After Injury Scare, Liam Blackmore Is Set To Compete in His First-Ever State Golf Tournament This Weekend

Early on this baseball season, Liam Blackmore threw across the diamond and immediately felt something in his right elbow. In his decade of playing baseball, the Southampton senior had never suffered a major injury up until that point.

“It was a sharp pain, deep inside my elbow and down my forearm,” Blackmore recalled. “It was textbook symptoms of a UCL tear, and it kind of scared me.”

And it wasn’t just because it put his final baseball season in jeopardy. For the first time in his long high school golf career, Blackmore had qualified for the New York State Boys Golf Championships, coming up this weekend, after having placed sixth in the Section XI Boys Golf Championships back in October. With the top nine qualifying, and a 10th golfer being an alternate, Blackmore had just missed qualifying the past two years, finishing 11th and 12th, respectively.

So not only was Blackmore’s baseball season on the line, but his first-ever and only experience at a state golf tournament was also hanging in the balance.

But after seeing a doctor, it turned out that Blackmore had a minor nerve issue in his elbow that he was able to rehabilitate through physical therapy. He couldn’t play anything for weeks, baseball or golf, but even though he missed most of his final baseball season, he made it back for the last week of the season and went 5-for-5 at the plate in one of his last games.

“Now, I think as of the last week, week and a half, my elbow hasn’t hurt at all, so I’m back, 100 percent,” he said on Monday. “I can swing 100 percent without having any doubt, as long as I don’t dig too hard into the ground. I’m finally glad it’s all better now.”

For the past few weeks, Blackmore’s sole focus has been on golf. With his father, Declan, being a member at Southampton Golf Club, he’s been able to get out on that course and play. If the course isn’t available, he hops over to County Road 39 to the driving range, and hits a few bucket of balls.

Outside of his injury, Blackmore has a few more disadvantages going into the state tournament, being played at Mark Twain Golf Course in Elmira. Many of the sections upstate play their regular seasons in the spring, so they’re going right from their season into the state championship. Another thing is that he’s never played the course.

But as he and his head coach at Southampton, Tim Schreck, explained, he will have a practice round on Saturday, before play gets underway on Sunday, with the finals on Monday.

“Everybody attacks practice rounds differently,” Schreck said. “But usually you’re checking out where you’re going to land off the tee and figure out your approach from the green. The practice round is essentially Liam’s chance to map out how he’ll try to play the course. Since it is his first time there, most golfers when they’re playing a course for the first time will play it safe, so he’ll be looking to stay center of the green. He might attack a hole more if it’s his home course.

“And it’s like with pros going to the Masters every year, the more they play the course the better they get at it, and there will be some kids who will be playing on this course a second or even third time,” he added. “But I do think Liam having an abbreviated baseball season may help him.”

Blackmore, who was nominated for the Butch Dellecave Award, given to a top male and female student-athlete in each school at a brunch at Villa Lombardi’s on June 9, admitted that a baseball swing has in the past thrown off his golf swing a little bit, so having not played as much baseball may have helped things a little bit. He also said that he usually gives himself a break from golf in the winter, but he didn’t do this past winter.

“I think a couple weeks ago I was a little shaky getting the feel of the game back,” he said. “But the last couple of days, I’ve been putting and chipping and I do feel like everything is starting to come back. I’m pretty excited for the tournament and I do think I’ll do well.”

Blackmore said he’s been doing his research through some apps, but even then, he’s only been able to get an aerial view of the course. The practice round is going to be key for him, he said.

“I’ll be able to see if there’s too many trees, what approach I might take off the tee, how tight the fairways are, if I should use my driver or my three wood,” he explained. “I’m going to have to make the practice round count, but I’m not going to make any excuses. It’s too good of storybook ending, being that I made it my last year, so I’m still going to go out there and do my best.”