GAINESVILLE — Imagine, if you can, Spencer Ralston taking the mound at storied Ivey-Watson Field in Gainesville’s home white uniforms.
(I’ll give you a minute to contemplate that.)
Until the senior golfing phenom was 12, that was more of a reality than him sinking long birdie putts in pin-stripped Polo shirts at Chattahoochee Golf Course..
“I love baseball,” Ralston said Wednesday as he was preparing to try and win an unprecedented fourth-straight individual Hall County Championship. “That was the sport I played the most and I thought I was pretty good. I really just kind of goofed around on the golf course until I was about 10. I really thought I was going to play baseball for Gainesville.”
Ralston was primarily a pitcher/catcher for the Gainesville Major League Phillies and was a part of the 2008 team featuring Mikey Gonzalez, Drew Wright, and Sam Carpenter that won the Georgia state title that year.
“He was a good baseball player,” said dad Mitch Ralston. “He could really hit but I think he was a better pitcher. He always talked about playing baseball.”
However, in his spare time, Ralston would tag along with his dad, a former Gainesville High golfing standout and state champion (1981), and future Gainesville High golfing buddies and teammates Lawson King and Nathan Williams at Chattahoochee.
“It wasn’t anything real serious at that time. We just had fun hanging out and playing together. I never gave it much thought when I was younger,” he said.
He also was a fair flag football player, remembering playing against a team I coached for the Gainesville Park and Rec and also playing against future Gainesville High star Deshaun Watson.
“I remember. I think we beat y’all every time. But no one could beat Deshaun’s team,” he said. “Everyone knew then (Deshaun) was going to be great.”
Things would all change for Ralston when he entered a golf tournament in Royston when he was 10.
“I won it and it was the first trophy I earned and I thought that was pretty cool,” he said. “I was kind of shocked really. After that I started taking it a little more serious.”
Apparently so. Not long after, he traded in his cleats for soft spikes and his Louisville slugger for a driver. Things have never been the same since.
Ralston certainly had the pedigree. He quickly joined the junior circuit and it wasn’t long before he began making a name for himself locally and statewide.
He was a highly-anticipated freshman in 2013 and won his first varsity tournament, the Hall County Championship, before helping lead Gainesville to a state title later that season.
“We knew he was going to be a good one when he got here,” said Gainesville golf coach Bryson Worley, who has watched Ralston tool around on the course since he was “seven or eight.”
“He’s an elite player. But more importantly, he’s just a humble kid with a lot of integrity. He’s a tremendous influence on the younger kids, just like the older kids were for him when he was a freshman.”
Ralston has since gone on to win a school-record 13 individual golf titles, including setting a school and state record in 2014 with an 18-under par performance to win the Apple Mountain Invitational in Clarkesville. He won an astonishing seven of the 10 events the Red Elephants entered in 2015.
Stats don’t always tell the story, but in Ralston’s case they make it easier to comprehend. In 37 high school tournaments, Ralston has shot even-par or better 27 times and cracked the 60s 14 times. He has a career scoring average of 71.2, also a school-record. In 2015 he had a ridiculous 69.0 scoring average for the season.
“He was phenomenal last year,” Worley said. “We’ve had some great players here over the years but no one ever put together a year like that. Remarkable.”
But Ralston also knows the clock is ticking on his final year of high school golf and he said they have some unfinished business. For him, it’s all about team the rest of the way. He already has signed with Georgia and has a high national junior ranking (11th by Golfweek), so individual accolades, other than a state title of his own, are not on his mind.
“We want to win a state title as a team. If we don’t that would leave a rough edge for us I think,” he said. “Winning the individual (state) title would be nice but it wouldn’t be the end of the world for me. I want to help us win another state title. Really, that’s all I’m focused on.”
Ralston was unable to add that fourth straight Hall County Championship to his resume on Wednesday, falling to North Hall’s Bartley Forrester in a playoff. Forrester, a sophomore, channeled his inner Ralston and was masterful down the stretch and stared down Ralston during a two-hole playoff.
While Ralston has yet to win either of the first two tournaments the Red Elephants have entered in 2016 — the Big Red Shootout and the Hall County Championship, both titles he won last year — he insists he’s not in a slump.
“I’m hitting the ball well. I’m just not putting that well right now,” he said. “I left some shots out there, but Bartley played well, so you can’t take anything away from him. He won it.”
However, he does admit that he is ready, like most 18-year-olds, to start making his own way in college. He also has U.S. Open qualifiers to think about after narrowly missing out in last year’s Sectionals.
“I don’t think any of that has been a distraction,” he said. “I think it has been easier for me this year to prepare, knowing where I’m going and what is out there for me in the future. This year really has been a lot of fun so far. I never like to lose, but as long as the team does well and I contribute, that’s all I’m worried about. If I don’t win a tournament this year I’m fine.
“As for the U.S. Open, I’m going to try and qualify again. It was a learning experience last year to see where I was and what I need to do to get to that level. We’ll see what happens.
“I think the biggest thing will be when the end of the season gets close. It’ll be bittersweet because I love my teammates and Coach Worley and we have a lot of fun and it will be hard knowing that in a few months we’ll all be scattered around. The last tournament for us will be the last time that group will be probably be together. That will be tough.”
Worley, who is always about the team concept, said he really hasn’t had a chance to sit back and admire the resume Ralston has put together. He also knows it will be tough on that final day.
“Unfortunately, I don’t get a chance to watch every round he shoots. It’s tough when you have six guys all over the course,” he said. “I think as we get closer to the final event, which I hope is the (Class AAAAA) state championship meet, I’ll try to watch him a little more.
“The hardest thing to watch is when the seniors come off the course for that final time. That’s when it will probably hit me just how good he has been. He’s a special player. I hope we have another like him come around to watch, but he’s that once-in-a-generation type player.”
After a long pause, “I don’t want to think about it anymore right now,” he said as he got up and walked away, presumably to get his team ready to capture what would become a seventh straight Hall County Championship crown.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/3/378148/believe-it-or-not-golf-was-not-early-choice-for-ralston