Saskatoon’s Josh Nagy has several golf championships on his resume, but the talented teenager was forced to decide on his future this summer.
A star forward with the Saskatoon Blazers AAA midget hockey team and 2018 Saskatchewan junior men’s golf championship created plenty of options for Nagy. He ultimately chose the golf avenue to further his post-secondary career.
“After our season ended the coach emailed me and said there’s a spot if I want it,” Nagy said of his commitment to Robert Morris University. “I had talked to him in the winter a little bit. I was focused on hockey, but the coach emailed me and said there’s a spot if I want it,’ Nagy said.
Nagy was considering signing with the Bonnyville Pontiacs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League and chasing hockey to further his education, but he decided to get on with his business education immediately out of high school in the Bridge City.
“It was definitely hard to decide between hockey and golf, it took a while to decide. I had the opportunity to sign with a couple junior “A” teams but ultimately chose here on what they had to offer. To come here right after school instead of taking two or three years off before coming to college, I want to get school done with,” Nagy explained.
On the course this past summer, Nagy was as stellar as ever, he won the Future Links Prairie Championship in Yorkton early in the season punching his ticket to the Canadian Junior Boy’s Championship. That allowed him to bypass the Saskatchewan junior provincials and compete in the IMG Junior Academy World Championship at Torrey Pines in San Diego. He said the experience was one he will never forget.
“It was amazing,” he said. “To get the exposure, I got there for the first round and I look around I see New Mexico State, Arizona State University, and Oregon scouts on the putting green, so it was nice to play good the first two rounds. I was even after two rounds, didn’t play my best in the third round and I missed the cut by one. I think the cut was top-50 out of 200 so to be up there was pretty nice.”
The Robert Morrison team, that is an NCAA Div. I program is preparing for their first event of the season on Sept. 16 and 17. Unfortunately Nagy won’t be in the field. He admitted being a top dog in a Canadian province doesn’t lead to a cake walk at college.
“We did five rounds of qualifying and unfortunately I missed going to the tournament by a couple shots. I’m putting in a lot of work right now to qualify for the next one. I have a day off now so I’m going to go to the course and hit some balls and play a bit and try to continue to get better and qualify for the next one,” he said.