By Julia Train
At six years old, Patrick Foley started taking golf lessons and has continued to play since. Now, at 16 years old, he’s winning championships left and right.
Foley began lessons because his father had played the sport since his 20’s and wanted him to try it.
He took lessons for about a year and stopped for a bit, but then he saw his coach, Bruce Chelucci, at football one day.
“He said, ‘I’m gonna go back to golf.’ He was probably 8 [years old] at that time” said Patrick’s mom, Valerie Foley. “I want to do that again,’ he exclaimed and he never looked back.”
Although his father wanted him to try golf out, Patrick said there wasn’t pressure.“It’s a relaxing sport and I like the independence of it, and not having to rely on others or a team, like most sports,” Foley said. “I just kind of picked it up and rolled with it.”
This year alone, Foley won two different men’s club championships–one at Linwood Country club and another at Blue Heron Pines–and competed in 15 tournaments through the Philadelphia Section of the Professional Golfers Association’s Junior Tour.
Through the PGA tour, which goes on year-round, he played in states around the Philadelphia area, like Maryland and Delaware, and was able to choose the tournaments to play that fit in his schedule.
Out of the 15 tournaments he took part in this year, he won five, came in either second or third five times and placed in the top 10 in one or two.
In August, when Foley competed at Linwood Country Club’s championship, he defended his title by shooting 80 and 78. He came back from a deficit on the first day of the two-day event. During the championship at Blue Heron Pines, he made a comeback on day two again with shooting 77 and 76.
In addition to winning these tournaments, Foley, who is a sophomore at Mainland High School, is also on the school’s golf team. Foley was one of three freshmen on the team that made it to the state finals last season. Going 18-3, he had the best record in the Cape Atlantic League. Foley also had the lowest scoring average in the league out of everybody.
Foley has golfed for 10 years and has come a long way since he first started lessons with his instructor, Bruce Chelucci, to whom he wants to express his gratitude.Foley’s goal for the future is to go to college on a golfing scholarship.
