Most young teenagers won't be playing for the high stakes that a large contingent of TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club golfers will be this week.
Tuesday through Thursday, the best young golfers in Western Canada will be in the field at the Golf Canada Acura FutureLinks Prairie Championship.
“It's on the national tour, and helps with their national rankings,” said Amanda Minchin, golf pro at Woodlawn. “There's also some spots available for Canadian junior championships. Winners, in girls and boys, can qualify for Canadians, which is next week.”
There are a lot of good young golfers at Woodlawn this week.
“Obviously they're highly competitive and they're just looking to get more points on national rankings and provincially,” Minchin said.
Minchin has been working with the contingent of locals on a Woodlawn high performance team that trains together and has had success in tournaments this year already.
“We're proud of them, not just as golfers but as human beings because they're pretty good kids,” she said. “We've been training a little bit and they've been working hard on their game. A few of them have been playing a lot of tournaments and for a couple of them, it's their first major tournament. There's lots of learning going on, lots of good experience and obviously a few of them we'll be lookign to finish pretty high on the scoreboard.”
One of the youngest participants is Ryan Chernoff, a 12-year-old who is just coming off winning third place in the peewee boys division at the junior Order of Merit tournament in Swift Current July 1-2. He had rounds of 88 and 92 to claim third place there.
“I'm pretty excited,” said Chernoff before Monday's practice round. “I think it's going to be a good experience.”
Chernoff ranks third in Order of Merit peewee boys standings, and Drew Fenwick ranks second in bantam boys.
This week's tournament got underway at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday with Estevan's Jace Carlisle teeing off with a Manitoba and Saskatoon golfer.
An added benefit for the local kids is the knowledge that they've been golfing at Woodlawn since they were young children.
“It's different playing at home than playing away,” Minchin said. “Some people thrive on it, others don't but the kids are ready and they're going to have a good time.”
