Dickson Featured on GoUpstate.com
7/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
USC Upstate golfer Nelson Dickson, who has sent an appeal to the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility, was recently featured in an article in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.
The article, written by sports writer Eric Boynton, chronicles Dickson's unorthodox development in the game of golf. The article is below and can also be accessed at goupstate.com.
Published: Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 10:39 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 10:39 p.m.
Nelson Dickson carried a secret to the opening tee of a recreational round of golf with some old friends he was getting reacquainted with after an extended period of time.
It was a surprise that would ruin the afternoon for his pals although Dickson could've made it much worse. Those playing partners could've taken a hit to their wallets instead of just their egos.
"I was tempted to gamble for some money, but I didn't," Dickson said, laughing. Instead the Boiling Springs and USC Upstate product settled for revealing the shocking truth — he had gotten very good at golf in an unbelievably short amount of time.
"I remember getting asked on the first tee if I'd had a chance to play much and I said, 'Yeah, a little bit,' " Dickson said. "Then I think I shot like 2- or 3-under at Woodfin Ridge."
Golf is a sport that relies so much on perfect repetition that it takes most mere mortals a lifetime to realize they're never going to approach breaking par (or even 80 or 90) no matter how many range balls they hit or how many putts they hole out in a glass across the kitchen floor.
But Dickson is the exception to the rule as a guy who rarely played growing up before a hobby became a passion and the 23-year-old lacking in experience became a viable contender in some of the state's top tournaments.
Last month he tied for 19th among a field of 131 in the Carolinas Amateur at the Dunes in Myrtle Beach and in June he made it to the final four of the S.C. Match Play Championship before falling 3 and 2 to eventual champion Mark Joye. It was Dickson's first time in the match play format. He's already qualified for the S.C. Amateur and S.C. Open later this summer and will attempt to get into the U.S. Amateur.
Some of his rapid rise can be traced to confidence and mental toughness, something required to do a job like repo-man which he did for a very brief time, but more on that later.
Dickson was a talented basketball player for Boiling Springs who played golf maybe twice a year as a teenager, mostly as a way to spend time with his father and grandfather, who would lend him some old clubs to use. Many of those infrequent early outings were "miserable" and he didn't harbor any sort of desire to play the game regularly.
But those ugly outings eventually motivated the well-rounded athlete to want to get better at golf and be able to one day defeat his father in the one sport he couldn't beat dear old dad.
Grandpa gave Dickson a set of clubs as a gift for his 2006 high school graduation and off he went to Presbyterian College where his competitive juices started rumbling as he no longer had organized basketball as an athletic outlet. During freshman orientation it was announced that students could walk nine holes at the local track for a nominal fee and Dickson became a daily regular. The game quickly came easy to him, and it wasn't long before he was playing on par with some members of the school's golf team.
He requested a tryout, but said he was told they had no room for a walk-on so after one-year-and-a-half at PC he decided to leave. He dropped out to take a job and help his family, which was undergoing some financial hardships. He became the "right-hand man" for a friend that owned a car dealership where he handled everything from sales and advertising to washing vehicles and even ventured into two repossession missions.
"Twice was enough for me, it was terrible," Dickson said. "I didn't realize that I would need a gun (he never carried one although his partner was packing) and it was pretty scary. Luckily my boss was with me both times and we got out of there safely. It wasn't the best environment."
One of the times involved a lot of screaming and threats from a neighbor as well as the car owner which, "had me panicking" before speeding off unscathed.
Dickson would soon use prompting from a friend to land a safer job that would greatly impact his golf when he was hired to work in the pro shop at The Cliffs at Glassy. Employees played for free and that's where Dickson started spending the majority of his time and caught the eye of Sean Kennedy, director of instruction for the mountain region of The Cliffs communities.
"It is rare to do what he's done in improving so quickly, but some guys are just more gifted than others and he's that guy," Kennedy said. "I saw his potential and that he was the type of competitor who could maybe fulfill that potential faster than most. He's fun to watch and it's fun to watch the game look easy like that."
Dickson was approaching his last season of eligibility as the NCAA allows student-athletes five years to play four from the day they enroll in school. He was offered a golf scholarship to Brevard (N.C.) College when its coach saw him at an event while trailing another player. USC Upstate next offered him a chance to walk on, which he accepted.
Dickson was disappointed in his 76.7 scoring average with the Spartans, but after making his debut in the fourth event of the season, he went on to compete in six of the last seven and seven overall.
Dickson and the college have petitioned the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility since he was forced to take more than a year away from school to get a job. If it's granted, the former walk-on has been offered a scholarship. A decision is expected by the end of the month.
"For someone who is just starting with college golf he came a long way," Spartans teammate Tyler Comer said. "It blows my mind how good somebody can get that quickly. I've played golf my whole life and feel I'm supposed to be at this point and he's right there with me. Nelson's just a very athletic guy."
But it's still not often the best athletes can translate their skills to the golf course.
"Everything has happened so fast and I'm definitely surprised and never expected to be where I'm at now," Dickson said.
