What’s up with the very successful North Middlesex Regional golf team? Why are the Patriots, who have won 16 of their 17 matches this fall, so far to the left?

But we’re not talking politics here. It’s just that five of the top seven players in the North Middlesex lineup play left-handed. That’s 71.4 percent, and that’s very unusual, considering that experts agree only 10 percent of the world’s population is left-handed, and the PGA of America estimates that only about five percent of PGA Tour members are left-handed.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of lefties, that’s for sure,” said North Middlesex coach Derick Fors, who plays right-handed and is also the general manager and director of golf at Northern Spy Golf Club in Townsend, the Patriots’ home course. “From an instructional standpoint there’s merit in watching my players take their stance and then I, in a mirror-image across from them, can help with their swings.”

Fors, with a laugh, added, “The biggest drawback with all these lefties is when we’re waiting for a team to arrive for a match and I want to chip or putt on the practice green. There’s no clubs for me to use, so I’ve had to start chipping and putting left-handed.”

“It’s crazy having more than half our team being lefties,” said senior captain Andrew Peterson, who plays right-handed in the No. 1 spot with a terrific 36 stroke, nine-hole average, leading the Patriots to an impressive 16-1 overall record and a perfect 9-0 in Mid-Wach B.

About the Patriots’ sterling season, Peterson said, “All of us have been pretty consistent and have put up scores that have won for us.”

Nashoba pinned the only loss on North Middlesex earlier this month, but the Patriots bounced back with four straight wins last week against Ayer-Shirley, Groton-Dunstable, Oakmont and Fitchburg.

“I have a great group of players, a collective unit with probably the deepest talent I’ve ever had,” said Fors, now in his 17th year, a former star golfer 25 years ago on the 1997 Patriots’ team, which chalked up the best golf record in school history so far, 17-0, and finishing as Div. 1 Central Mass champions and fourth in the state championship under coach Neil Gorman.

No . 1 Peterson is followed by players two through four, all left-handed: senior Jake Miller, averaging 36, and sophomores Shawn Amari and Max Caliri, both averaging 38.

Senior captain Connor Lavery and his freshman brother, Brady, both lefties, are averaging 41 in the sixth and seventh spots, while the other senior captain Mike Archambault, in the fifth spot, also averages 41.

“And the funny thing about Mike is that he plays right-handed on our golf team, but in the spring he’ll be pitching for the baseball team – left-handed,” said Fors, who noted that four of his five left-handers are also hockey players.

“I really believe there’s a left-handed connection to hockey,” explained Fors. “In Canada, the percentage of left-handed golfers is higher than in the U.S. because, I think, so many players begin hockey as lefties and then the transition to the lefty golf swing is more natural.”

Interestingly, in terms of professional golf, only four left-handed players have won major championships since 1860: Bob Charles, Mike Weir, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson. Bonnie Bryant is the only left-handed winner ever on the LPGA Tour, capturing the Bill Branch LPGA Classic in 1974, her only victory. 

This reporter was fortunate to interview Charles in the summer of 1989 after he won the Digital Seniors Classic at Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord.

Then 53 years old, Charles, right-handed in everything but golf, said, he had never had a formal golf lesson in his life.

“I used to look at films of Hogan and Snead and watch them in a mirror to see them as lefties,” Charles said, then he added, “And don’t forget, when I take my stance I’m on the right side of the golf ball.”

Contact Jay Gearan at [email protected].