Bad weather didn't damper the mood at the Saskatchewan Amateur Men's Golf Championship held at Deer Park Golf Course as local golfers and the rest of the field put on an impressive showing while attempting to qualify for the national tournament.
Tyler Frank of Saskatoon won the tournament with a final tournament score of -9 edging out Cadmus Delorme and Jesse Gibson who scored eight under par in a tie for second place in what were impressively low scores for a tournament that saw opening rounds with ugly weather for tournament golfing or any golf for that matter.
Yorkton's Matthew Procyshen finished fifth, earning himself a trip to the Canadian Men's Amateur Golf Championship in Cumberland, Ontario on August fifth. Procyshen shot scores of 71, 72, 67, and 73 to shoot five under par for the tournament and send him to the national tournament. Procyshen was very pleased with his performance and said "opportunities like this don't come around often."
Procyshen now has the chance to make his mark on the national stage, but he says he plans on taking it all in and embracing the journey. He also made it clear that "Obviously I want to do well and give it a go, but I plan on enjoying the moment and an opportunity like this doesn't just come around often." Procyshen wanted to thank the community of Yorkton for supporting him during his golfing career throughout the years.
Local youth golfer Kade Johnson was the youngest player in the tournament, missing the cut but putting together and impressive showing for a young golfer in a competitive event. Local notables include Nathan Hay, Tk Ayers, Brent Brown, and Derek Stykalo who all made the cut. Stykalo just barely missed cracking the tournament's top fifteen shooting a +6 sitting himself two strokes away from thirteenth place. Hosting the tournament gave Deer Park and local golfers a chance to enter a provincial championship level event without having to deal with the travel costs of doing so, giving local golfers a great opportunity at testing the waters of the amateur level in the province and seeing if they can compete and improve to the next step. Matthew Procyshen's performance shows that Yorkton golfers can compete with golfers that have more access to different courses and resources with five golfers making the cut and one qualifying to nationals, giving the city a very impressive result on the provincial stage.
Beyond the results of the tournament was an excellently run tournament by Yorkton's Municipal Deer Park Course as the Golf Saskatchewan team, Deer Park Golf Course, and a team of volunteers all contributed to what was an excellently ran event that overcame some weather obstacles and setbacks to turn into a successful event.
Allan Sauser, one of Deer Park's organizers noted that Golf Saskatchewan was "Extremely happy with course conditions and the work of the grounds crew and the volunteers as well as how the event was organized and handled," while alluding to the "sketchy weather" that plagued the tournament's opening rounds. Deer Park has a tradition of hosting Amateur Championships at all levels and used their experience to continue to impress as hosts.
Sauser mentioned that the eight local golfers did extremely well noting that these types of tournaments are very competitive and feature talented golfers.
Sauser wanted to thank Golf Saskatchewan as well as Cliff Tremblay and the rest of the volunteers for helping run a successful tournament.
Deer Park Golf Course now looks to break into their club tournament schedule starting with the Men's Open this week.
