Baryla happy to chase dream
Canada's newest touring golf pro, Chris Baryla, hit his first shot for money this week at the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial Golf Tournament in Nellysford, Va. "Two iron," the kid said. "Right down the middle."
Nothing to this.
Baryla is a sunny kid from Vernon, B.C., and he has garnered his share of attention over the past few years playing golf at the University of Texas El Paso.
Mike Weir said Baryla, at 21, was a better ball striker than he was at the same age. Baryla is a two-time All-American. For a little garnish on the steak, he compiled a 3.5 grade point average while carding a business degree.
Baryla found Texas to be his own Valhalla with warm weather and unpretentious people.
"Everyone says college is the best four years of your life and so far I've seen nothing that would make me disagree," Baryla said.
Baryla, who is nine shots off the lead in Virginia after firing a 71 yesterday, only began playing golf regularly when he was 13. Up to then, he had been a baseball player.
GREAT PITCHER
"Chris was a great pitcher," said his caddie and lifetime friend, Colin Bissell. "But he couldn't stand the idea that he could only pitch every third or fourth day. He wanted to play all the games."
He could do that with golf but in an industry shaped by one-time child prodigy Tiger Woods, Baryla was learning the game in middle-age.
"I wasn't a great player when I came to Texas," Baryla said.
"My game was nothing special at all."
Now, it could be.
Last year, Baryla was the first Canadian amateur in 20 years to make the cut at the Canadian Open. He qualified for last June's U.S. Open but missed the cut.
Baryla had the fifth-lowest stroke average in men's NCAA Division I golf and was the Western Athletic Conference player of the year.
He is in the upper half of whatever tournament he competes for driving distance. He prides himself on being tidy with the short irons and solid around the green.
"Nothing flashy," Baryla said. "Hopefully, just solid."
But his greatest asset is his attitude.
Imagine being 21, competing against older, more experienced players and having your golf game determine supper.
No problem, Baryla said.
"How can't you enjoy hanging out in some of the most beautiful places in the world? It's very serene, very relaxing."
Don't get him wrong. Baryla competes.
"I have a golf goal," he said. "To play as well as I can. To beat as many players as I can. But I have a life goal as well. I want to be able to support my family and myself without having to get a real job."
Pro golf, Baryla said, isn't work unless you want it to be. Like the bumper stickers says, the worst day playing golf is better than your best day as an accountant.
"I think the problem is, people can't separate the competitive aspect of the game from being outdoors. There are going to be days when you don't play well. A lot of people don't enjoy the game when they don't play well. I think that's a mistake."
The apostles of course management, the stonefaced young men of the pro golf tour, have a heretic in their midst.
"It's just common sense to enjoy something if at all possible," Baryla said. "There just isn't much point in being mad all the time. Is there?"
Baryla hopes to play in events all over the United States and Canada through the summer and then head to the PGA qualifying school later this year.
"Chris is a very mature guy," Bissell said. "He's one of the most relaxed, happiest guys you will ever meet and that will help him."
