LAKEWOOD RANCH -- Chris Kennedy was playing the kind of golf that can make even a player of his caliber question his future in the sport.
“Things were just bad,” the Lakewood Ranch resident said. “And it was kind of a last-ditch effort to where if they didn’t get better quick, I was going to be done. ... I don’t know about quitting, but it was getting close to where golf just wasn’t fun anymore.”
So, Kennedy reunited with swing coach Kevin Smeltz.
That was February.
Kennedy said he visits Smeltz once a month.
“I get an hour lesson, but within 15, 20 minutes I’m back to hitting it good,” Kennedy said. “He just knows my golf swing really well, and we click really well. We get along great. He’s real simple and not too mechanical.”
He originally met Smeltz through a mutual friend and worked with him for the majority of his high school and college career.
Then Kennedy took a break from seeing Smeltz, but it wasn’t long before he felt he needed to reunite with an instructor who teaches PGA Tour players like Camilo Villegas and Charles Howell III.
Kennedy’s lessons with Smeltz have paid quick dividends.
He began to play well at the University of North Florida, where he is scheduled to graduate Aug. 5 with a bachelor’s degree in sport management.
From there, Kennedy returned to the area and played in the prestigious City of Sarasota Men’s Amateur for the first time since he won the event in 2007.
The British Course at Bobby Jones Golf Club was altered slightly, he said. However, Kennedy still won by seven shots and has continued his fine form throughout this summer.
“I just hit it good for two weeks, and made some putts,” said Kennedy about winning his second Sarasota City Men’s Amateur, a tournament professionals Paul Azinger and Joey Lamielle have won in the past.
The Cardinal Mooney High alum advanced from local qualifying for the U.S. Open, earned a berth in the Florida State Amateur and recently shot 69 at the Ritz-Carlton Members Golf Club for entry into the Florida Open slated for next week at Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto.
He even held the lead after an opening round 68 in the Florida State Amateur at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa.
Kennedy backed up, though, after the scorching start.
“It started raining, not to make excuses,” he said. “But it started dumping, and I finished bogey, triple, double. I think I was 1-over going into that (16th) hole and shot a 79. I sort of did the same thing the next day. I was 1-over through 12 and stumbled in and shot 78. And on the last day, I shot even-par, but at that point it didn’t matter.”
Kennedy said he has had trouble closing out rounds.
But on Thursday at Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club, Kennedy rebounded from a slow start to shoot 2-under par 70 on the King’s Dunes course and net himself a playoff in a West Florida Golf Tour event.
He eventually lost to Blake Holbrook, but the mini-tour experience could provide a glimpse into what he’s working toward -- a professional career.
But Kennedy, who is wrapping up his degree with an internship at Laurel Oak Country Club in Sarasota, isn’t quite finished with his amateur days.
He’ll try to qualify for the 105th Southern Amateur Championship at Innisbrook’s famed Copperhead Course on Monday.
After that Kennedy plans to qualify for the United States Amateur, where locals Ben An and Peter Uihlein have triumphed the past two years.
He said he plans on turning pro following the U.S. Amateur.
But for now, he’s continuing to play at a high level, a level he got to back in 2007.
“It’s eerily similar how these two summers are; ’07 and 2011 I’ve kind of been doing the same stuff,” Kennedy said.
