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WEST WINDSOR: Siegler remains busy on course

WW-P North graduate doing well in golf tournaments

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   Ryan Siegler’s schedule has been packed over the last week, but he isn’t complaining.
   ”Starting with my junior year of high school, it’s been pretty much this busy,” said the West Windsor-Plainsboro High North graduate. “That’s the way I like to do it. It takes up a lot of time, but it’s always a lot of fun.”
   Siegler played in the Golf Association of Philadelphia Open at Applebrook Golf Club on Wednesday, was scheduled to try to defend is title at the 10th New Jersey State Golf Association Men’s Public Links Championship on Thursday at Neshanic Valley Golf Course, and after a day off Friday from competition, he will try to defend his Mercer Oaks club championship Saturday and Sunday. Even if he does, there’s not much time to enjoy it as he heads to Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh to play in the Pennsylvania Amateur Championship that runs Monday through next Wednesday.
   ”Playing tournaments is a huge difference (from practicing),” said Siegler, who will be a junior at Towson University. “I feel like I have to play tournaments year-round to be ready for the college tournaments. The tournaments have a different feel. You can always go out and hit it well at your home course. It amplifies it at a tournament.
   ”You judge yourself on where your game is. You don’t judge yourself on what you shoot, but how you do in a tournament.”
   Siegler wasn’t thrilled with his play in the GAP Open. He finished in a tie for 25th after shooting 72-75-147 on a day when he never could get his driver quite right. On Tuesday, the day before the GAP Open, he missed qualifying for the Metropolitan Golf Association Open but shot 75 at the Morris County Golf Club.
   ”That was the first time I played that course and it went really well,” Siegler said. “It’s hard to play a lot of these courses when I’m trying to play a lot of tournaments.”
   Siegler is happy to have so many opportunities at his doorstep. He never has to go much more than an hour to play good courses and tough competition.
   ”I live in a pretty good area,” Siegler said. “I can play all the Philly stuff, the New Jersey state stuff and Metropolitan stuff. I have a pretty filled schedule. And if you play well, you qualify for the tournaments that are over a couple days.”
   Siegler has won a couple of qualifiers already this summer, but he is still looking for a signature win before he returns to school. Last year, he got it with a great day to win the Public Links Championship. In his 69-71-140 two-rounds winning score was his second career hole-in-one. He went into Thursday looking forward to the chance to defend his crown.
   ”It’s one of my first times doing it,” Siegler said. “I won a couple junior events, but they were in my last year so I couldn’t go back and defend them. It’ll be a little different feeling, but hopefully it’ll go well.”
   Siegler has played Neshanic this summer so he is a little more familiar with the course than some that he has played this year. He would like to add another tournament win to his resume.
   ”I’ve won two qualifiers,” Siegler said. “I haven’t won any tournaments yet. I finished first in two qualifiers, the Pennsylvania Amateur, which qualified me for Oakmont. Everybody I’ve talked to has said (Oakmont) is really, really cool but also really, really hard. And I won the Metropolitan Public Links qualifier. I already played in that Metropolitan Public Links Championship.”
   When Siegler isn’t playing tournaments, he is working on how to save some strokes with regular practice.
   ”I’m just trying to get better at some specific swing stuff,” he said. “I’m trying to get better with it for the long run. I’m working with Jason Barry, the Rider coach. I try to get out there every day and practice something. Whatever I think has been lacking the day before, I try to get that solved pretty fast.”
   Siegler has shown steady improvement over his career. He has been a regular in the lineup for a Towson team that has been highly ranked. He was in the lineup for nine of the Tigers’ 10 tournaments as a freshman and sophomore.
   ”It’s been good,” Siegler said. “I made huge improvements. I was struggling a bit going into freshman year. Sophomore year, I made a lot of improvements. I averaged 79 as a freshman, and then the fall of sophomore year, I averaged 74. Five strokes is a big difference.
   ”Mercer Oaks, I practice there all the time,” he added. “That’s it in terms of where I practice. I don’t stray too far away. I go there all day. They have two pretty big chipping and putting greens. Even if I’m not playing, I can stay there and work on whatever.”
   Siegler works on his game at his home course, and he gets to the tournaments to play courses that he is less familiar with to test how he handles them.
   ”The farther I go in the process, the easier it’s going to go,” Siegler said. “The more you visit these places, the easier it is to pick up things.”
   Siegler, who is a business finance major, is looking forward to his third year in the lineup for Towson.
   ”I think we should be really good,” Siegler said. “We were ranked really high. We lost in our conference tournament to a really good College of Charleston team. We had two guys leave that are pretty important and were in our top 5. We have a new kid coming in from Thailand. We have a bunch of kids that played important parts. Hopefully we can exceed what we did last year and win the conference.
   ”Our first year was a little rebuilding,” he added. “My sophomore year, we got off to a really good start. We won our first three tournaments and were ranked 14th. We faded away, but then played really well at the end when it mattered and just got beat out in the conference. My sophomore year, we were much better. Hopefully we can continue that going on to my junior year.”
   Siegler is trying to do his part by playing under some pressure at tournaments. He takes on new fields in each one and new courses.
   ”I definitely have played a lot of really good rounds,” Siegler said. “I’m not as consistent as I’d like to be. I shot some pretty low numbers to win those qualifiers, which I’m happy about. I have great opportunity (last Wednesday) playing in the GAP Open. This weekend I have the club championship. Then the whole next week is Oakmont. In the next week, I’m playing a ridiculous amount of golf. If I could put together a win at one of those tournaments, it would be pretty memorable.”