Golf
Favorite athlete: Arnold Palmer
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports:Winning 2018 Montco Junior Amateur
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Slipped in mud on golf course
Music on mobile device: Anything
Future plans:Mechanical Engineer
Words to live by: Move On.
One goal before turning 30: Go to Hawaii
One thing people don’t know about me:Mechanically Inclined
By Mary Jane Souder
Thomas Butler has a plan. A plan that makes a whole lot of sense.
One of the SOL’s elite golfers, the Souderton senior could have made golf his top priority when choosing a college. Butler hasn’t done that, aspiring instead to attend a Division III school where academics – mechanical engineering more specifically – will be his number one goal.
Butler’s list of potential schools is a short but impressive one and includes Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Stevens Institute of Technology.
“I’m going D-III because I don’t want to miss school, and I want to be around people that are kind of like me,” he said. “I’m going to be surrounded by people with the same workload and that are the same academic level that want to work hard and know they can’t miss a class and the coach knows I can’t miss a class whereas a D-I school is all about the workout and practice. I don’t think that would work for me because in the end, I’m not going pro. I’m going to school.”
Will he play golf? Yes, more than likely, but that is a secondary consideration.
“My goal is to go to school, get my degree, make my money and play golf,” Butler said. “I’m looking for the future. I’m looking to play golf after.
“I’m not going pro, but I’m definitely planning on playing golf for a long, long time.”
That comes as no surprise to his coach.
“He’s very hard working, very goal oriented and diligent,” Souderton coach Fred Cicacci said. “He’s a quiet fellow, kind of leads by example, but the kids know that he’s willing to help them.
“I consult with him, and he approaches me with some thoughts about what’s best for the team. Occasionally, he’ll come and talk to me about things that the kids know better than the coaches – who’s better off paired with one another in matches, that type of thing. Insights that can best come from golfers because they know the interpersonal relationships with one another and the idiosyncrasies and that type of thing. I call on him regularly to help out with little things.”
Butler admits that he’s more comfortable assuming a leadership role as a senior.
“It’s never been my team – I’ve been following along,” he said. “This year I guess I’m kind of the big dog, and sometimes I feel there are different things we could be doing or different pairings, and I’ll let (coach Cicacci) know. I’ve always had the thoughts. I just feel way more comfortable. After seeing things for three years, I kind of know what’s going to work and what’s not going to work. Even then, there’s been stuff I’ve said this year that hasn’t worked, but I’m learning.
“I’m trying to come out of my shell a little bit for the younger kids that tried out this year. There’s just the one freshman on varsity, but he’s got real potential, so I’m trying to really show him around.”
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Butler has been part of Souderton’s varsity since he was a freshman and became an immediate contributor, although for most of his life golf took a backseat to another sport.
“I started when I was young, holding a golf club and hitting stuff around, but I was a baseball player up until just after my freshman year,” he said. “I was always big into baseball.
“I played golf on the side, and I just started really trying to play golf before freshman year to make the high school team. I was always a baseball guy.”
But the summer after his freshman year Butler injured his elbow while pitching for his Indian Valley Storm squad in the semifinals of a tournament.
“I was pitching and something went wrong,” he said. “It started hurting really bad. I finished that inning just kind of lobbing the ball over the plate.
“It worked out – we got second in the tournament, but our team was hurting bad at that point.”
A visit to the doctor was inconclusive.
“They didn’t see anything, but it was to the point where it hurt to throw pretty badly, so even if you don’t see anything wrong, it’s going to take a while for me to feel as though I can throw,” Butler said. “I gave it up in the fall, and when spring rolled back around, I didn’t really feel the need to go back and prove myself or anything.”
Golf moved to the forefront.
“Compared to the general population, I was a better golfer than a baseball player,” Butler said. “I enjoy baseball more, but as I grew up, I’m learning to like golf a little more.
“It’s a little more individual. I like to rely on myself a little more than other people to kind of get me where I want to go because then there’s only one person to blame at the end. It’s all about what I do. How much work I put in is how much I’m going to get out of it where baseball it’s a little more – are you on the right team? Is your coach doing the right things?”
Butler’s commitment to golf paid dividends.
“The summer before freshman year is when I started looking at myself and saying, ‘Okay, you can’t just go hit the ball anymore. You have to play golf,’” Butler said. “Our team was very competitive that year.
“I was the eighth golfer, and I was okay with that. That summer I was like ‘Here we go. You have to start kicking into high gear. Focus on what you have to do.’”
As a sophomore, Butler – who Cicacci says came to the team a good golfer – advanced to the District One Tournament, and he returned to districts as a junior.
“When I was a sophomore, I was playing three or four golfer and I was behind some big names like Dawson Anders and Anthony Barr who have done pretty big things and have gone off to college,” he said. “I was okay playing behind them.”
The following summer, Butler began working with two-time Philadelphia Section PGA Teacher of the Year Bob Kramer at Indian Valley Country Club. Kramer passed away suddenly last May. Butler’s last lesson was the preceding March.
“He was very good,” Butler said of a coach who had instructed LPGA great Betsy King. “I got very lucky that he got sent to the club I’m a member of right near my house, so it was easy access and I could talk to him a lot.
“I got lucky with that. He took my game to a whole another level in a really short time, so I was really thankful for that. I’m just wondering what could have been, so to say. We won’t find out, and maybe it’s better that way.”
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Butler’s golf career extends well behind his high school season. He competes in numerous tournaments on the Philadelphia Junior Tour as well as the more competitive tournaments of the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) and the Pennsylvania Golf Association.
“The GAP events are not limited to juniors – they’re open for amateurs, so those are bigger, more competitive events, and I enjoy those a lot,” Butler said. “They’re tougher.
“Dawson (Anders) and Anthony (Barr) aren’t juniors anymore, and I get to compete with them still, which is fun for me.”
Barr has had his share of highlights.
“Last summer I started working with my coach and probably a month later I won a GAP tournament, and that was very big for me,” he said. “I’ve been coachless since March – I’ve been all my life but after having (Kramer) for a year, it’s kind of weird adjusting.
“I was back to going on my own, looking stuff up on the internet and figuring out what to do and when to do it.”
This past August, Butler won the Montco Junior Amateur.
“It was a smaller field, 20 kids, but very strong,” he said. “A lot of those kids were off to college this year.
“That’s probably my favorite (golf) memory just because I was struggling all summer, I was grinding it out, I was finishing in the middle of the pack a lot. It just felt like it came together.”
Butler is having an outstanding senior season for the Indians and finds himself near the top of the SOL’s latest handicap rankings.
“We’ve never had captains, but if we did, he’d be one,” Cicacci said. “He’s a team player. He’s not someone who would put himself above others. I lean on Thomas. He’s a leader. He expects a lot of himself.
“He’s really tough on himself when he’s not performing his best. As in the case with many golfers, he’ll come in with a round of 37 and say it could have been a 34, but that’s not idiosyncratic to Thomas. All good golfers are tough on themselves.”
And Butler – who excels in the classroom (he’s taking three AP classes) and is a member of the school’s Athletic Leadership Council - certainly fits the bill of a very good golfer.
“You have to play, you have to hit the ball a lot to get to the level he’s at,” Cicacci said. “He’s very accurate with his irons, he manages a golf course well.
“He doesn’t use the driver off the tee when he thinks he may not be successful. He’ll hit an iron – he hits the irons real well. I don’t think he’d see himself as a good putter, but nonetheless, I think he’s a pretty good putter. He has his mind in the game, and he is managing the course, and that’s the important thing. He’s a real good kid”
