Hanover
Come early Sunday morning, they went their separate ways, arrived in separate cars and took what has become distinctly different approaches to a rare golf encounter with something on the line.
The two Hanover High School graduates are almost five years apart in age and, hence, have never had a team experience on the links. That makes days like Sunday special, one in which 23-year-old Nate rallied from two deficits to nip 18-year-old Phin for honors on the first extra hole thanks to a 35-foot birdie putt following a deadlocked 36-hole match.
In coming from behind, Nate also had to swing his emotions from one extreme to the other. Down two holes with three to play, he was conditioning himself to be pleased for his brother. Tied in sudden death, he had to bear down to beat his closest rival in golf.
“We’ve always played at a pretty similar level for, I’d say, the past three or four years, at least,” said Nate, who dethroned his brother as club champ with Sunday’s win, his second in three years. “He’s really caught up to me in distance — I’m maybe still a little bit longer in distance — but we have kind of similar games. He’s a little more straightforward than I am, doesn’t make as many mistakes.
“We’ve always played together, ever since he was around 7 and I was 12. That’s when we really got into it and started playing. We’ve probably played 1,000 rounds together at this point.”
Both completed their quarterfinal and semifinal matches on Saturday, ultimately providing at least the third Choukas vs. Choukas throwdown of golf importance.
Nate got the better of Phin at Laconia Country Club during the New Hampshire Amateur two years ago in a 2-up first-round match play win. Phin returned the favor a few weeks later at the brothers’ other home course, Baker Hill Golf Club, when Phin claimed the club title following a 6-and-5 rout in an 18-hole match that ended after just 13 holes.
“It’s just really fun,” Phin Choukas said. “We’ve always been competitive, but we’re able to turn it off as soon as it’s over. I can be really happy for him that he won. And I think it goes both ways.”
Nate Choukas credits his father, Mike, with giving both boys an introduction into the game. In truth, Phin has followed his brother through a similar developmental route.
A 2014 Hanover High graduate, Nate regularly experienced victory with the Marauders, winning a pair of NHIAA Division II team championships before a four-year career at Connecticut’s Trinity College. Nate helped the Bantams win their first NESCAC title since 2010 as a senior, made three all-NESCAC first teams and qualifying as an alternate for this week’s U.S. Amateur.
Even at a young age, the Choukas brothers did what they could to make their golf encounters equitable.
“He would just give me strokes or the tee difference,” said Phin, who is bound for NESCAC rival Middlebury College next month. “Then we just started to get more even and even. I’d say about two years ago, we started having straight-up matches.”
Phin stepped into a leadership role at Hanover once he arrived, taking part in three team championships and winning the individual D-II medal as a junior. The brothers are essentially identical in ability today; they spent plenty of Sunday’s match playing area-code golf, hitting shots to within a couple of strides of each other on several occasions.
“I think I have some more highs and more lows than Phin,” Nate said. “He’s not a completely even-keeled player, but he’s pretty focused, especially at critical points in the match. … I ride on emotion a little bit more. It’s something I’m working on, but it also can help me at times.”
Once at the course, the brothers take different approaches to warming up. Nate prefers a 45-minute routine of chipping, putting, ball striking and a bite of fruit. Phin can be ready to play in 10 minutes, at least at Hanover, needing just a few putts before bombing his first-tee drive.
Phin warned his brother during Saturday’s mutual ribbing that he’d do something to rattle him once Sunday arrived. Arriving at the first tee puffing a cigar, Phin jumped to a 3-up lead through 11 holes before Nate reeled off five straight wins, eventually settling into a 1-up advantage after the opening 18.
“He told me last night he’d do something to intimidate me on the first tee,” Nate admitted, “and (the cigar) was pretty shocking.”
“I had to put it down after the fourth hole,” Phin responded. “I was getting a little too buzzed from it.”
Phin tied the match on the sixth hole of the afternoon 18, retook the lead on the eighth and stretched it to 2 up on No. 10, when Nate pushed his tee ball out of bounds. But at a time when his emotions could’ve overtaken him, Nate used them to rally.
Pushing his drive on 11 nearly into a right-side hazard, Nate slapped a recovery shot to the front of the green and halved the hole. After trading wins on 13 and 14 with his brother, Nate sank an 8-foot birdie putt on 16 and took advantage of Phin’s misfortune (a second shot into a hazard) to win 17 and tie the match.
It nearly ended one hole later. Nate pulled his second shot toward the 18th green well left, within a few feet of the out-of-bounds line. He punched out from the trees and dropped a soft wedge to within 4 feet of the cup. When Phin reached the same distance in the same number of strokes, the grinning brothers decided to extend the match to extra holes.
“I could see myself missing this putt, and I could see Nate missing this putt,” Phin said. “And I could see us grinding for five minutes over them and making them. I don’t think it would have been a good outcome if one of us had missed it. So I asked him, ‘Good-good?’ and he said, ‘Sure.’ ”
“You can’t turn that down,” Nate added. “If you turn that down and he makes it and I miss, I look like an idiot.”
As it turned out, the match ended on one long putt. Both reached the green of the par-4 first hole. Both faced 35-foot birdie putts. Phin missed his. Nate buried his, reading a left-to-right break over a ridge to a downslope finish that his brother knew was destined for the cup.
A fist pump from Nate — “I’m not accustomed to throwing those,” he said — and a hearty embrace followed.
“I haven’t won a lot of tournaments, so just winning any tournament is great, and I love to win here,” Nate said. “There’s a lot cool names on that trophy and a lot of history at this club championship, so it definitely means a lot.”
The second-happiest person on the course had no regrets.
“He won two years ago; I won last year; he won this year,” Phin said. “I’m hoping we can get a bit of a pattern going.”
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.