Brewster claims age group title at home golf provincials

Ty Brewster made the most of the provincial junior golf championships being held at his home course of Quarry Oaks July 7-9.

Brewster won the 15/16-year-old age division carding a plus-four score over three rounds, highlighted by a three-under outing during round two. He challenged for the overall championship as well, finishing six strokes behind eventual winner Spence Mott in second place.

“I felt I played good,” Brewster said a few days after the event.

“I think I left multiple strokes out on the course but with the amount of training I’ve put in, that on days that I’m not playing as good as I like my training helps me still put up a good number.”

Brewster will be playing in New Brunswick later this year to compete in the Canadian Junior Championships.

“I think just continuing to get better not just swinging the club but mentally as well,” he said when asked what his improvement goals are.

“Golf can be very challenging mentally when you are playing four to five hour rounds so to be able to stay strong, not just physically, is a big goal of mine.”

It was a chaotic final round, as Mott saw a one-stroke lead turn into a three stroke deficit, before eventually cruising to victory as other players dropped out. A strong bounce-back was needed after he triple-bogeyed the second hole of the final round.

“I felt more relaxed after I made a big number and just told myself to do what I’ve been doing the whole week. I’ve been playing good, so I just told myself to ‘Relax,’” Mott said in an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press following the event.

“Course management out here was a big thing. And definitely for me, attitude has been a big problem before — get one big score on the card, and the whole round goes downhill from there. We’ve been working on bringing it back instead of letting it go downhill even more.”

The 18-year-old from Shilo finished two-under for the tournament.

On the women’s side, Winnipeg’s Addison Kartusch ended her historic junior career in style, completing a triple-crown season for the second consecutive year, winning the junior, match play and amateur provincial championships.

the Bowling State University player needed a comeback on the final day, starting seven strokes behind. She responded with a bogey-free 68 to win by five strokes.

“It feels good. I know I can play good tournament golf, so it was nice to be able to do that this summer again,” Kartusch said.

“Obviously, I hit it well, but growing up in the prairies, you play with a lot of wind, practice with a lot of wind. And down at Bowling Green, our home course, you always have a lot of wind, so it’s something that I found a tad easier to adjust to over time, and I know that I can play good golf in bad weather.”

Quarry Oaks member Maisy Shewchuk turned heads during the girls event, finishing fifth in the overall event despite only being 12-years-old.

La Broquerie Golf Club members Zach Romaniuk and Markis Normandeau also carded rounds at the boys tournament, finishing 23rd and 38th respectively.

Golf Manitoba thanked Quarry for hosting the event, shouting out course professional Darren Hayden, superintendent Kyle Duncan and food an beverage manager Angela Pittman for their efforts over the tournament.

The provincial men’s amateur championship is taking place this week, finishing after press time July 16.

With files from Joshua Frey-Sam