Saladino beats ex-LIer to advance in Mid-Am

With Joe Saladino of Huntington playing against Bayville native R.J. Nakashian at Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton, everything about the day said “Long Island,” including the weather.

The peculiar East End wind was whipping and rain was falling, and that was before a 4-hour, 31-minute rain delay at the U.S. Mid-Amateur (and before a storm put the driving range under water). But, hey, that’s golf, especially around here, and particularly when the U.S. Golf Association brings a national championship. By mid-afternoon, workers with squeegees made the practice tee look like Bethpage Black during last year’s U.S. Open.

As one caddie said of the squall, “In Louisiana, we name these things.” Around here, folks call it just a normal day. That is especially how Saladino saw it after his second-round 5-and-4 win in the championship for golfers 25 and older.

“I played well, grinding, with the weather out there,” said Saladino, 30. “But that’s how match play is in general. You’ve just got to grind.

“Weather like this is match play,” he said. “You never know what to expect. The tougher the conditions are, I think you just mentally have to bear down. That’s something I think I’m able to do out there. Whatever the conditions are out there, I’m OK with it.”

“He is really solid,” said Nakashian, 43, who caddies full-time at Trump International in West Palm Beach, Fla. “You’ve got to play really well from here on out.”

Saladino advanced to the Round of 16 against Tim Mickelson of San Diego, Phil’s younger brother. Mickelson won the first two holes of that match before it was suspended because of darkness.

It was the Saladino-Nakashian match that was, to borrow a South Fork phrase, the catch of the day. Neither player was fazed by the rain that started falling as each made birdie 4 on the first hole. Both had experienced many raw days like this in high school matches — Saladino for Cold Spring Harbor, Nakashian for Locust Valley.

As far as Saladino is concerned, tough conditions can only help. “You can’t get ahead of yourself,” he said. “I think that’s a challenge everyone in golf faces. They know they’re playing well and there are maybe certain holes down the road they know they can birdie. But in conditions like this, with the wind coming up and gusts and the rain, you never know what the next shot is going to be.”

Through six holes, he was 2 under par and 1-up on Nakashian. The latter three-putted the par-3 seventh (“I just hit it by, I didn’t think it was that fast,” he said). In the greatest momentum twister of the match, with Nakashian on the par-4 ninth green in two, Saladino blasted out of a bunker and made a 22-foot par putt to halve the hole and remain 3-up. “Getting a half there almost felt like a win, then I won the next two,” Saladino said.