Nickerson to play nationals

BY CARLA ALLEN

The Coast Guard

NovaNewsNow.com

Aaron Nickerson has decided to give it a go. The River Hills golfer, who ranked fifth at the Nova Scotia Men’s Amateur championship in North Sydney at Seaview Golf Club last month has registered for the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from Aug. 10-17.

“If I’m on top of my game and I play well I could probably sneak into the top 10,” said Nickerson, who had the opportunity to play twice before with the Nova Scotia team, being in the top four in 1998 and 2000.

Nickerson is recognized as an alternate for the team this year but says he was only one ball width away from being one of the four.

“The thing that buggered me up this year was I had a mediocre chipping game. My chipping game kind of went sour. A slow start on my last day of competition really put me behind the eight ball.

“When I finally decided that I had the game to play with the guys there, I played three under par for the last 11 holes but it was too little, too late. I knew the standings on the last green with the final group behind me and I had a putt of about 110’ and it came up 15’ short and the next putt came up one ball width from going in… which would have put me in a play off with two other guys for two spots on the team,” he said.

His individual day scores: first day 75, second day 70, third day 73 and fourth day 74 – totaled 292 strokes.

Nickerson describes golf as being very “technical” and mostly “mental” and says in order to win a tournament, a player has to have his “A game” for four days.

“You have to find a comfort zone and not let your mind wander – keep focused,” he said.

He asked if he practiced mediation he laughed and replied no but added maybe he should.

“I’ve been thinking about taking up yoga,” he said.

Nickerson, a resident of Clark’s Harbour, has played at River Hills since 1984 and is the manager of Silver Roe Seafoods, a frozen lobster bait dealer on Cape Sable Island, when he’s not on the greens.

“It works good around my golfing because I have most of the summer off and it enables me to get in all the tournaments that I like to play,” he said.