D'Argento wastes no time learning.

Byline: Bill Doyle

COLUMN: GOLF

When Russ D'Argento bought a home next to the first tee at Highfields Golf and Country Club in Grafton in August 2006, he told his wife Leah it would be fun if they won the men's and women's club championships some day.

Considering that D'Argento had taken up the game just a year earlier, his was a lofty goal - but one he fully expected to meet.

"I don't like to (stink) at anything," he said.

Believe it or not, D'Argento took only three years to capture his first men's club championship at Highfields. Last month, he shot 76-77 to beat defending champion Dave Bavosi of Hopedale for the title by two shots. Leah, a 12 handicap, came close to pulling off the rare double by finishing third among the women.

D'Argento, 26, starred in baseball at Ashland High and the University of Connecticut. He didn't pick up a golf club until late in the 2005 season. Leah's parents had given her gift certificates at East Coast Golf Academy in Northboro, and she talked him into hitting balls with her. It took some convincing. D'Argento admits he thought golf was for dorks. But he went, and it was love at first sight. That fall, using 1960s clubs he found in his father's basement, he shot a 91 in his first round, and he played several more at a course near UConn.

Within two years, the self-taught D'Argento lowered his handicap to a 3 and carded his first hole-in-one. This year, his handicap has fluctuated between an 0.8 and a 1.3. He has shot as low as 68 three times, including in the opening round of the Rhode Island Amateur where he reached the second round of match play.

Golf is supposed to be an agonizingly difficult game. So how did D'Argento get so good so fast without ever taking a lesson?

"I don't know," he admitted. "It just came natural."

"He's really dedicated himself to getting better," Highfields head pro Roger Adams said. "He spends a lot of time up here practicing, him and Leah."

D'Argento finds golf to be much easier than baseball.

"The ball isn't moving 95 miles an hour," he said.

Yeah, but in golf, you have to play your foul balls.

D'Argento's athletic ability and the hand-eye coordination he developed in baseball obviously helps him in golf. D'Argento was a Baseball America All-America center fielder for Ashland High and helped the Clockers win the Division 3 state title his senior year. He went on to start in center at UConn for four years and became All-Big East for two years. In his final game, he became the fourth Husky to collect 200 hits by homering off Boston College's Joe Martinez, who now starts for the San Francisco Giants. He also graduated as the college's all-time leader in stolen bases.

While playing a year in the Cape Cod League for Hyannis and two in the New England Collegiate Baseball League in Keene, N.H., and Lowell, he teamed with such current MLB players as A's closer Andrew Bailey, Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier and Indians pitcher Zach Jackson. D'Argento decided against signing as a free agent with the White Sox and opened his own Web-based financial company that helps hedge fund managers raise capital.

Leah, also in the hedge fund business, is an accomplished athlete as well. As the starting shortstop, she helped Ashland High win two state softball championships. But Russ' sister, Nicole, is the best athlete of the three. She pitched Ashland High to its two other state championships the past two years in softball. So the D'Argento family has a stake in all five of the school's state championships.

Nicole, 62-0 with 14 no-hitters at Ashland, was featured in Sports Illustrated's video "Faces in the Crowd" this summer and appeared on the cover of ESPN Rise high school magazine last spring. She'll be a freshman pitcher this fall at Boston College where Leah started in center for two years.

"Nicole is unbelievable," Russ said. "She's as good of an athlete male or female that has ever come out of Massachusetts."

Beating Bavosi, his friendly rival, made winning the club championship more meaningful. Bavosi earned a bit of revenge when he shot a 74 at Highfields a couple of weeks later to share medalist honors at a Mass. Mid-Amateur qualifier while D'Argento carded an 80 and finished as second alternate in a playoff. But D'Argento expects to get into the Mass. Mid-Amateur field, and he's looking forward to playing in the Southeastern Amateur for the second time next month.

D'Argento estimates he has a shag bag with 1,000 balls hit from the ninth hole into his backyard. It takes a really crooked shot to reach his front yard from the first tee, but one caromed off his mailbox into his garage.

No plans to sell MPCC 

A couple of weeks ago, Wachusett CC owner Don Marrone denied in this column any interest in selling Kettle Brook GC and purchasing Mount Pleasant CC, but readers may have been left wondering if the member-owned Mount Pleasant was up for sale.

"MPCC is not for sale," said Craig Roy, incoming president of Mount Pleasant Country Club, "nor do we have any plans for selling the club in the future."

Roy pointed out that like many private country clubs in this tough economy, MPCC lost members over the past couple of years. He said the club lost about 30 since last year, but gained back about 25.

So the club has reduced its fees to attract new members. New single memberships for 2010 will start as low as $5,200, down from $7,000, and family memberships will begin at $5,600 instead of $8,000, Roy said. Neither will require an initiation fee.

New members who pay $1,000 now toward their 2010 membership can play the rest of this year for no extra charge.

Roy said Mount Pleasant has about 180 members, but would like to add 75 to 100. The club held nonmember golf outings, weddings, functions to help offset the lost of members and cleanup costs after the ice storm last December.

"We're doing fairly well," Roy said. "We're holding our own."

Roy said Mount Pleasant needs to market itself better.

"Our other biggest challenge," he said, "is fighting the perception that Mount Pleasant is a closed club in terms of coming in to join. Quite honestly, there are many people, even in the greater Worcester area, that don't know that Mount Pleasant even exists. So I think we've got a little bit of an image issue that we have to overcome."

Roy, 48, of Auburn said he will become the first non-Jewish president of Mount Pleasant when he replaces Marty Benowitz in November.

"That is an indication," Roy said, "that the club is changing demographically. We owe our past and our future to the heritage of the club, but it is becoming more open."

Benefit at Juniper Hill

You may have heard of hail the size of golf balls, but have you ever seen real golf balls fall from the skies?

You can at 12:45 p.m. tomorrow.

A helicopter will drop golf balls from above a hole cut into the first fairway on the Riverside Course at Juniper Hill in Northboro. Each ball has been sold for $10, and the closest to the pin will split the prize money. The other half will go to the Folds of Honor Foundation, an educational scholarship fund for children and spouses of disabled and fallen soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

When Juniper Hill held its first Patriot Golf Day helicopter ball drop, 224 golf balls were dropped. The closest ball ended up 13-1/4 inches from the cup and the farthest 57 feet.

Bill Doyle can be reached by e-mail at [e-mail].

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Russ D'Argento took only three years to capture his first men's club championship at Highfields Golf and Country Club.