AUBURN - After four years of competition, 15-year-old Bobby Dushatinski found himself the winner at the end of this year's Bobby Hoey Golf Tournament at Dutch Hollow Country Club.

“It felt great,” Dushatinski said. “To see my name on that trophy with all those other great golfers - the May brothers and their father and uncles and Bob Paglia - there are so many other great golfers on there and to see my name on there with theirs is great.”

Dushatinski, a regular at Dutch Hollow, said that he felt comfortable heading into this year's tournament. Being so familiar with the course gave him a leg up, but he had a few other strong driving forces that helped him along the way.

“My friend Eric Edmunds was playing,” Dushatinski said. “We like to compete with each other so that really helped me going into the tournament.”

Dushatinski first entered the tournament when he was 11.

“I heard about it from other people,” Dushatinski said. “And that got me interested. When I started it was three days at Auburn, Owasco and Dutch Hollow - that was good. It was just one day this year, but they had more people since they opened it up beyond Cayuga County, but it is a really good tournament.”

Year after year, he has had strong showings, each one building up both his confidence as a player and his skills on the greens.

“My first year I did pretty good,” Dushatinski said. “And the year after that I did pretty good too. Last year I was in the championship flight and that really got my confidence up, so I felt pretty good going into this year. I was feeling really good from my showing last year and I think that helped.”

From the first tee, Dushatinski said that it simply felt like everything was falling into place.

“The first couple of holes I was hitting really well,” Dushatinski said. “I was making par and by the 17th and 18th holes I was 3- or 4-over par and I started to think I had a chance to win.”

It was an announcement by Jason Lesch, tournament director that solidified things for Dushatinski.

“He went by and said the group before us, the best total was 81,” Dushatinski said. “I was lucky, I really didn't hit too many bad shots and I caught some big breaks.”

At the end of the day Dushatinski, with a 75, found himself victorious.

“There were some really good golfers,” Dushatinski said. “I was just hitting the ball well. It is incredible to win this.”

Dushatinski is by most standards still a young golfer, but his career really began when he was still quite young.

“My dad played a lot,” Dahsatinski said. “So I started playing with him when I was about 7 and from then on the game just really interested me.”

Growing up Dushatinski said that he played both baseball and basketball, games he is still very active in, playing JV baseball last season and CYO basketball as well.

“My dad wanted to give me the chance to get involved in more sports,” Dushatinski said. “I gave it a try and I really liked it. I like how you have to rely on yourself instead of other sports where it is the whole team; you really have to rely on yourself in golf.”

Early on Dushatinski had a lot of support in his burgeoning career, taking lessons with Tony Biata and John Lombardo.

“They've really been a great help,” Dushatinski said. “They've both really taught me a lot.”

This dedication paid off as Dushatinski made the Auburn varsity team as an eighth grader.

“I wasn't really in any matches,” Dushatinski said. “I was there to develop and I think it really helped to build my confidence to be with some of the older players. It got me better as a player and built up my confidence a lot.”

By his freshman year of high school, Dushatinski was a regular player, making it to states his first full season.

“That was great,” Dushatinski said. “I don't think I was playing too great at Colgate, Seven Oaks is a really tough course. It is really challenging with a lot of blind holes. But I just missed the cut for Cornell by 10 or 11 strokes.”

Dushatinski also plays in the CNY Junior PGA.

“That has been great,” Dushatinski said. “There are players between 12 and 18 and we play tournaments. There are some of the best players in New York State. It is really exciting and it makes me want to see other players, like guys from down south who can play all year and what that must be like.”

For now, he has his sights set on the coming varsity season and staying in practice.

“Our coach, Tony Locastro, will have us hitting balls at Par Breakers,” Dushatinski said. “Just to keep our swing up and get the feel for things and make sure we don't lose anything. This year I think we are going to be a younger team but I think we are going to be pretty strong.”

Dushatinski has set some very specific goals for his own game.

“I wanted to keep my scores in the low 40s or high 30s,” Dushatinski said. “I just want to keep my scores as low as possible and play as well as I can.”