New pro showing he belongs> Salinetti begins pursuit of dream, seeks spot on PGA Tour

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FALMOUTH FORESIDE — Jim Salinetti of Lee, Mass., is getting over the butterflies he felt as he entered his first golf tournament as a professional this week.

Salinetti jumped into a tie for second place in the New England Open with Tuesday’s 3-under-par 67 at Portland Country Club. His two-day total of 139 is three shots behind leader Billy Downes of Hampden, Mass.

“I wasn’t thinking about being a pro today like I was yesterday,” said Salinetti, who was victorious during his previous trip to Maine, in the New England Amateur at Waterville Country Club in July.

“Last night, I was driving home from the restaurant and it hit me that I was working and playing golf,” said Salinetti. “This is my job. This is pretty cool.”

Those thoughts were reinforced later.

“My dad called and asked how was my first day of work,” said Salinetti, who opened with an even-par 72 at The Woodlands Club in Falmouth.

Although he just turned pro before this tournament, Salinetti is prepared. He already has backers from his home club, Stockbridge Golf Club in Massachusetts.

“They’re not really sponsors, they’re investors,” he said. “It would be a solid year if they could get their money back, but I think they’re just doing it to help me out.”

Salinetti added, “They want to be part of something special, hopefully. Help a kid fulfill his dream.”

Salinetti put his degree in business from the University of Rhode Island to good use when it came time to approach potential backers.

“My business proposal was 12 pages,” he said.

Because he has investors, Salinetti’s schedule and goals are a little different than for some other pros, at least at this point in his career.

“There are tons [of tournaments]. I just have to pick the best ones for me,” Salinetti said.

He plans to move down south in the late fall, and he’ll have plenty of choices for tournament play.

“I’m trying to get the best experience I can, what will help me the most to make the PGA Tour,” he said.

It’s all about the rules

When you think you’ve seen it all, you find out you haven’t.

And it happened twice in front of Jeff Seavey, the assistant pro at Samoset Resort in Rockport, during Monday’s round at Portland Country Club.

The first one involved a ballmark, the second involved a ball picked up inadvertently.

“[David] Bartoe was [almost] on the green on No. 5, and he chipped up about 2 feet behind mine, on about the same line,” said Seavey. “He started to mark his ball, so I turned to move the flag out of the way.

“After Henry [Ascento] putted out, Dave went to putt. He couldn’t find his mark. He marked it with a dime, but it was never to be seen again.

“I don’t know if it stuck to his shoe or the bottom of his putter or what, but we still don’t know where it went.”

They had to decide where his ball had been, as near as they could remember.

“He said, `It was about here, wasn’t it?’ We said, `No. It was here [closer to the hole],’ ” said Seavey.

Then they had to check with an official to make sure they had done the procedure correctly. If Bartoe teed off on No. 6 having done it improperly, he would be disqualified.

The official confirmed they had done it properly, and they played on.

On the last hole, they ran into the second problem.

“Henry snap-hooked his drive into the trees off the 18th tee,” said Seavey. “I thought it went through onto the ninth fairway because it didn’t sound like it hit much of anything.

“We looked in the woods and found about a dozen balls, but none were Henry’s. We went out onto No. 9 and there were two members playing up to the green.

“We looked all around but couldn’t see anything. Then a member of the grounds crew came by and asked if we were looking for a ball. He had seen it come through the trees and land in the middle of the fairway.

“I jumped in the cart and drove up to the members and asked if they had picked up a ball.

“One of them said, `Yes.’ They had looked around and didn’t see anyone, so they picked it up. He was apologetic, and all worried that Henry was going to be penalized.

“We just drove [the member] back, he put the ball where he found it, and we played on.”

That wasn’t the case for amateur James Driscoll of Newton, Mass., the runner-up in this year’s U.S. Amateur.

During Tuesday’s second round, also at Portland Country Club, he hit his tee shot on the par-4 fifth hole into the woods.

He found a ball and played it out, according to Salinetti, who was in the same threesome with his longtime friend and competitor.

The only problem was it wasn’t the right ball, but Driscoll didn’t discover it until the eighth hole. It was the same brand, but not the same type. And it didn’t have Driscoll’s marks on it.

Because he had played too long with the wrong ball, the penalty was immediate disqualification.