By Rich Torres | Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — Meticulous. Analytical. Patient.
New Palestine senior Quinn Dobbins lives all three whether he’s lining up his swing on the golf course or soaring thousands of feet in the air inside an airplane.
Independent by nature, Dobbins has never subscribed to tunnel vision. Instead, he takes in everything around him and rarely misses a detail.
As New Palestine’s No. 1 golfer since his freshman season and only a few hours away from obtaining his private pilots license, Dobbins finds balance when he plays his game.
“He is always calm and has a good head on his shoulders. That was one of his assets in golf that he could think his way around the golf course fairly well and maximized where he could score and tried to minimize areas that were dangerous,” New Palestine boys golf coach Gregg Greene said. “I would hope my pilot would be able to do that.”
Dobbins is a problem-solver but cautious when necessary, and it showed on the Dragons’ home course at The Links Golf Club in New Palestine and beyond.
His leadership led the golf team to a Hancock County title in 2018 and a team regional advancement every year he played, except for this spring with the season cancelled due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“That was pretty much the only thing I was looking forward to (our golf season). Honestly, I don’t care about graduation, the prom, the last couple of days, but I was really looking forward to our last year of golf,” Dobbins said.
With school golf unfortunately cut out, Dobbins has turned to the skies where he’s already logged 50 hours of flight time and is chipping away at the 10 solo hours he needs to obtain his license before heading to Purdue University this fall.
Dobbins, who isn’t pursuing golf at the collegiate level, is instead is fixated on a major in professional flight and aviation management with hopes of becoming a commercial pilot.
“My ultimate goal is to fly for about 10-15 years and maybe work my way up on the management side of things,” Dobbins said. “Or, maybe fly something private.”
While flying and golfing don’t seem like an obvious correlation, Dobbins sees the similarities. The youngest son of Sarah and J.R. Dobbins, Quinn became infatuated with golf in the seventh grade after he walked away from baseball.
J.R., who played in high school, introduced his son to the sport, and it gave him exactly what he was searching for to keep his mind and body active.
“I just love how you can go out and hit balls or play a few holes just by yourself. It’s your game. You don’t have to rely on others as much as basketball or football. I like how you can be independent, but you also have the team side of things,” Dobbins said. “How everything comes together is pretty amazing, and the team that I had was awesome.”
In what became his final season in 2019, Dobbins and the Dragons placed third in the Hoosier Heritage Conference with the then junior being named to the All-HHC team.
The team finished second at sectional behind New Castle at Hawk’s Tail in Greenfield last June, and at the Players Club in Yorktown for regional, Dobbins shot a team-best 77 at 5-over par.
“It was really his team for his sophomore and junior years. He was the driving force behind the scenes, not just for the guys that were in his class but the other ones, too,” Greene said. “He set an example of leadership and it kind of worked its way to everyone else. They wanted to get better. And, he did it in a positive way. He’s humble in that respect. He was a humble leader and just did it.”
All Dobbins needs is inspiration to succeed. The rest follows suit once he sets his mindset. Much like golf, flying became a passion once he experienced it firsthand.
Dobbins first became enamored with aviation in February of last year when his cousin Adrian Cagle, a sophomore at Purdue, invited him on board a private plane for fun.
“He randomly asked me if I wanted to go up one night. And, honestly, that first flight, I was pretty scared and nervous to be in that little plane,” Dobbins said. “We flew downtown (Indianapolis) and around the circle, and I thought, this is awesome. Just fell in love with it. I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
Last spring, he began taking flying lessons at Mt. Comfort Airport, while also working on his skills at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course with John Dal Corobbo, a PGA life member and golf instructor.
“It’s so cool to see how much golf relates to flying. I spent years working at the Brickyard with my golf coach on my swing. Talking about things with him and how it relates to flying is pretty crazy,” Dobbins said. “My golf coach would always talk about center of gravity in my body and in my swing. When I get into my plane, I have to create a weight-balance chart and figure out where my center of gravity is. There are so many correlations.”
In regards to Dobbins’ immediate impact for the Dragons boys golf team, there have been few comparisons.
As a freshman, Dobbins challenged for the top spot from Day 1 and by mid-season he ascended into the No. 1 position by beating out senior Blake Barnette in 2017.
“Golf is very objective. The scorecard doesn’t lie,” Greene said. “I knew he was very talented from when he was younger. I was waiting for him to get there.”
Dobbins competed as an Indianapolis Junior Golf Foundation golfer while in junior high school and once he arrived to the high school level, he delivered.
“I’ve had some others that were very good junior golfers, but you just don’t always know what you’re really going to get until they actually get here,” Greene said. “Quinn was every bit as good I expected and then some because his maturity was advanced. That gave him a little head start on everyone else on the team.”
During last year’s HHC tournament, Dobbins shot a 76, tying for fifth place. As a sophomore in 2018, he tallied an 81 at regional after shooting an 85 at sectional. His junior year, he scored an 81 at sectional for the runner-up Dragons.
Not that Dobbins measures accomplishment based on his lineup number. He’s more interested in the final result not where he begins.
“I would have been fine playing No. 5, 3 or 2, I honestly, didn’t care what my position was, I just went out there and played my game,” Dobbins said. “I didn’t really fight for (No. 1). I was just going to play my game.”
Right now, his game of choice includes terms like center of gravity and absolute altitude with a little bit of golf in sight as well.
“Quinn in the kind of guy who is already in his college frame of mind now,” Greene said. “There’s nothing he can do to solve this (lost season), so he’s already making preparations for that next stage that he’s ready to go and conquer.”
A trip to Hilton Head, S.C. is on his to-do list with a twist. The family often takes routine trips to South Carolina where they go deep sea fishing and take in a round or two at Harbor Town Golf Links.
Someday, Dobbins might be the one to transport his family to his favorite golf course.
“I can see (Harbor Town) from 3,500 feet above or I can see it from a golf cart,” Dobbins said. “It’s pretty cool.”
