Speaking from my own hands-on, white-knuckle experience in the passenger seat of a car, every father of a 15-year-old daughter who loves to drive needs to stock up on two items for his medicine cabinet. Sedatives. And hair color.
Which is why it was shocking to see Gary Huffer of Denver looking so calm, cool and collected on Tuesday.
His teenage daughter is the craziest driver I’ve ever seen.
Becca Huffer can drive a golf ball 300 yards. With my own disbelieving eyes, I saw her crush tee shots and male egos, as the Littleton High School sophomore won the Class 5A state championship.
Her heavy-metal blast on the 10th tee at Highlands Ranch Golf Club split the middle of the fairway, reminding me again why this is not a game of fair. Huffer can thump drives that make a grown man cry. Beg for mercy. And wonder if the concept of ladies tees is as outdated as the corset.
“What do I consider a big drive?” said young Huffer, who speaks softly and carries a big stick. “Well, during the first round of the tournament, on No. 2, I hit it about 340. It got a good bounce. But there wasn’t any wind. It was a nice drive.”
And to think this young lady is operating under a learner’s permit. Now, that’s scary. How tough will Huffer be when she gets her driver’s license?
“My 16th birthday is July 9,” said Huffer, not that’s she is counting the days or anything.
For those of you keeping score in the athletic battle between the sexes, golf courses have moved to the front line. Teenager Michelle Wie makes headlines nationwide for her ambition to trade shots with the big boys at the U.S. Open.
But the real revolution in golf is as close as your local driving range, because Huffer is not the only high school girl in Colorado who can tee it up in the 303 area code and dial 1 for long distance.
“Every year, these players hit it longer off the tee,” said Kelly Jacques, twice champion of the Colorado prep tournament and now golfing at the University of Oklahoma. “Seeing a big drive? It’s not intimidating. Unless you’re not very strong mentally.”
OK, guys. Let’s propose a man law to always let Huffer, who estimates her average knock off the tee at 270 yards, play through. She has game that could cause the toughest, beer-guzzling dude in your foursome to quake in his Footjoys and cry for his mommy.
“When I’m hitting it well, I’m usually hitting it straight,” Huffer said. “So when guys see me hit 300 yards down the middle, they usually say, ‘Oh, I want your drive.”‘
But what those guys are really thinking is: How fast can I sell these clubs in a garage sale and take up gardening as a hobby?
When Huffer stood in the rough with a comfortable three-stroke lead on the final hole of the state tournament, looking 230 yards uphill to the green of a par 5, she pulled a big club from the bag, then smashed convention by fearlessly firing a beam of white laser light to within 45 feet of the cup, leaving her an eagle putt.
“That’s pretty gutsy,” Gary Huffer observed, with the wry, what-can-you-do-smile familiar to so many fathers of teenage daughters. “If she had asked my recommendation as a caddie, I would have said, ‘Lay up.’
“Sometimes, I guess it’s good to be young and fearless.”
Golf, the cruelest prank that sporting gods have ever played on the human race, came to Huffer naturally.
“I’m not a golfer,” said Gary Huffer, who credits his son with hooking Becca on the game. “I do own clubs. But years ago, it got real tiring for my kids to go golfing with me. It wasn’t any fun for them to see how bad Dad could play. These days I’m purely a spectator.”
It’s left to Dad, however, to teach the new Colorado state golf champion the toughest thing for any 15-year-old driver to learn.
Parallel parking.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-820-5438 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
