Using their new, golf-focused Instagram account and plenty of creativity, three Canton Central School freshmen have found a way to keep practicing their short game and having fun with the game they love.
John O’Neill, Nate Romano and Sam Sieminski recently came up with JNS Golf (@jnsgolfusa), a platform where they planned to post photos and videos of their golf outings and tournaments. Those plans changed when social distancing practices were instituted and the boys were no longer able to get to the links.
“No one likes the fact that we have to practice social distancing and not hang out with each other but that is just the way it is for now,” said O’Neill, who originally developed the idea for JNS Golf. “With the Coronavirus escalating at this rate we no longer can even go out to the course together. So that changed our whole view on what to do.”
Since being confined to their homes, the trio turned to trick shots as their main source of content, recently publishing their first collaborative trick shot video on their Instagram account.
O’Neill said he came up with the idea for the trick shots and asked his friends to join in with him to help build content for their new account.
“I chose to do this because it was a rainy day and I wanted to go golfing but I couldn’t so I got the clubs out and started doing trick shots with my wedges,” he said. “Our original plan was just to kind of do trick shots because we were bored and couldn’t hang out but then we decided to make the video because we already had some impressive trick shots and wanted to give people good content on our Instagram page.”
While the video is less than 90 seconds long, several hours were put into its production, according to the boys.
“Out of the nine or 10 that I’ve done, each took anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes, and Sam’s probably took much longer,” Romano said. “In total, mine probably took three or four hours.”
“I probably have our around 5 or 6 hours overall into our trick shots,” O’Neill added.
Each member of the JNS squad has a different approach to developing their shots.
“The way that I come up with the trick shots is I find household items and see if I can use them in any way to elevate a trick shot that would be easy without the household item,” O’Neill said. “Depending on the difficulty of the trick shot the amount of time it could take could be from 10 minutes to three hours but usually I get the trick after an hour or so.”
In Romano’s case, the process is less about obstacles and more about angles.
“For me, I just set the cup down and tried hitting the ball off obstacles into it,” he said. “There wasn’t really a strategy.”
And that headband Romano has on? It’s a confidence boost.
“The headband makes the shots, and me, look a lot better,” he said. “Great use of 5 bucks!”
As is the way of the current world, the boys aren’t sure what the future holds for JNS Golf, but O’Neill said the group hopes to continue posting content as social distancing continues, including holding a two-day tournament beginning Wednesday. He said details will be available on @jnsgolfusa.
Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know has come up with a creative way to stay active during the COVID-19 quarantine, please email plaindealersports@gmail.com.
Plaindealer Sports 
Just to clarify that picture is from John’s hole-in-one last year. Rest assured the boys are practicing social distancing.
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