Marty Kirkland: For Noll, it’s golf, golf, golf

Published 1:25 am Sunday, January 23, 2011

Just about every day — yes, even in the dead of winter, even if he has to do so indoors — David Noll Jr. does something to work on his golf game. For the Whitfield County resident who just so happens to be one of the state’s top amateur golfers, it’s simply routine at this point.

“Even when there was snow on the ground,” Noll said.

At this point, it almost seems as if another part of Noll’s golf routine includes picking up the Georgia State Golf Association’s Men’s Player of the Year Award. Well, it’s not quite that regular, although at this point it is close. Since earning the honor for the first time in 2003, Noll has done so five more times — including the past four. On Saturday, Noll collected No. 6, the 2010 honor, during the GSGA’s annual meeting and awards luncheon at Cherokee Town & Country Club in Atlanta.

Surely it’s getting boring hauling back another trophy every year by now?

“No way,” Noll said during a phone interview Saturday afternoon.

The GSGA determines its players of the year — honors are also given for the top woman, senior man, senior woman, junior and girl — through points earned at selected association events. This year, Noll missed out on the GSGA’s Tommy Barnes Award, given to the top overall player from that group, an honor he took home in 2008.

But he was happy to know the winner.

“It went to Brenda Pictor, the Senior Women’s Player of the Year,” Noll said. “I was excited for her and she was very shocked. I’ve known her for years. She’s a member down at Pinetree, and a good buddy of mine was the head golf professional there for years.”

Noll no doubt has plenty of such friendships because of golf. He even counts LaGrange’s Allen Doyle, whose record as a seven-time GSGA Men’s Player of the Year he is pursuing, among that group.

“He gave me a real lesson years ago,” the 37-year-old Noll said. “It was the only time he played the North Georgia Invitational, and I was either 15 or 16 years old. We had tied the first day. Oh, did he put a lesson on the next day.”

For Noll, being on the golf course often means competing, and he is there to win when that’s the case. But he’s not the type of athlete to suck all the enjoyment from the game in the interest of seeing his name at the top of the leaderboard when it’s all over. And he takes none of the good stuff — the fact that his father turned him on to the game, the fact that he has the time to practice and compete, the fact that current technology has enabled his golf game to improve even as he’s aged — for granted.

“I say I’m lucky, but it’s not that I’ve backed into winning,” said Noll, who made a go of life as a professional golfer, but truly rediscovered his love for the game when he regained his amateur status in 2002.

“I’m lucky that I’ve been able to work hard enough, lucky that my parents gave me the chance to do this. It’s certainly hard work that’s given me all of the awards.”

And as far as Noll’s concerned, he’s nowhere near done. He wants to keep competing well in GSGA tournaments and winning that organization’s top awards. And he is determined to make it to Augusta National, where he has played before as a guest but never competed. Earning an invitation to the Masters could be accomplished through reaching yet another goal, though.

“When I look back at everything I’ve done, and I was talking with my wife and my mom when I was going down to Atlanta, the one thing my career really lacks is a USGA title,” Noll said. “I want to win the U.S. Mid-Am or the Am. And I really think I have a good shot at winning the Mid-Am in the next three or four years, there’s a good window there.”

Making it to Augusta would be special for any golfer, but Noll feels like he’ll be playing for at least two people if he does so. His father, who died in 2003, was confident that was a reasonable goal for his son, too.

“My dad always said, ‘Son, one day you’re going to make it to Augusta and I’m going to be there to caddy for you,’” Noll said. “Well, he won’t be there, but I’m going to make it.”

As much as he loves golf, the game always has the perspective of family around it for Noll.

He and his wife, Leigh Ann, are expecting a second child this year and they’re looking forward to finding out whether they have a little Jack Nicklaus or a little Nancy Lopez next week. And Noll’s 5-year-old son, David III — “We call him D3,” Noll said with a laugh — has already picked up his dad’s passion for the green.

“Last Wednesday, as cold as it was, he just had to go to the golf course,” Noll said. “We were out there hitting in the cold. He loves it. We’re gearing up for the parent-child tournament at the country club this year. That will be our first tournament together.”

Noll may win many, many more tournaments and trophies. But it’s hard to believe that, for him, being on the golf course will get much better than moments like that.

Marty Kirkland is sports editor of The Daily Citizen. You can write to him at martykirkland@daltoncitizen.com.