Boys Golf: Pingry's Jake Mayer seeking redemption in conference tournament

Jake Mayer has taken home quite a bit of hardware over his first three seasons as one of the Pingry School’s top boys golfers. He’s won back-to-back county titles and took home a sectional title a season ago, but there’s one championship that just slipped through his fingertips that he’s eager to take his final swing at.

The senior shot an impressive 69 at last year’s Skyland Conference Tournament, but Hunterdon Central’s Max Johnson, who Mayer was tied with approaching the final hole, bested him by one stroke to take home the conference title, something that Mayer has yet to do.

Mayer has already put last year’s disappointment behind him, and now it’s nothing but a distant memory. In his final season of high school golf, Mayer is only focused on the present.

“I couldn’t have been mad at myself, I think I shot three under, so I really can’t be too upset losing when you have a pretty good run,” Mayer said. “It was really close and went down to the last hole, so it hurt a little bit, but I just have to come back this year and hopefully shoot another low score and get the job done. “

In preparation for the 2017 spring season, Mayer did something completely different during the offseason. Mayer usually heads indoors during the winter to work with the simulators and other high-tech gadgets and hits the links on unseasonably warm days. This winter, Mayer didn’t even look at his clubs for quite some time.

“In past years, I’ve hit indoors, hit on TrackMan and all these launch monitors to see where my swing is, but this year was the first year I just put the clubs away for a couple months and tried to cleanse everything,” Mayer said. “I thought it would be good to take a couple months off, and it benefited me a lot because my swing feels really good right now.”

The self-imposed sabbatical helped Mayer find some equilibrium in his life after the rigors of being a high school senior started to weigh heavy. Taking some time away from the game helped him get his mind right, which is crucial for an athlete in a mentally demanding sport such as golf.

The mental aspect of the game is something Mayer has struggled with. You’d never see him launch a club into the woods after shanking one off the tee, but sometimes he’ll second-guess himself when approaching a shot even if he’s more than capable of hitting it true.

Getting one’s mind sharp isn’t exactly easy to work on. It’s not like fixing a mechanical issue in one’s swing by heading to the driving range, but getting away from the game might have been the best thing for Mayer’s confidence.

“I’m pretty even keel when it comes to golf, but sometimes I shy away from shots that I know I can execute, but for some reason your mind doesn’t want to hit it in the water or in the bunker,” Mayer said. “I’m definitely more confident than I was last year when it comes to every aspect of the game.”

On top of trying to clinch his first conference title, Mayer will attempt to defend his Non-Public North B championship he captured last season. Also, after winning his second straight Somerset County title last year, Mayer will look to three-peat at the county championship as well.

But as is always true with Mayer, any missed opportunities from the past are very firmly placed in, well, the past.

“I’ve put in the work, so at this point I’m not thinking about it,” Mayer said. “The more I think about it, the worse the results are going to be. I just have to show up and trust the hard work I put in will pay off.”

Staff Writer Daniel LoGiudice can be reached at dlogiudice@gannettnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @danny_logiudice.