Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
Prince Albert’s Wyatt Nelson capped off a week he soon won’t forget when he cruised to the Prince Albert Junior Golf Club’s Junior Northern championship on Sunday at Cooke Municipal Golf Course.
Nelson carded his second straight sub-par round in the 36-hole event when he finished with a two-under-par 69 on Sunday to outdistance Ronan McDougall, also of Prince Albert, by 12 shots. It was Nelson’s second straight win at the event and third in the last four years.
“It was nice to play at home in front of my buddies and family,” said the unassuming Nelson, who had opened the event with an even better score of 67 on Saturday. “I’ve been playing pretty good.”
That would be an understatement as earlier in the week Nelson finished fourth at the Saskatchewan Junior championships held at The Legends in Warman and will now represent the province at the Canadian Junior championships at the Wascana Country Club in Regina in mid-August.
“The course (Legends) was in really good shape and I ended up playing well,” said Nelson of his first-ever spot on a provincial team. “I’m going to go into it (Canadian championship) with little expectations.”
Nelson will be joined at the Canadian Junior event by clubmate Lincoln Rogers, who was one shot back of Nelson after the three days of competition in Warman. Nelson registered rounds of 70, 71 and 72 while Rogers was 73, 73 and 68. Both were well back of Ryan Mosher of Saskatoon, who won by nine strokes.
A large contingent from Prince Albert took part in the provincial championship with other local golfers including Kaleb Cournoyer, Ronan McDougall, Greyson de Padua, Hudson McDougall, Grady McDougall, Jive Schultz, Burton Addison, Adam Stepaniuk and Emmett McDougall.
Most of the local golfers who were in Warman also competed at the event in Prince Albert with de Padua coming in third behind Nelson and Ronan McDougall after he fired matching 75s on the weekend. Addison and Josh Bonthoux were another shot back in the Championship Flight with 151 totals and Cournoyer claimed sixth place after going 78-74 for a 152 total. The lone out-of-town golfer in the top group, James Lanoie of Moose Jaw, was seventh with a score of 157 and Jack Simonson rounded out the Championship Flight when he came in at 159.
There were a total of 28 golfers competing in the Junior Northern with Hudson McDougall topping the First Flight while Alex Dergousoff led the way in the Second Flight and Maximus Schmalz claimed first place in the Third Flight. All flight winners are local golfers.
The next big event for the junior golfers is the Coca-Cola Junior Lobstick in early August with the exceptions being Nelson and Rogers who will bypass that event to compete at the Canadian Juniors.
For Nelson, golf isn’t the only sport he excels at as this past season he appeared in 24 games between the pipes for the Prince Albert Mintos. Nelson posted a 4.57 goals-against average in his only campaign of Midget AAA hockey and having just graduated from high school a couple of weeks ago he plans to take his game to the next level when he tries to secure a spot with the Neepawa Titans of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in the fall.
Originally listed by the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Flin Flon Bombers, Nelson says the opportunity with Neepawa came up and he didn’t want to let it pass.
“I want to keep playing hockey,” he says. “Flin Flon didn’t work out and I never reached out to any schools (about golf scholarships).”
If he doesn’t stick with the Titans his plans are to return home and possibly play with the Junior B Timberjaks and begin his post-secondary education. For now it is golf that will occupy his time and the way he has been playing he certainly has a chance to make a name for himself.
