Adrian Evelyn
(January 22, 2013)–Adrian Evelyn is of West Indian heritage and was born on the beautiful island of Barbados. Now, at age 41, the optimistic gentleman has settled into life as a modern urbanite in Atlanta, Georgia.
“A close friend of mine, named Willy Carignan, introduced me to golf just two years ago. After a year of his relentless nagging I finally resolved to give it a try,” says, Evelyn, a 6’ 2” accurate power hitter. “I did not have the time or the tools to do this. Plus, I did not know anything at all about golf—only what I had seen on television, while watching the Tiger and Phil and Bubba Watson’s of the world.”
Once Evelyn decided to give ‘hitting a little white ball’ a try Willy gave him some 6, 7 and 8 irons and said, “Now, big fella, let’s start with chipping, because that’s where golfers score 90 percent of the game.” Determined to succeed at this, Evelyn took his time and started hitting a few strokes. As he chipped one ball in Willy asked, “Are you sure you never played golf before?
After a few more weeks, Evelyn was sure that he wanted to purchase his own set of clubs but funds were lacking. So being the resourceful person that he is, Evelyn says, “I went down to the local Goodwill store and picked out a set. Heck, I was still just a naive hacker, new to the game….and I didn’t know what the difference between clubs was,” he admits.
“I was just soooo excited and wanted to show them off to everybody.” Evelyn recalls how he will never forget the sound of his friend Willy’s loud, audacious laugh when he came over to see the ‘new’ clubs. “I was wondering why he was laughing so hard. Willy said that the clubs I had picked out where lady’s clubs,” chuckles Evelyn. Feeling bad, his good friend empathized with him and made up a full bag set, combining some old clubs he had lying around. And that’s how Evelyn got into golf.
Today Evelyn carries a 14 handicap. He has some great tools in his bag, too. He uses a Titleist driver 913d2, VR Pro 3.5 woods, 6-G Mizuno irons and Bear Claw wedge. And nowadays hardly anyone can catch him having a bad round.
“I have not had any formal golf training, but I play everyday—EVERYDAY,” says Evelyn, a member of the Crystal Lake Golf & Country Club in Hampton, GA, located just south of Atlanta. “This is what I prefer to do for a living and I strongly hope that my commitment will pay off. I want to make it onto one of the big tours.” Evelyn is a regular player on the Golf Channel Amateur Tour and has won 7 tour events within his first year of participating.
Evelyn’s wife, Deidre, and their children (Julia, Kadijah and Keanna) enjoy watching his trophies accumulate at home while hearing about his latest conquest.
“Jose Rodriguez, Derek Gilly, Roger Nelly, Desmond Brown, Cornelius Holder, James McCrary and Pat McCrary are my favorite golfing buddies. But, like many golfers, my biggest challenge is playing consistently.”
When he’s not playing golf, you can find Evelyn listening to some of his favorite music: reggae, soca, R&B, rap, jazz and gospel. Or, you can find him in the kitchen busy baking pound cake, peach cobbler and other scrumptious confections. Evelyn knows what he wants in his golf life and has his heart set on accomplishing it. “I will never get enough of the game. It’s challenging. It’s a whole lot of fun and you get to meet great people from all over the world.”
