Loyola Academy’s Chip Savarie watches the flight of his ball during recent action at the Deerfield Invite. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER
Chip Savarie.
Loyola Academy boys varsity coach Tim Kane had heard a lot about the incoming freshman in the summer of 2014. A golfer named Chip. That had to be a good thing, right? Savarie, hopeful and talented, showed up for the first day of tryouts last August. Upperclassmen and sophomores and other freshmen, also hopeful and talented, showed up.
Unlike athletes in other sports, golfers attempt to conquer objects (holes) in tryouts, not peers.
Savarie, a Winnetka resident, made Kane’s team. He then proved he belonged, swinging and chipping and putting as the Ramblers’ fourth or fifth golfer. But his play dipped a bit near the end of the season. He did not make Kane’s state series team, which placed ninth at the Class 3A state meet in Bloomington.
“He was,” Kane recalls, “a freshman.”
The freshman is a 15-year-old sophomore today, a 5-foot-11, 185-pounder. Taller than last year. Lengthier off the tee than last year. Savarie usually shoots the best or second-best score among Ramblers at meets. One of his classmates, Glenview resident John Kryscio, is capable of shooting LA’s best or second-best score at meets. Kryscio made the Ramblers’ state series team last fall.
“Chip doesn’t make many mistakes,” Kryscio says. “Keeps the ball in play. He scores well; his worst scores are 76, 75. His iron play is really good.”
Savarie got off to a shaky start at the 12-team Deerfield Invitational at Twin Orchard Country Club in Long Grove on Sept. 12. He then used one of his strengths — refusal to dwell on anything remotely negative — at the back half of his final nine holes. He birdied three of his last four holes to card a two-over 72, good enough for third place behind Glenbrook South junior Charlie Nikitas (69). Nikitas, in his debut round at the 6,410-yard course, beat Deerfield High School senior Jacob Krugman in a one-hole playoff for medalist honors.
LA (299 strokes) finished runner-up to Nikitas and other GBS Titans (294).
“You can go from having your worst day to your best day on a golf course, in a flash,” Savarie says of one of golf’s many appeals. “My dad [Andy, a soccer player in high school] has given me good advice on playing with the right temperament, on how to best handle myself while competing. It has helped me. I have good bounce-back ability.”
He has quite a love for the sport. At Loyola Academy practices, Savarie, a big Dustin Johnson fan because of Johnson’s power at PGA Tour events, talks golf with anybody, to anybody. He chats about clubs, courses, grips, pro players, shots, anything golf-related. If he saw something on the Golf Channel, on the night before a practice, and it’s worth describing during practice on the next day, he shares it with his teammates.
“You should hear him,” Kane says. “Nonstop. At times I have to tell him, ‘Stop talking.’ On the course, though, he doesn’t talk golf. He plays, and he loves to play. I like his iron play. You have to have feel, a good tempo and confidence [to hit accurate iron shots]. You especially have to have that confidence, that feeling of, ‘This shot is going to go where I want it to go.’
“Chip,” the coach adds, “has that kind of confidence.”
Savarie recorded a hole-in-one earlier this month, his second in three years. It occurred at the Glen View Club in Golf, his home course. The second ace shocked Savarie. Kryscio witnessed both aces.
“He remained calm [after the recent hole-in-one],” Kryscio recalls. “I could tell he was excited, but he didn’t show too much excitement.
“Such a nice kid, a great kid,” the Rambler adds. “He always has a smile going.”
Savarie, surprisingly, had frowned on golf before the age of seven. He preferred hockey and lacrosse. After turning seven years old, her turned to links for his sports fix.
“It started to click for me, I guess,” says Savarie, runner-up (by a stroke) at the Buffalo Grove Invite on Sept. 5, after shooting a 70 (33 on the back nine) at the Buffalo Grove Golf Course to pace LA’s runner-up showing (288) to New Trier (287). “I still loved hockey and lacrosse, and I still like to play in the occasional pickup hockey game.
“A couple of years ago golf became my focus.”
His favorite golf course in Chicagoland is Medinah Country Club. It is his favorite because it is challenging. The good golfers savor the chance, any chance, to tame green monsters, especially those that had been traversed by the best professionals in the world. Medinah CC has hosted six major events: three U.S. Opens (1949, 1975, 1990), two PGA Championships (1999, 2006) and the Ryder Cup in 2012. It will be the setting for the BMW Championship in 2019.
“Chip works hard on his game, practices a lot, loves the game,” Kryscio says. “He hangs in there when he plays, and he has such a good attitude.”
Notable: A pair of LA squads competed at separate invites on Sept. 19. One topped the North Shore Country Day Invite field with a score of 312, while the other placed fifth (309 strokes) at the Wheeling Invite. Junior Connor Prassas (76) led the way for the Ramblers at the former, sophomore Chip Savarie (75) at the latter. Senior Luke Lynch (77), junior Reb Banas (79) and senior Matt Jacobson (80) contributed to the championship effort; sophomore John Kryscio (77), senior Michael Banas (77) and junior Kevin Meehan (80) shot rounds at Traditions at Chevy Chase Golf Course in Wheeling. … In addition to Savarie’s third-place 72 at the Deerfield Invite at Twin Orchard CC on Sept. 12, LA counted scores from Prassas (74, tie for sixth place), Meehan (75, tie for 10th) and junior Jack McGuire (78). … Kryscio (79-84) and Jacobson (82-81) tied for 67th place at the Class 3A state meet last fall.