Seth Sweet began competing in golf tournaments at age 10. By the time he was 12, he became the youngest player ever to qualify for the Maine Amateur.

His career has taken off since.

This fall, the 17-year-old senior at Madison Memorial High School won his second consecutive Class C individual championship, shooting the lowest score in any class, a two-under par 70. It capped a year in which Sweet finished fourth at the Maine Amateur and qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur.

Despite his accomplishments, the high school title remained important to Sweet.

“It meant quite a bit,” Sweet said. “It just kind of backed up that I was one of the best players in the state.”

For his efforts, Sweet has been selected Morning Sentinel Golfer of the Year.

Sweet recently signed a letter of intent to play golf at Division I Old Dominion University, a school coincidentally where Madison graduate Bob Wilder is the head football coach. He reached this point through hard work, but he’s had plenty of help, beginning with his father Dan who got Seth and his older brother Zack started at an early age.

High school coach Heath Cowan has dozens of rounds with Sweet on his home course at Lakewood and helped him with course management while Rawn Torrington, the pro and owner of T’s Golf in Manchester, is his swing coach.

“He had all the expecrtations of the world on him,” Cowan said of Sweet’s early career. “He struggled with that a little bit but his confidence grew and grew. He’s put in so much practice.”

Sweet and his brother saw Torrington a couple of times a week when they were younger and at least once a week after that.

“I stopped for a while and I started playing real bad,” Sweet said. “I need another eye. I get a little off track once in awhile.”

Sweet, who is 6-feet tall and weighs 170 pounds, has generally hit the ball long and straight off the tee during his high school career. His greatest improvement over the past year has been his iron play.

“I seem to be hitting a lot more greens,” he said.

He’s also made great strides in the mental aspect of golf, and again he sought help, this time from sports psycholgist Scott Barnicle.

“He helped me out tremendously,” Sweet said, “to stay more positive and control my anger rather than picking out what I did bad.”

Sweet hung up his clubs a couple of weeks ago and is concentrating on basketball, where even at 6-feet, he’ll proabbly play down low for the Bulldogs this season. He’ll start hitting balls in the spring and plans to play a few tournaments, including the Maine Amateur, while trying to qualify again for the U.S. Junior, the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open.

“You just keep learning from it,” Sweet said of his love for the game. “There’s always a new challenge. You never really win the game and you learn a lot of values from it that you can use in life.”

Gary Hawkins — 621-5638

ghawkins@centralmaine.com

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