Took a cold shower this morning…of Porter Cup reality. I figured out that Buff Ringer shot 72-65-70-70=277, to finish solo 16th at the 2013 Porter Cup. If you visit the official scoreboard for the tournament, you won’t find Buff Ringer listed. That’s the lowest score for each round of the eight golfers from Buffalo-Niagara who open-qualified or received invitations. It’s a jolt of honest appraisal of the quality of golf that descends annually on the Niagara Frontier, among other things.

Buff Ringer would have beaten this year’s champion, Taylor Pendrith, only during the 2nd round and only by one slim stroke. If you go a step more generous and take the four best scores, regardless of round, you have 65-69-70-70=274, which moves Buff into a tie for 8th with Pittsford’s Gavin Hall, et al. Hall doesn’t count for Buff ringer, as he is a player of national prominence. He is a different beast.

This year, eight spots were available via the open qualifier. Three were earned by Buffalo-Niagara golfers: Austin Nowak, Patrick Sheedy and Jonathan Clark. Only Sheedy broke par during any round, with his marvelous Thursday 65. Another spot went to the Litte Three individual champion, the annual collegiate tournament involving Canisius, Niagara and St. Bonaventure. That man was Michael Carrig, who opened with 72-69 (top 25 at midway point) before fading during rounds three and four. A fifth spot went to the 2012 Buffalo District Golf Association points champion, Raman Luthra. Luthra knows his way around the national game; sadly, he never found his stroke this week and turned in a disappointing performance.

Two other local players, currently active in the collegiate ranks, were extended late invitations. Players pull out of events, albeit not like Hunter Mahan did, for a variety of reasons. The tournament is often left with an uneven field and extends further invitations to players like Zach Olsen (Southern Amateur winner two weeks ago) and Jordan Niebrugge (ditto USGA Public Links.) If they do not accept, the committee looks to regional talent to fill out the field. Enter Michael Boss and Daniel Yustin. An eighth spot was taken by the current Niagara Falls country club champion, PJ Alterio.

Before the arrows fly and I am accused of slinging mud or tarnishing brass, understand that this is a detached assessment of a prominent tournament. The Porter Cup is an international event (the British Amateur runner-up finished 5th, for goodness sake!) If local golfers are qualified to play, wonderful. If they are not, get to work on your short game.

As a coach and a competitor, I encourage all golfers to send playing resumes to tournament directors. If the person in charge determines that you have what it takes and you’ve won what you needed to win, you’ll receive that invitation. If you don’t receive an invitation, save up and play in the open qualifier. You’ll need to break par at worst (unless conditions are abysmal) to get in, but hey, that’s kinda the theme of this article. If you get in, find a way to place top 25. If I were tournament director (and I’m not) and a local player finished top 25, against a stellar field, I’d invite him back the following year. How do you do this?

–Get to know the course. Find a way to play NFCC as much as possible. Putt all the greens and diagram all the holes as though you were Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory discussing…well, stuff that Sheldon discusses;

–Hire the best caddy the club has. The gal or guy that has been there forever, that knows the course, that has an even temperment;

–Tell your friends and family to stay away. No matter how they think they are helping, they aren’t. No matter how much camouflage they wear, you’ll see them. Regardless of how quiet they keep, you’ll hear them. Tell them to come by 5 hours after your round began to see you and you’ll tell them how it went.

–Putt and putt and putt and putt and chip and chip and chip and chip and wedge and wedge and wedge and wedge until you are a short game sensei. If you KNOW that your wedges and putter will save you, punching out and laying up no longer scare you.

How difficult is golf scoring at the Porter Cup? Alterio, the recently crowned club champion started off on Wednesday with a 35 on the outward nine. That’s even par, on a course he knows like you and I know how to breathe. Alterio closed the round with a eleven-over 46 on the back nine. The Porter Cup makes you forget how to breathe. Ask Sheedy how tough it was to follow up that second-round 65 with a number. The fellow went 12 strokes higher on Friday. Inquire of Carrig what it felt like to be in the mix for a top-20 finish with 36 holes left.

I’ll close with this: Matt Stasiak, a competitor in previous Porter Cups, posted a 4-under total of 284 to to win the concurrent New York State amateur championship at Schuyler Meadows. We know what four-under would have earned him at Niagara Falls. We also know that 284 would have placed him in a tie for 35th at this year’s Porter Cup. There’s success at the local level (Stasiak’s win at the Erie County amateur in early July), success at the regional level (Stasiak’s win at the NYS amateur) and then there’s the Porter Cup. Check out our final gallery of images from the 55th playing of the Porter Cup to see just what these guys look like.