THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Thursday, June 30, 2016

Following a rough outing at a U.S. Open qualifier last month at Tumble Creek in Cle Elum, Wash., Derek Bayley — with the help of his support team — decided it was time to bring his golf game into the shop for repairs.

It wasn’t his swing, or anything physical, that needed tuning up.

It was his mental game.

“I got pretty flustered in that tournament, because it’s an 18-hole round and if you don’t play well you’re out,” Bayley recalled of the Open qualifier. He decided, “I’ve got to change what I do for the results to change.”

His parents, Mike and Teresa, who often follow him to tournaments, observed an attitude and body language that needed adjusting. They noticed he was getting upset over shots that weren’t all that bad.

So, with a couple of weeks before his first tournament of the summer, Bayley — the former Lakeland High standout who will be a junior on the golf team at Washington State this fall — met with his swing coach, Steve Prugh, the former head pro at Manito Country Club, who retired last year.

“It was more talking than hitting balls,” Bayley said. “My mindset has changed a little bit more, as in not making more birdies, and more like making less bogeys. Thinking less bogeys leads to more birdies, and better things, that’s kind of what I figured out. We talked about different things, and where to hit different shots, and it led to a different mindset for me.”

You can’t argue with the results.

Bayley reached the semifinals of the Idaho state match play, tied for second at the Southwestern Amateur in Scottsdale, Ariz., and, last weekend, won the Idaho state amateur at BanBury Golf Club in Eagle.

“It’s not all because of that, because I have hit it really well,” Bayley said earlier this week. “(But) my mental game is as strong as it’s ever been right now.”

THE THING about youth golfers is, by and large, they’re fearless. They grip it and rip it, then take aim on every flag, no matter what trouble lurks nearby.

Bayley doesn’t exactly fit that mode, but part of his adjustment involved erring on the side of being conservative.

“I don’t think it’s more like the club selection, whether it’s a driver or long iron off the tee,” he said. “It’s more like, if you have a tuck pin, and you really want to make a birdie, it’s more like playing to the fat part of the green, in the middle of the green when the pin’s on the side, because the more greens that you hit, the better chance that you’re going to be able to score. And with me, I putt it well enough and I hit it well enough where I can do those things. It’s more like not attacking a pin and it’s more like giving myself the chance of never making a bogey, rather than having the chance of making a birdie.”

In this era of bomber golf, Bayley often hits a 2-iron off the tee, especially on shorter, tighter courses where accuracy trumps length. In Arizona, he was hitting it 270 yards; back in Idaho, it goes 250-260 yards.

And he was in less trouble off the tee.

He said at BanBury, of the 13 non-par-3 holes, he hit 2-iron six times.

“I’m not hitting it more than I used to; I’m hitting it better right now than I was,” Bayley said. “It was more about hitting it on the correct side of the fairway, and the correct side of the green. And just trying not to make a bogey.”

At BanBury, Bayley shot 72-68-65--205, 8 under par.

CHANGING HIS mindset took some doing.

“It was hard in the beginning, because every good golfer wants to shoot a 62 or 63,” Bayley said. “You can’t even try to have a number in your mind, you just have to let it happen. It’s a big change at the start, but the more you do it, you can see results right away. Birdies come when you least expect them.”

In fact, he had seven birdies in his final round at BanBury.

Most Idaho Golf Association events are dominated by southern Idaho golfers, partly because of geography — most North Idaho golfers choose to stay closer to home and compete in Washington Junior Golf Association events.

Bayley, who won a pair of state 4A titles while at Lakeland, said it meant a lot to win his state’s amateur, not so much for his sake, but more if it shows other golfers up here that someone from the north can beat the southern Idaho golfers in their backyard.

He said someone he knows from Lewiston congratulated him on his Facebook page after the state amateur, for bringing the trophy back to the north.

BanBury is the home course for many of the top players in the Boise area, Bayley said.

“It’s cool to go down there and play on all those guys’ home track, and beat them on it — that certainly means a lot,” he said. “They play those courses (all the time) and I get down there every other year if I’m lucky. Just to go down there and take care of business was pretty special to me.”

Bayley resumes his busy summer of golf next weekend, when he heads to the Bay Area, and a U.S. Amateur qualifier July 11 in Marysville, Calif. The next day, he begins play in the Trans-Mississippi championship at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, which has hosted five U.S. Opens, most recently in 2012. Then, Bayley returns to Spokane to play in the Rosauers Open Invitational at MeadowWood July 15-17.

Then he’s got a couple more events in Washington, capped by the Pacific Coast Amateur, one of the top amateur tourneys on the west coast, at the Seattle Golf Club.

BACK TO that 2-iron.

With so many fairway woods and hybrids to choose from, hardly anybody these days carries a 2-iron, much less hits it, because they aren’t as forgiving. As the old joke goes, if you’re playing golf in a thunderstorm, you’re safe if you carry a 1-iron, because “not even God can hit a 1-iron.”

The 2-iron isn’t much easier to hit.

Bayley said a couple approached him after the third and final round of the state amateur last weekend. They lived on the seventh hole at BanBury, and asked him what club that was he hit off the tee.

“It’s a 2-iron, it’s my favorite club,” Bayley replied.

“We saw you come through on Day 2 and say you hit it and I got my wife when you came around on Day 3 and said, ‘Honey, watch this.’ They were just in awe of how long I could hit it and how straight I could hit it. It’s my favorite club, that’s for sure.”

Old-school club. Old-school thinking.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.