From the left, Kevin Kaszuba of Shorewood Country Club and Scott Crist of Bemus Point Golf Course are all smiles after competing in the 30th annual Jim Riggs Memorial Champions at Cable Hollow Golf Course on Sunday. Crist shot a 73 to win the title, one shot better than Kaszuba. P-J photo by Jay Young

AKELEY, Pa. — When Scott Crist hit his third shot on the par 5, 18th hole at Cable Hollow Golf Course on Sunday afternoon, it was kind of a microcosm of his entire round.

It was pretty darn good.

Yeah, the weather for the 30th annual Jim Riggs Memorial Champions was more like the kind experienced on a links course in Scotland, but that didn’t seem to bother the Bemus Point Golf Course champion in the least.

So after playing partner Kevin Kaszuba, the Shorewood Country Club champ, just missed his 15-foot birdie putt for a tap-in par and a 74, Crist stepped up and drilled his downhill, 6-footer — center cut — for a 73 and the win.

It’s been that kind of 2019 for Crist.

In the five months since he rang in the New Year, he has:

¯ Watched his oldest son, Carson, reach the 1,000-point plateau for his Maple Grove basketball career and also earn a trip to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Track & Field Championships next week as a pentathlete.

¯ Been inducted into the Cattaraugus County Sports Hall of Fame.

¯ And celebrated the notification that his father, Chuck, will be enshrined into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame later this year.

When reminded of the good news that has come his way of late, Crist said, “You’re going to make me … ”

He paused for a few seconds to collect himself and then continued.

“It’s been a great year,” Crist said. “I love competing. It’s fun. You’re always a little nervous that you’re not going to do as well, because it’s not like we practice every day.”

Maybe not, but some people are blessed with hand/eye coordination and athleticism, so constant repetition isn’t required.

Crist falls into that category. The son of one of the top athletes to ever come out of Western New York — father Chuck played in the NFL with the New York Giants, the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers in the 1970s — Crist was a tremendous athlete in his own right growing up, both at Salamanca High School and at Alfred University.

He was especially adept at basketball and golf, despite playing with a club foot.

“My left foot is three sizes smaller than my right,” Crist said.

But don’t think he has used that for sympathy. To the contrary.

“It was all I ever knew,” he said. “It didn’t make any difference. It did make me play basketball differently. I’m a right-handed person, but I played basketball basically left-handed, because I could jump off my right foot and not my left.”

And, boy, could he get up. In fact, Crist was known to throw down a dunk or two during his Salamanca High School days in the late 1980s.

“If (having a foot issue) was something that ‘happened’ to me (I might feel differently), but I was born with it,” Crist continued. “Luckily, my dad was playing with the Giants at the time and the Giants’ orthopedic surgeon operated on my foot a couple times.”

The results were amazing.

“I have an insert I wear, (but) I’ve never walked differently, I never jumped differently, so it was OK,” Crist said. “In a way, it helped me, because I learned to play differently and did some things.”

Take, for example, the time years ago when he taught himself to golf left-handed.

“I went out and played one ‘normal’ round of golf (right-handed), but literally I couldn’t lift my arm up to have a beer (after the round). I was told to rest, but I hadn’t played in five months. I wasn’t having fun.”

So he had surgery and then taught himself to play the “gentleman’s game” left-handed.

“I decided I was going to try it and see what happened,” Crist said. “I tried that a couple years, but I realized I wasn’t going to be as good.”

For those wondering, Crist still managed to shoot in the 70s, including one round in the upper 70s at Moon Brook Country Club in Jamestown, one of the toughest layouts around. He realized, however, that in order to compete in events like a club championship or the Jim Riggs Memorial Champions, he would need to get back to playing right-handed.

He did just that, and Sunday afternoon — with the sun finally shining and the temperatures becoming more seasonable — Crist stood outside the Cable Hollow clubhouse and posed for a photo with Kaszuba.

Winner and runner-up.

“It’s been a good couple months,” Crist said.