Pierce Kimbrough nearly didn’t play high school golf at all this year. He’s a baseball player first and foremost, and he hadn’t even picked up a club in preparation for the start of the current season. “I’ve done it for three years, why not one more?” Kimbrough said.
Thus far, that’s proved a wise decision. Coming into this past week, through six matches the Hernando senior led the county in scoring with a 40.5 nine-hole average, according to Hernandosport.com. It’s a development that seems to have surprised even him. A year ago he averaged 44.4, and suddenly expectations have been raised, as he revealed Thursday after shooting a 45 in a tri-match versus Citrus and Nature Coast at Brooksville Country Club.
“The last couple years I would be (happy), but this year it’s a little bit of a disappointment,” Kimbrough said. “The quarry holes (made it tough), because there’s a lot more opportunities to make mistakes compared to the front nine… Just good drives and keeping the ball a lot straighter this year. Not as much fades and not as much draws.”
On the baseball field, Kimbrough is primarily a pitcher for the Leopards. Last spring he appeared in eight games, six starts, going 3-2 with a 1.56 earned run average. He had an impressive performance in a Dixie Baseball World Series over the summer.
Though he doesn’t get many opportunities to hit, he does recognize the similarities between baseball and golf. “Whenever I’m struggling with the baseball swing, I go out and hit the golf ball and somehow it comes back together,” Kimbrough said. “Because you feel the things that you’re not supposed to do with the baseball swing when you’re golfing.
He explained that likewise baseball helps him out with his golf swing. “And then if I’m having trouble with my golf swing, go out and hit the baseball and it’s almost like I come back to my golf swing, it’s more in sync. You feel the things that you’re not supposed to do, like your swing techniques, with the opposite swing.”
He’s played golf for many years, competing in the North Suncoast Junior Golf Association and on the middle school level. “My family is kind of a business family, and I think a lot of businessmen, they play golf,” Kimbrough said. “I think they just got me into the game as a little kid. I always had a baseball and a golf club in my hand… Just being able to get into it as a little kid and I guess have a little bit of success is just kind of going to help me when I’m out with maybe my son or some of my friends later in the future playing golf, we’ll just be able to have fun and compete.”
At the moment he’s certainly playing a competitive brand of golf, and as the season wears on he finds his goals are reaching new heights as his scores go down.
Kimbrough stated in regards to his slow start on Thursday, “With an eight on the first hole… It just kind of set me in a bad situation and from there it was just hard to dig out of it.” He’ll hope to avoid those pitfalls Oct. 12 during the Class 2A, District 13 Tournament at Silverthorn.
“He’s doing well, considering,” Hernando boys golf coach Rodney Byrd said. “Let’s hope it continues because it’s homecoming next week, so it’s a lot of distractions for him. He’s in a lot of senior stuff. And then districts is the following Monday… He has that attitude where, ‘I’m just going out to have fun, play my ball.’ He’s kind of carefree. They’re not professionals, so you shouldn’t take it like it’s a job. You play high school sports to enjoy it. So he’s enjoying it at this point in time.”