Chattin' with Chatty: Journal No. 2

Editor’s note: Attleboro’s Davis Chatfield, a first-year pro on the Korn Ferry Tour, will share his experiences throughout the season with RIGA senior writer Joe McDonald. Last week Chatfield shot 6-under to finish T-61 in the Astara Chile Classic at the Prince of Wales Country Club. He’ll be home for Easter.

PONTE VEDRA, Fla. – Playing in Santiago, Chile was cool. It reminded me what we had in Panama and Colombia because the weather was similar. In Chile, it was cold in the morning, but it got up to the mid-80s in the afternoon. We were right on the Andes Mountains, so it was real scenic. I’ve never seen mountains so big, and we were right next to them, so that was pretty cool. It was just another good experience. Playing in another country is exciting, and that was the last of it for this year, at least. It is a little different golf-wise, but it’s a cool experience.

The first round I teed off in the afternoon and it was pretty windy. I shot a 73 and the course felt a lot harder with the wind, so I was just trying to steady the ship and got off to a decent start. I fell apart a little on the back nine, but I knew that as long as I kept it somewhat together, I’d be fine going into round two. Rounds two and three were great. I shot back-to-back rounds of 6-under 66. I hit it great off the tee, which set me up for a bunch of wedges if I got it in the fairway. I played really well off the tee, played smart, and played aggressively when I needed to. It was nice to see some putts finally go in. This year has been hot and cold with the putter, so to see a couple of rounds in a row where I was hitting my lines and my speed was nice to see.

Obviously, it didn’t go as I wanted it to in the last round and shot 5-over 77. Sometimes when you play a couple of good rounds in a row, you’re expecting to do it again, but that was another learning experience for me. There were things I would’ve done differently, but it’s not the end of the world. I still have 20 tournaments left this year, so I’ll take that experience and move on.

It’s been great to have my assistant coach from Notre Dame, Scott Gump, as my caddie this season. My brother caddied the first two tournaments, but Scott has been on the bag the last four and he’s planning on doing most of them this year. Having him on the bag is huge. We think our way around a golf course in a similar manner. He played on Tour for a bit, and we play a very similar game. I trust what he says, and I value what he says a lot. He’s been huge for me in the last four events. It seems to be working well and I know we’re both close to doing something really good, but I need to stay patient because it’s only April.

Scott was one of the main reasons that I ended up going to Notre Dame. He recruited me and was one of the first coaches to come out and actually watch me play golf. He watched me at the Orange Bowl that I played in at the end of December as a junior and senior in high school. For me, when I got an offer from ND after I visited the school, it was a pretty easy decision for me. ND stood out above the rest. It had everything I needed athletically and academically, and I knew having Scott there as my assistant coach would be very beneficial for me going forward. We always thought on the same wave length, and I continued to learn from him, and any bit of knowledge I can get from him is going to be super valuable going forward.

I’m actually heading back home for Easter. I haven’t had an Easter at home since high school, so it’ll be exciting. I’ll practice a little bit at home for a few days and then go to Arlington, Texas for the Veritex Bank Championship at Texas Rangers Golf Club. Then there’s the LECOM Suncoast Classic at Lakewood National Golf Club in Florida, before we head to the HomeTown Lenders Championship at The Ledges in Huntsville, AL.

Then there’s a two-week stretch we have off at the beginning of May, so I’ll drive back home to Massachusetts and I’ll be practicing mostly at TPC Boston, but It’ll be nice to be home for a while and finish out the year strong.

It was awesome to see the first-ever Bishop Feehan girls’ golf team start its season. I think during my time at Feehan we only had two, or three girls on the team. We had a big team, maybe 27 guys on the team, so it was a lot of fun. Many of our friends played hockey, or basketball in the winter, so we recruited a lot of our friends to play golf in the fall. It’s great to see more girls get into golf now at Feehan, and they’re off to a 2-0 start already. It’s huge for girls’ golf. There aren’t many girls who play golf in New England, especially around the Attleboro area, but coach Angel MacLeod is changing that. I know some of the girls – Nora Charnley and Hanley Correia – and it looks like they’re all playing well, so hopefully they can keep that going forward. It’s really good to see.

Playing golf at Feehan was a lot of fun. It wasn’t anything like college. It was a lot less stressful. You would show up to Heather Hill, play nine holes and there would be a lot of laughs. My brothers were on the team for a little while when I was there, so it made it easy on our parents; they always knew where we were. Some of my best friends were on that team and we always reminisce of the good times we had. I was fortunate enough to get a state championship my junior year when my brother was a senior. I’ll always remember that, too.