Glendale Golfs – Winnipeg

Looks like youngsters on verge of busting out

They’re inching closer to breaking down the gates, but have patience, Canadian golf fans, our next, young wave of top players musn’t be rushed.

Many think Canadian Tour Players Cup champ Graham DeLaet has seen his last days as a regular on home soil.

And this year, Canada has two of the world’s top four amateur players, Nick Taylor (No. 1) and Matt Hill (No. 4), and they’ve both made plenty of noise, including at this week’s Canadian Amateur in Quebec.

Taylor, 21, and Hill, 20, are the headliners on the men’s national team, which is fortunate to have Winnipeg’s Derek Ingram as one of its assistant coaches.

Ingram, a positive sort to start with, talks eagerly about the pair’s future and Canada’s golf future in general.

“I don’t think Canada has ever been in this position before, basically having the top two amateur players in the world and really are playing well,” Ingram said earlier this week from just outside Montreal. “Both are incredible talents, and really primed to have an impact in professional golf. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say that, that we have guys ready to have an impact in a year or two.”

Both Taylor, at the University of Washington, and Hill, at North Carolina State, return to school this fall.

That development, and also under Canada’s elite program, must be allowed to take its course, Ingram said.

“We just have to realize that it took Australia 25 years to become Australia,” Ingram said, noting the development that led to a stream of elite Aussie players on the biggest stages of today’s game. Australia has 11 players in the top 100 of the World Golf Rankings, while Canada has just two.

“We’re really only into this eight or nine years,” Ingram continued. “It took them 10-20 years at least for that to start to happen there. I have no doubt Nick and Matt will have excellent success on the big stage and we have others coming down pipeline, too.”

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/golf-bracing-for-canadian-invasion-53115997.html

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Buy a BlackBerry, send a Canadian amateur golfer to the Masters.

OK, it’s not that simple, but there may eventually be a connection.

Using funding from the Kavelman-Fonn Foundation started by Dennis Kavelman, chief operating officer of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion and his wife, Karen, the Royal Canadian Golf Association wants to enhance the experience of players in its national amateur championships.

Something like improved signage probably won’t mean much to the golfers, but they will care about buffet breakfasts and lunches and players’ lounges, plus there will be live online updates from 80 BlackBerries used by scorers with all groups in the college/university, men’s, women’s, junior, senior and mid-amateur tournaments.

Another significant change takes effect next year, when the RCGA will expand its men’s junior, mid-amateur and amateur championships to 240 players from 156. To do that, it will add a second course for the first two rounds, with the designated host club also holding the final two rounds after the field is cut.

Brent McLaughlin, the RCGA’s director of amateur competitions, says the association will also use Kavelman-Fonn funding to recruit Top 100 players from other countries for the Canadian Amateur, taking advantage of amateur-status rule changes that now allow tournament committees to cover travel expenses.

The thinking is that, with more such players participating, the Amateur’s strength-of-field rating will be higher, making more world ranking points available, which will in turn induce more of the world’s best to include Canada on their competition schedules.

That, it follows, might bolster Canada’s argument that its national amateur champion deserves an invitation to the Masters or the British and U.S. Amateurs, which was once the case. The winner of next week’s Canadian Amateur at Blainville, Que., can already count on being in the 2010 Canadian Open at St. George’s in Toronto.

“This should be a must stop for top amateurs,” McLaughlin says.

According to McLaughlin and RCGA executive director Scott Simmons, the ball started rolling after Dennis Kavelman, an avid low-handicapper who has played in several elite competitions, asked officials with the association what it would take to make the Canadian Amateur to make it feel more like the Canadian Open.

That discussion led, eventually, to the infrastructure changes made to all of the 2009 championships and to the two-course strategy for the Amateur, mid-amateur and junior boys competitions starting in 2010.

Why those three? Numbers, McLaughlin says. The college/university, women’s, junior girls and senior championships don’t yet have enough demand to justify expanding the fields, but the Amateur, mid-amateur and juniors do.

A quota system grants entries to each provincial golf association based on a five-year sliding scale of performance: Your players do well, your province gets more spots in future championships.

However, provinces such as British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Alberta often must relinquish spots their golfers would otherwise have because there just isn’t room.

For the Amateur, 125-135 spots are reserved for provincial delegations under the current quotas. Five spots are held for the best players in a one-day qualifying round, plus 15-20 for individuals who receive exemptions from qualifying, such as the U.S. amateur champion and the top 15 from the previous year’s Canadian Amateur.

That’s it, basically. Getting 14 golfers from Australia, New Zealand and Japan — in Laval-sur-le-Lac, Que., for this week’s Four Nations Cup — into the Canadian Amateur just down the road in Blainville took some doing.

McLaughlin says the 156-man field “handicaps us because, in any given year, we only have about 10 spots that we can offer to international players.”

Next year’s Canadian Amateur will have 240 players at the host London Hunt and Country Club, with Redtail Golf Course in Port Stanley, Ont., acting as the second site for the opening rounds.

The 2011 Amateur is slated for the Niakwa club in Winnipeg, with two of the next five in the National Capital Region: Camelot in 2012 and Royal Ottawa in 2016. In none of those cases has a second course for the early rounds been selected.

McLaughlin plans to meet with representatives of future host clubs, and he’ll consult with the United States Golf Association on its two-course tournament operations.

“I don’t think any clubs are going to want out,” he says via telephone from Carmel, Indiana, where he was on the rules committee for the U.S. Senior Open. “We just need to make sure they are OK with the process. Next year (in London) will be a great trial for us.

“Again, there will be logistical challenges, but we think those are all good problems to have if we get the players.”

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Column+Improving+ranks+Canada+amateurs/1855347/story.html

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• Player Profile: Padraig Harrington Born on the 31st of August in 1971, Padraig Harrington is the youngest of five children, and part of a large family. During his early education and career days, Harrington divided his time between amateur golfing and a career in accounting. In fact, he has passed every single exam that......
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In the last 100 years  golf has changed enormously .   The most noticeable difference is in the area of golf and golfing equipment. The game of golf and golfing may be inherently the same but the golfing tools and implements used to get along the course and down the golfing fairways have gotten better and better more sophisticated and clear technology to in the end get the golfer to the 18th ( or 9′th ) holes down the golfing fairways with less and fewer golf strokes.

The names inherent in older golfing regimes may be romantic and quaint compared to our mass marketed blander golfing tools  Words inherent in golfer’s tongues such as  Nibclick , brassie , spoon , driving -iron , mashie and mashie- niblick abound.  These may be more colorful  terms than the now standard golfing terms of – 9-iron , 3-wood , 1 iron and 5- wood  but in the end if the life of a golfer is easier with less strokes down the fairways of life then that is all that matters in the life , times and troubles of most golfers.

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Fairfax County will host the 2015 World Police and Fire games, a competition that will have a $35 million economic impact on the county.

The World Police and Fire Games board selected Fairfax County over the other two finalists — Toronto and Winnipeg — for the international sporting event that will bring more than 10,000 competitors to the area.

The bi-annual event will last about 10 days and hold its opening ceremonies at Nationals Park.

Many of its other 60 events including golf, squash, angling and karate will take place at Fairfax County venues such a George Mason University, Reston Town Center, Quantico Marine Base and the National Rifle Association headquarters.

The 2015 games are tentatively set to run from June 26 to July 5.

The event was founded in 1985 by the California Police Athletic Federation; this year’s games started July 31 in British Columbia. The 2011 games will be held in New York City and the 2013 events will take place in Belfast, Ireland.

http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/othercities/washington/stories/2009/08/03/daily10.html

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Kandahar Open delights troops

One Canadian Open had rain problems Thursday and golfers stayed in the clubhouse — the other had 50C heat and the golfers hooted and hollered with delight.

“It’s hilarious,” said Winnipeg’s Bill Pigden, organizer of the other Canadian Open, and one of many people each chugging 30 bottles of water daily this week while building the golf course.

Oh — did we mention that Pigden’s golf tournament is in Kandahar?

It’s the first Kandahar Canadian Open, laughed Pigden, and it’s duplicating on a much smaller scale Ontario’s prestigious Glen Abbey golf course within a soccer-field-sized patch of rock-hard Afghan desert on the base in Kandahar.

A retired major, Pigden now works as one of 77 civilians in the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency in Kandahar, overseeing recreational programs to boost morale.

“I saw it was the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Open — I thought, what a great opportunity to do something here.”

The Royal Canadian Golf Association co-operated with technical information about the Glen Abbey layout, he said.

“I had one problem, no water — desert,” chuckled Pigden.

Not just desert, but hard-as-concrete desert, he said.

Braving plus-50 temperatures during the day, his crews removed rocks from the course, put down sand, rolled it, put in some rises and depressions, laid down carpeting, and used some really serious power tools to drill holes in the desert.

“We’ve got some indoor-outdoor carpeting from Rona. We’ve got some putters,” said Pigden.

The course is near Tim Hortons and the volleyball courts.

Pigden charges $5 for a round of golf, with all proceeds going to Soldier On, an organization helping wounded veterans. The golfers played under lights Thursday when it’s a tad cooler in the evening, with lots of enthusiastic spectators.

“There were about 100 went through today. We’re expecting a lot more through Friday and Saturday,” Pigden said. “Tonight we had Dutch, French, Americans, Canadians, some Brits. There’s a lot of hooting and hollering. A lot of people are signing up.”

Pigden took on the course himself, shooting an 82. He emphasized that while it’s a small course and golfers only use putters, it’s not mini-golf with windmills and other gimmicks, it’s a to-scale version of the Glen Abbey course with changing elevation and angles.

“I actually had a double-eagle one hole, the next hole I four-putted,” he said.

Pigden said that as many golfers as possible will play the course, and on Sunday the top 36 will go for the championship. “We’re trying to finish at the same time” as that other Canadian Open, Pigden said.

At least, the hardy golfers will finish on time in Kandahar. Those others at Glen Abbey….we’ll find out Sunday if they’ve been deterred by rain.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/golf-course-blossoms-in-desert-51561892.html

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Imagine playing a round of golf in searing heat, carrying an automatic weapon in your bag, and keeping a wary eye out for a hazard all duffers dread — an enemy rocket attack.

Well, that’s what it was like for several dozen golfers who teed it up at this year’s Canadian Open — the one held on the blistering desert at the coalition base in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

“It was terrific!” Jill Peck, a civilian fitness, sports and recreation co-ordinator for Canadian Forces personnel in Kandahar said in a telephone interview from the base.

“The best part was to look around and realize where we were with the sound of helicopters in the background and the roar of fighter jets — there’s a war going on and we were there playing golf.

“They had to wear their weapons while playing, so some players had guns on their hips.”

The Kandahar Canadian Open was the brainchild of Winnipegger Bill Pigden, Peck’s boss and one of 77 civilians overseeing recreational programs to boost morale for Canadian troops.

Pigden hatched the offbeat idea to build a scaled-down duplicate of Ontario’s famous Glen Abbey golf course on a soccer-field-sized patch of hard-as-concrete desert at the base.

While some of the world’s best golfers were teeing it up in the rain at the real Open at Glen Abbey, dozens of soldiers and civilian workers were taking their best swings on a smaller, to-scale version of the course carved out of the desert.

When the dust finally settled on Sunday, the winner in Kandahar was — the man who came up with the idea in the first place, Winnipeg’s Bill Pigden.

Pigden is away on holidays and couldn’t be reached to brag, but in an email to the Free Press earlier this week he joked: “Yes, I know, it doesn’t look good when you win your own tournament, but if it means anything I had to sink a birdie on the championship hole to win!”

Peck, co-organizer of the tourney, noted her boss finished in a tie with an American golfer after shooting a 65, but eked out a victory on the first playoff hole.

“Bill’s an excellent putter,” Peck said, noting players were only allowed to use putters on the course, created by removing rocks, trucking in soft sand, shaping the dunes and covering each hole with indoor/outdoor carpeting.

“It’s very typically Canadian,” she said, laughing, “Just yesterday I was thinking how lucky we were that there wasn’t a rocket attack.”

She said the course — already dismantled to make way for other recreation activities — was an engineering marvel, with changing elevations and angles. It wasn’t some gimmicky miniature golf course, she said.

“Who’d think you’d need to bring sand into the desert,” Peck said, “We needed four big loads of soft sand to put under the green outdoor/indoor carpet we cut in the shape of each hole. The only things we didn’t have are trees and water.”

Pigden’s prize for being the first-ever champion? He got a trophy, and a Tim Hortons cap. “It sounds funny but it’s the coveted Kandahar Tim Hortons cap,” Peck said with a chuckle.

Getting a chance to whack golf balls in the scorching heat gave everyone at the base a chance to escape the grim realities of war, she said. The entry fees raised about $2,000 for Soldier On, a charity that helps wounded Canadian soldiers.

“I’m sure they’ll do it again because it was so successful,” Peck said when asked if the Kandahar Open was a one-time-only event. “We’ve got the carpets rolled up and numbered, so they can play on them again next year.”

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/breakingnews/K-52012277.html

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Winning golf tournaments is tough enough.

Authoring history — now that takes some talent.

Meet Garth Collings, history-maker in claiming a third Manitoba Amateur title Thursday at Elmhurst Golf and Country Club.

Not only is the 51-year-old Breezy Bend member believed to be the province’s oldest-ever amateur champion, he joins an elite group of players with at least three (1987, 1994, 2009) on his resume.

The feat is all the more remarkable if you examine the trophy, first presented by theManitoba Free Press, and championship records since 1922.

Collings has 22 years between his first and newest victory — 16 was the previous record by Ted Homenuik — and it’s been 15 years between wins, bettering the previous longest span of 13 years by Terry Hashimoto.

“It’s been a slow 15 years,” an emotional Collings said after shooting three-over 74 to finish at four-over 290 on Thursday, good enough to squeeze past four young rivals. “I thought last year might have been my year but lost to Brad (Kirton), who played phenomenal.

“And after Pinawa (three-putting the 72nd hole and losing by one to Jordan Krantz in 2004), that was hard. But anything can happen in golf and you saw it today.”

On a windy day on Elmhurst’s difficult greens, Collings had one important edge — starting the day in fourth spot and three shots back, he didn’t have to play in the final group, which caught the contagion of nerves early.

By the turn on Thursday, Pine Ridge’s Scott Loewen, the leader through the first three days, had given away all his lead and closest chasers Scott Markham of Niakwa and Tyler Mancini of Pine Ridge were also over par.

That allowed Collings, who turned in one-over 36, and Selkirk’s Scott Borsa, who turned even, back into the game and all five of those players either shared or had the lead at one stage or another on the back nine.

Borsa — who wound up second by a shot after a superb 69 — gained a brief share with a birdie at No. 16, but Collings pulled ahead for good by chipping in from the fringe for a birdie at the par-3 17th.

When the final trio came to the 72nd hole, it was Markham who needed the birdie to force Collings to a playoff. He bogeyed and tied for third with Loewen, two shots behind.

After he lost last year’s title to Kirton in an epic, five-hole playoff, Collings admitted he’s often wondered how many more chances he’d get.

“All the time,” he said.

His short game, again, allayed those fears on Thursday.

He had two chip-ins and numerous par saves that helped him win the title with the fewest birdies — just nine — of any of the top six players this week.

“I didn’t think 74 would be enough to win,” he said. “But it’s a tough golf course. One guy under par over two days (Borsa), that’s pretty good.”

Collings, inducted into the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame last fall, said he’s had all kinds of thoughts about golfers and their ages after Tom Watson’s near-miss at the British Open last week.

“It was a great story; I’m kind of glad I made my story work out.”

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/golf/collings-oldest-ever-champ-51562062.html

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GREAT Scott, it’s turning into a fine battle at the 2009 Manitoba Amateur Golf Championship.

Scott Markham of Niakwa fired a 4-under 68 on Tuesday at Pinawa Golf Club to vault himself from fourth to second, just three strokes behind Scott Loewen of Pine Ridge, who remained the leader after the second day of the four-day tournament.

Loewen shot a 70 and leads with a 7-under total of 137.

The event moves to Elmhurst Golf Club for action today and Thursday.

“It was a good day, I played well and ended up shooting four-under 68 and I was quite happy with that considering the fact that we had some rain on the back nine. It was a pretty big downpour so it was nice to keep the game together through that,” said Markham, 23, in a telephone interview. He has played in this event since he was 14, with his best finish a second-place tie in 2005.

“I made a few birdies today but more than anything it was the continual par saves that sort of kept the round going and kept the momentum going for me.

“That was kind of the objective for the first couple rounds — to not shoot myself out of it, play two solid rounds at Pinawa, a tough, tight golf course and be able to go out to Elmhurst for the last couple days knowing that with a couple more good rounds… maybe have a shot at winning the tournament.”

Markham’s 68 was one of just two such scores on the day. The other belonged to former champion Garth Collings, who sat in a third-place tie with Pine Ridge’s Tyler Mancini (72) and Selkirk’s Ben Bandura (72) at 1-under 143 through 36 holes.

Markham said he ended up playing some of his best golf of the day when the weather was at its worst.

“On the fourth hole, which would have been the 15th hole for me, I hit it a bit right off the tee, it was sort of in the thick rough. I chipped it to five feet and made the putt. When I hit that tee shot, it was pouring rain and I managed to make par there and birdie the next hole,” he said.

Markham said he had one major plus in his corner — his father David as his caddy.

“It’s great to have my dad on the bag for me,” he said, noting his father had battled cancer recently. “Something like that really makes you want to enjoy the time together as much as you can.”

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/golf/manitoba-amateur-great-scott-its-a-fine-battle-we-have-here-51385902.html

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WHO’S hot heading into this week’s Manitoba Amateur championship?

No former champions.

Only two are entered, two-time winner Garth Collings, who’s last year’s runner-up, but he played erratically and missed the cut at the Players Cup last week.

Jamie Wilkie is also in the field, but he’s struggled to find a better game since winning in 1997.

The higher-profile news is who’s not entered.

Two-time defending champ Brad Kirton of Pine Ridge has decided to turn pro and will instead caddy for his friend and clubmate, 2009 match play champ Tyler Mancini.

“I’m going to keep up and shut up,” Kirton said.

Kirton said he decided last summer not to play the Manitoba Amateur again, but had to remain an amateur to take advantage of his exemption to last week’s Players Cup, where he shot 73-77.

“And as I found out this week, it’s a lot more competitive, and by playing (Canadian Tour) Q-school (earlier this year),” Kirton said. “It’s a new kind of monster.”

Kirton said he plans to get busy with pro competition next month.

“I’m moving on to the Dakotas Tour, learning how to play week to week, just a smaller scale of the Canadian Tour, leading up to that Q-school (in the fall),” he said.

And also taking pass on the 2009 Manitoba Amateur is former champion and restored amateur Todd Fanning, like Collings already a member of Manitoba’s Golf Hall of Fame.

Fanning finished tied for third last year at Links at the Lake with Peter More, who’s in the field.

When the players hit the course for today’s opening round at Pinawa — action is also there on Tuesday before moving to Elmhurst for the final 36 holes Wednesday and Thursday — one player with some momentum will be Pine Ridge’s Scott Loewen.

Loewen Monday qualified for the Players Cup last week and played decently, missing the cut by just one shot after firing a one-under 70 on a difficult opening day.

“I’m looking forward to it as always,” Loewen said during the Players Cup.

But looking at rivals and missing past champs, Loewen wondered which direction Manitoba’s amateur championship is headed.

“I don’t want to sound negative saying this but it almost seems like the competition depth is decreasing,” he mused.

“I definitely don’t want to make is sound like there aren’t a lot of good competitive players in the province but when you go back to competition and the intensity, if you have 20 or 30 guys who can potentially win or make the team, it becomes a horse race.”

Pinawa’s going to make the players keep strict track of their golf ball this week.

“If it’s windy, watch out, and you’ll see the field be defined more than ever,” Loewen said.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/golf/are-fields-becoming-weaker-in-amateur-51207717.html

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Women’s junior golf champ got some help

And on the final day the skies finally cleared, but this time it was raining controversy at the Manitoba Men’s and Women’s Junior Golf Championships at Rossmere Golf and Country Club.

Actually, the controversy only rained on the junior women’s event, which was decided by an official’s ruling. The junior men’s title was a much more straightforward affair, as final-round leader Ryan Pitzel fired four birdies on the final 18 to shoot 72 on his home course and win the 2009 title by three strokes over Southwood’s Bryce Barr.

The 2009 Manitoba Junior Women’s title, on the other hand, was decided on a rules violation when co-leader Jessie Choi was asessed a two-stroke penalty as she walked off the 18th green.

Penalty

The penalty — for failing to replace her ball in its original position when it was struck by an opponent’s ball earlier in the round — broke a tie between Choi and Selkirk’s Lindsay Stewart and handed Stewart her first provincial golf championship.

“It means so much. I’m at a loss for words right now,” said Stewart, 18, who just graduated from high school and will play on the University of Manitoba golf team next year.

“So many years of golfing and it finally paid off. It’s my last year and I finally won.”

Choi’s parents live in Manitoba but she attends high school in Houston so she can golf year-round. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Choi, who also finished second at last year’s provincial juniors.

She had a commanding six-stroke lead on Stewart coming into the final round but recorded double bogeys at the seventh, 12th and 16th holes, not to mention the quintuple bogey on 10, which was already a triple even before the penalty was assessed.

Choi’s ball was lying on the 10th green when Stewart’s approach struck it. Because the strike caused her ball to roll further from the hole, Choi said she figured it was OK to just play it from there instead of trying to figure out where it originally was.

But that’s contrary to the rule, which states that the ball that was struck must be moved back to its original position while the ball that did the striking is played where it finally comes to rest, said Lisa Andersen, director of competitions for Golf Manitoba.

Andersen said Choi sought a ruling, but only after playing out the hole. “And it’s too late then,” said Andersen.

Choi was incredulous. “Her ball hit my ball and my ball went further from the hole. And I get a penalty?” asked Choi.

“She should get the penalty.”

Choi was not informed she’d been assessed the penalty until after the completion of the round, which saw her tie Stewart when she made par on the 18th while Stewart bogeyed, meaning both women finished with three-round totals of 250 — before the penalty was imposed.

Stewart empathized with Choi, but only so far. “Rules are a huge part of golf,” she said. “If she’d known that rule, we’d still be tied.”

Like Stewart, Pitzel will also play on the University of Manitoba golf team next year.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/golf/ruling-hands-title-to-stewart-51091112.html

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