The second Saskatchewan Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour (MJT) event was held at the Elmwood Golf and Country Club this Victoria Day long weekend.

57 golfers participated in the 36-hole tournament across seven different age divisions.

The busiest category was the juvenile boy’s division, 23 golfers from across the province challenged in the 15 and 16 year-old group. Estevan’s Jayden Dudas picked up the victory shooting 149 (77. 72). He edged Regina’s Will Blake by a stroke, Blake carded rounds of 76 and 74. Will Danielson of Saskatoon rounded out the top-three, seven shots behind Dudas.

Josh Nagy has his second junior (17 and 18 years old) boy’s division win on the season. The Saskatoon golfer posted rounds of 70 and 80, outlasting newly college committed Estevan product Jace Carlisle by five shots. Carlisle, who announced on Twitter this week that he will attend Lake Superior State University and play Div. II golf, shot 76 during round one and 79 on Monday. Kindersley’s Kyler Cote placed third with a 161 (85, 76).

The bantam (13 and 14 years old) boy’s division had 11 competitors, Saskatoon’s Max Regier fired a 151 (80, 71) to win by two shots over fellow Saskatoon player Alex Swinnerton (78, 75). Thomas Danielson, also of the Bridge City came in third place with rounds of 78 and 79.

In the under-12 boy’s category, labelled peewee, Dane Giesbrecht of Warman was the champion. He shot back-to-back rounds of 81 to card a 162. He edged Lethbridge’s Kerrick Norrie Asquith by one shot. Estevan’s Jayden Chernoff was third with a 179 (88, 91). Six golfers participated in that age group.

Keighton McNab was the lone collegiate age group competitor, the Saskatoon product stroked a 155 (81, 74).

On the girl’s side, Carey McLean of Deer Valley won the 15-18 age division. She posted identical rounds of 85. Regina’s Autumn Neiszner and Sarah Grieve of Saskatoon were both ten shots back at 180. Neiszner had rounds of 91 and 89, Grieve carded an 88 on day one and 92 in the second round.

Ella Kozak of Yorkton was the only girl competing in the under-15 age group, she finished with rounds of 81 and 80 for 161.

The full results can be found here.

The points collected by the golfers in the event will be tallied towards Western Canada Summer Games (WCSG) standings for eligible players. The next Saskatchewan MJT event is back in Swift Current at the Chinook Golf Course, the host site of the WCSG.

Golf is a beautiful game played on prestigious landscapes looked after by hardworking men and women across the globe, so what can we do as players to make groundskeepers’ jobs a little more pleasant?

A recent tweet from Dakota Dunes Golf Links’ Superintendent Tyler McComas showing a pair of carts parked on the grass next to a tee box at his course had the province’s golf community talking, and not in a positive manner. Golf Saskatchewan decided to seek answers regarding course etiquette. The Legends Golf Club in Warman Superintendent Matt Choquette said when it comes to your cart, common sense says use the paths.

“Definitely stay on the cart path as much as possible, cart traffic is a lot more damaging than people think,” Choquette said. “It causes a lot of compaction on the turf, so that comes with a lot of its own issues. It dries out the grass, causes weeds to grow, it makes growing grass a lot more difficult so more of the undesirable stuff creeps in.”

When asked about the picture on Twitter and giving the players the benefit of the doubt that they were allowing either the beverage cart or maintenance staff the right of way, Choquette said it’s better to let their equipment travel around you. Many courses also have the 90-degree rule in effect on several holes or all of them. Choquette said for the most part people use the rules when not pushed to.

“I think a lot of people use the 90-degree everyday, they will drive to their ball or their buddy’s ball and then get back to the path. It’s the guys that get off the path as soon as possible and drive all the way up to the green when they don’t have to. That’s the frustrating part,” he said.

Replacing divots is also an important part of keeping a course in top notch condition. Most courses will have sand buckets to fill divots on short hole tee boxes and provide sand buckets or shakers on their carts or push carts. Choquette said if you do take out a big chunk of sod on a fairway during your approach take the time to put it back.

“If it’s a good divot and it’s still fully intact I’d prefer that to go back, step it down and it usually regrows quite easily, but when it comes out in three, four, or 100 pieces, definitely use the sand because that’s not going to regrow. If it’s one nice big divot, replace it and carry on,” he said.

By far the most irritating habit Choquette and his staff see is ball marks not repaired on greens. He said his crew repairs upwards of 200 after a busy day at The Legends. Not only does he encourage players taking the time to fix their marks but doing it properly.

“Don’t twist it or lift it, push the dirt in around it, go from the four sides and mend it back together” he explained. “If you lift it you are bringing bare dirt to the top, if you twist it you are ripping the roots, then tap it down with your putter. I’d say that’s my biggest issue, people not fixing ball marks.”

Raking bunkers is another tip Choquette provided for course care. He said there is no secret to raking properly, he said making the sand as flat as possible for the next group is the main focus. He also suggested that players making a shot from the bunker exact at flatter areas rather than stomping up a steep slope.

Safety also comes into play when you are practicing etiquette especially for staff. Crews are constantly working on the course to make it more enjoyable and they want to work with users to make everything flow smoothly. Morning golfers will experience maintenance traffic more often but Choquette said his staff have instructions to avoid any confusion.

“When my staff see someone they are supposed to get out of the way and wave them, so they know they are watching. That’s what we also expect from the golfers too, is to make sure that we are aware they are hitting so we can be paying attention and move. There are definitely people that don’t do that and kind of just go but most people are pretty good, they will wait for the staff to clear,” he said.

Most clubs have rules for the betterment of their particular course, Choquette said follow the rules, practice the provided tips and you and your course will be better for it.

For the first time since the early 2000’s, the Future Links, driven by Acura Prairie Championship is returning to Deer Park Golf Course in Yorkton.

The 54-hole event is scheduled for June 14 to 16. Golf Canada Rules and Competitions Coordinator Akash Patel said Future Links events are used to assist in the development of the nation’s top junior golfers.

“They are a great opportunity for the best junior golfers across Canada to showcase their talents,” Patel explained to Golf Saskatchewan. “There are exemptions on the line for players for the Canadian Junior Championships, so it’s a nice way for them to try and earn a spot in their national championship.”

There are six Future Links events across the country plus two more fall events that were added last year. This is the first time the tour will stop in the east-central Saskatchewan city since 2001. Deer Park also played host to the Canadian Junior Girl’s Championship four years ago. Patel said having a previous relationship with Deer Park made the course an easy choice to host again.

“They a good base, they’ve hosted events before, we’re familiar with the course. Allan Sauser and his staff the organizing committee have been great to work with so far. They did a great job in 2015 so I think it was a no-brainer for us to go back this year,” he said.

60 players are registered for the event already, that’s up from the 43 that participated last year in the tournament in Portage la Prairie, Man. The Prairie Championship alternates between Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The deadline to sign up is May 22 so the organizers are hoping for a late push, but the numbers are positive at this point.

“We’re excited that we’re at 60 and obviously hope to get more than that,” Patel said. “The deadline was May 15, but we extended it to May 22 so hopefully we will get a few more players. It’s important for us to have these championships with a lot of players in them so we’re certainly happy with where it’s at right now.”

The tournament is also one of the events used in the qualification process for the Western Canada Summer Games taking place in Swift Current.

As for the course itself, Sauser, the director of golf said the facility is in great shape after a long, cold winter.

“The greens are in fantastic shape. The rest always takes some warm weather before it fills in but we’re happy with it right now. We’re excited,” he said.

Sauser has been at Deer Park for upwards of 20 years and has been involved in hosting hundreds of club events and national championships in his career. He said he doesn’t stress about large events coming to the course and added the impact will spread beyond their facility.

“It’s good for Yorkton, it’s always nice to host a national event. You can showcase your golf course to different provinces but also there is a spin-off benefit to the hotels and restaurants, everything, when you have an event like this. It’s always good for Yorkton to host something like this,” Sauser said.

The top five finishers in both the junior girls and boys’ divisions will earn exemptions into the national championships. More registration details can be found here.

During a round, you are limited to no more than 14 clubs and generally must not replace damaged or lost clubs.

Click here to learn more about the Modernized Rules of golf.

There are many times when the Rules require a player to estimate or measure a spot, point, line, area or other location.

Click here to learn more on the Rules of golf.

If you accidentally move your ball while searching for it, there is no penalty.

Click here to learn more about the Rules of golf.

Team Saskatchewan’s golf teams for the Western Canada Summer Games (WCSG) will consist of five girls and five boys based on Order of Merit (OMT) points.

To be eligible to compete for a spot at the Games, players must be under 17 years old as of Aug. 1 this year, be a Saskatchewan resident, and be a member of Golf Canada. The golf portion of the games will be played at the Chinook Golf Club in Swift Current from Aug. 14 to 18.

Positions on the teams will be determined by OMT points, Golf Saskatchewan will take a players top four events plus the provincial junior championships taking place at the Evergreen Golf Course in Nipawin from July 9 to 11. The teams will be announced July 12. The top four players in the Juvenile age group (15-16) and the top player in the Bantam age group (13-14) will be asked to join Team Sask.

The first OMT event was held in Estevan May 4 and 5. The Elmwood Golf and Country Club is hosting the second Maple Leaf Junior Tour (MJT) in Saskatchewan this upcoming weekend. The deadline to register is Thursday (May 16). Registration details can be found here.

A pair of Future Links events in June will be used for points as will another two MJT tournaments near the end of June.

You can see the dates and registration information under the “compete” tab, then click on Junior OMT. The WCSG standings after the first qualifying event can be seen here. To view the Golf Saskatchewan OMT points structure click here.

Saskatchewan golfers drawn in by TaylorMade’s products are entranced by “Twist Face” technology for the 2019 season.

The new engineering involved for the company’s drivers is being pushed heavily with the help of golf’s top names. Saskatchewan TaylorMade sales manager Mike Langin describes the details of the new design.

“Every driver that we produce gets tested and every driver is injected with a different amount of resin that sits behind the club face to essentially optimize each driver,” Langin explained to Golf Saskatchewan. “It’s is close to the maximum coefficient of restitution (COR) that is still legal so in terms of quality control it narrows down the scope and so every driver we produce is a consistent COR across the board.”

The golf magnate is near, if not at the top of the leaderboard when it comes to PGA Tour professionals stocking their products. Tiger Woods is the biggest face the company has advertising wise, but Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, John Rahm, Jason Day, and Ricky Fowler also have TaylorMade in their bags.

Langin said Tiger claiming another green jacket with a win at the Masters helps their company but it also assists golf.

“Selfishly from a TaylorMade standpoint it’s great for us to have Tiger on our team and obviously playing well and winning again is huge,” he said. “Just for the entire game of golf, we’re getting that Tiger buzz again and people are getting more into golf and following it more.”

TaylorMade has launched new products for 2019 that will cover your entire bag. Langin said the TaylorMade research and development team worked with Woods when it came to their new line of irons. The company had some issues with “face slot problems” in recent years but TaylorMade is optimistic their new “Speed Bridge” line will give golfers what they need.

“It creates a little more stability in the head but also allows the face to be a little more flexible, so it actually flexes a little bit more and that gives it the trampoline effect,” Langin said. “With that we’re seeing a little bit more ball speed. That’s our theme this year, speed. This year with injections in the M5 and M6, everyone gets faster.”

The most underrated market for TaylorMade is when it comes to greens, but that is coming to a stop quicker than a six-running putt on the Stimpmeter. The “Spider” line of putters is scurrying among PGA Tour leaders. The Spider is ranked as the number one putter on tour for 78 weeks over the last two years. Langin said those numbers are catching the ears of potential customers.

“When you tell people our putters have been the number one model for almost every week for the last two years you put that into perspective,” Langin said.

The other main component of Taylormade’s market is golf balls which is growing immensely. Last year the company ranked fifth among ball sales, even behind Nike who had been out of the ball industry for over two years. The TPX and TP5X model balls have secured 25 percent of the Canadian market, well above their 10 percent value across the globe.  Langin said their golf balls produce the best results.

“Other manufacturers make good balls as well but, with the use of Trackman and Flightscope it shows numbers and it shows you pick up more speed with our ball,” Langin said.

“The numbers don’t lie,” he lamented.

Constantly dealing with quick delivery companies TaylorMade has also redeveloped their online ordering system to get orders into Saskatchewan golfer’s hands sooner. Potential customers can also visit myfittingexp.com for more information.

Most golfers think the clubs in their bag are the highest importance when it comes to carding low scores; that’s likely the case but having proper food and beverages available to keep you fueled for upwards of four to five hours is also crucial to a successful round.

Heather Hynes is a sports nutritionist based in Saskatoon and has several golfers on her client list. She said being prepared for a round starts with your meal preparation before you tee off.

“I think the biggest thing is really looking at what type of things you’re having before you head out to the course just to make sure you’re going to have enough sustained energy to play 18 holes,” she said. “Having a good-sized meal prior to playing that’s going to give your body a good amount of carbohydrate energy from fruits and veggies and grains and then having a good source of protein at the meal as well.”

Hynes said if you eat properly ahead of your round you should be covered until about the turn to the back nine. She suggested either purchasing a healthy snack or packing options such as protein or granola bars, fruit, and crackers to get you through the second half.

As for staying hydrated, she said weather plays a huge factor. On hot days it’s crucial to stay hydrated, she said cooler days still having access to liquids is important. She added making sure you are properly consuming beverages will make your round more enjoyable.

“People ask me questions of, well if I have a beer how much water do I need to drink to compensate for that? That’s not how the body works,”’ she explained. “If you are having a couple drinks just make sure you do have a lot of replacement of water just so you can maintain hydration. That’s just for the enjoyment of the game so you can still perform and still feel comfortable. Again, more stressed placed when the temperature is high.”

The tips provided by Hynes are for higher handicap players for the most part or players who play more for fun than competitively. She said for players that are serious about their game and work hard at it much more focus on health and nutrition is involved.

“If someone is looking to perform at an elite level you are looking at fine tuning everything you are doing and nutrition is a piece of the puzzle,” Hynes said. “They would be looking at how they eat day in, day out. They would be fine tuning what types of snacks work best for them when playing. What settles a nervous stomach, what’s going to result in sustained energy? Whether they are using a sport drink like a Gatorade or a Powerade due to the duration of a round, and again the temperature they are playing under.”

“You can get very specific and I would say our top athletes are working towards that,” she added.

Hynes said staying full and hydrated in golf is much different from other sports. Hockey and soccer athletes have a much higher heartrate and is much more intense. She said golfers can “graze” on snacks throughout the round and the release of the energy is slowed so your energy will be sustained over a longer time period.

She also said for early morning golfers, if you aren’t having a full breakfast before the round that you do eat a proper meal following the round to “recover” and not skip the meal because of their tee time.

Yorkton’s Ella Kozak has her second under-15 girl’s division win on the Maple Leaf Junior Tour (MJT) in two events.

After winning the division in Estevan last weekend the 13-year-old shot a 36-hole total of 166 (85, 81) in Portage la Prairie, Man. on May 11 and 12 during that province’s first event of the season. Kozak was 33 shots better than Swan River’s Crystal Zamzow who placed second. Jeri-Ann Lafleche of Winnipeg rounded out the top three. Kozak’s score was nine strokes behind the overall girl’s winner, Mikyla Albert of Selkirk, Man. Fired 157 (79, 78) to win the 15-18 age group.

Other Saskatchewan competitors in the event included Estevan’s Drew Fenwick, Zachary Hill of Redvers, and Chase Gedak, another Estevan golfer. Fenwick placed eighth in the juvenile (15-16 years-old) division carding an 80 and 84. Hill, was a stroke back in ninth at 165 (86, 79).

Gedak competed in the junior (17-18 years-old) category, he collected the silver medal after back to back rounds of 75. Jacob Armstrong was four shots ahead to claim the category.

Saskatchewan’s next MJT event is at Swift Current’s Elmwood Golf and Country Club on May 19 and 20.