Photo courtesy of Jamestown CC Athletics George Sisson, Jamestown CC athletic director and interim golf coach, looks over a putt with Anthony Gullo earlier this season.

CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — Taylor Suggs looked at the birdie putt from every angle late one Friday afternoon in June 2015. So what if his ball was only 3 feet from the cup on the 18th and final hole of the NJCAA Division III Golf Championships on the Lake Course at Chautauqua Golf Club?

The 18-year-old sophomore from Cincinnati State, his team’s ultimate grinder, was not about to leave anything to chance. Not with an opportunity to claim individual medalist honors and certainly not with his team closing in on a national title, the first in school history in any sport.

So he examined the 36 inches that separated him from the greatest day of his golfing life, pulled his putter back and then through the ball. When it disappeared into the cup, Suggs stood ramrod straight. Seconds later, however, he bent over at the waist, placed his hands on his knees and he began to cry, realizing that his mile-and-a-half walk from his home to the golf course multiple times each week had all been worth it.

“When I made that putt I knew that stuff had paid off,” he said.

Suggs’ playing partners, Jordan Estes of Georgia Northwestern Technical College and Brandon Grzywacz of Sandhills Community College, tried to offer their congratulations, but the teenager who started his collegiate career when he was 16 was still too overcome to even shake hands.

Only after much effort and plenty of tears was Suggs able to stand and greet Estes and Grzywacz, before his teammates, clad in lime-green shirts, poured on to the green to celebrate with him.

And, oh, did the Surge have plenty to celebrate.

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COVID-19 prevented Jamestown Community College from hosting its 21st national championship in 2020.

Nothing stands in the way this year, though.

Forty-eight golfers representing 12 schools will be calling the Lake Course home this week, beginning with a practice round today. Play begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Tournament Director George Sisson, who also serves as Jamestown CC’s athletic director and golf coach, can’t wait.

“It’s pretty cool we can put an exclamation point on the year,” he said.

Jamestown CC and Chautauqua GC are used to doing so.

In fact, their relationship with NJCAA is a partnership that began in 2000, making it the third-longest running consecutive championship site in the NJCAA behind only Grand Junction, Colorado, for Division I baseball and Hutchinson, Kansas, for Division I men’s basketball. The tournament field will be about half the usual number because some schools chose not to compete this spring.

“We feel the quality of golf will still be there, but not as deep as we’ve been in the past,” Sisson said.

Members of this year’s Jayhawks’ team are sophomore Anthony Gullo (Jamestown/Jamestown) and freshmen David Allen (Jamestown/Falconer), Matthew Fennell (Fourways Garden, Johannesburg, South Africa/King Edwards VII) and Josh Brown (Randolph/Randolph).

Gullo has had an impressive spring so far. In addition to claiming All-Region 3 honors thanks to placing fourth at the regional tournament, he was also the medalist at the Tompkins Cortland CC Invitational, the SUNY Adirondack CC Tournament and the Jefferson CC Invitational.

“I think Anthony has a real good chance of competing at the top of the tournament,” Sisson said. “The golf course allows him to play to his strength a little bit more. He’s really long off the tee.

“David Allen has improved progressively during the season, and our two young guys, Josh and Matt, have really gained a lot of momentum since the regular season. The last three weeks, they’ve been getting some regular practice in, so you’re going to see some much better outcomes for these young men.”

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Memories will be made over the next week. It happens every year. Ask Suggs, the young man from Cincinnati State, who was brought to tears on the 18th hole six years ago, about that. Or, let me remind you of some of the other “remember-when” moments from the last half-dozen tournaments on the shores of Chautauqua Lake.

Here is a sampling:

2015

Cincinnati State coach Scott Webb may have had the best celebration in the history of the event after Suggs’ putt secured the team title.

After posing for obligatory photographs following the victory, he told his guys that he was headed for the pond that borders the 18th fairway. Emptying his pockets and stripping down to his underwear, Webb took off running and he leaped into the murky water. When he came up for air, he raised his arms in celebration, fulfilling a promise he made to himself when he took over as the Surge’s head coach two decades earlier.

“I’ve been waiting to jump in that pond forever,” Webb said that day.

2016-17

Dante Migliore of Mohawk Valley CC won a five-hole playoff to capture the individual title in 2016, only to repeat that effort in 2017 when he was the owner of a 6-under-par 282 total, making him only the second player in Division III history to claim back-to-back championships.

“I think this one feels a little better than last year, because I’ve worked so hard,” Migliore said after his final-round 72. “It shows that hard work pays off and you can really do anything you put your mind to, no matter who you are.”

2018

Dan Lapp had no intention of joining the Tompkins Cortland CC golf team in 2018.

After playing one year at Saint Peter’s (New Jersey) University, he transferred to Tompkins Cortland CC in the fall of 2017 and planned to rehabilitate his surgically repaired shoulder to get ready to ultimately play soccer at SUNY Cortland.

And then TC3 golf coach Mick McDaniel came calling.

McDaniel’s encouragement paid off in a big way.

Fueled by a fast start — he was 3-under after six holes — Lapp turned in a 4-under 68 on the final day to claim medalist honors by nine shots over Bobby Davenport of Mohawk Valley CC. Lapp’s round on the Lake Course also included an eagle on the back nine.

Lapp’s magical round came about 90 minutes before Vincennes (Indiana) University closed out its third team victory in six years for Coach Dennis Chattin. The Trailblazers posted a final round 307.

2019

The Georgia Military College golf team had been playing lights-out when Dusty Watts reached the 18th tee in the final round.

So the freshman approached his coach, Charles Van Horn III, with a logical question.

“Do you want to run forward and see how we’re doing so we know what I need to do,” Watts asked Van Horn.

Van Horn’s response?

“No, just make a birdie.”

Watts did as he was told.

After a well-played 3-wood that left him with a 100-yard approach to the green, the 28-year-old used a wedge to put the ball 8 feet from the hole, and then calmly rolled in the putt for a birdie 3.

When Sandhills CC’s Trey Capps — the tournament medalist and Watts’ playing partner — failed to get up and down from behind the green on 18 and took a bogey, there was conversation near the scoreboard adjacent to the clubhouse that the team title was very much up for grabs.

“We didn’t know we were going to win by one,” Van Horn admitted.

But that’s precisely what happened.

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More stories figure to be told this week, and it all begins with the practice round and a picnic at Lakeside Park in Mayville today, followed by the opening round Tuesday. Just getting to this point in the midst of a global pandemic provides Sisson with satisfaction.

“People in the world of sports understand how many hoops you have to jump through,” he said. ” … For us to now get to the pinnacle where we’re back to hosting the national championship, we’re very proud to be doing it. … It’s a great way to finish the year.”