WATCH | Orr discusses winning the 2023 Female Amateur Golfer of the Year
Following Wednesday night’s Golf Manitoba Awards presented by AVID GOLF at Glendale Golf & Country Club, Rhonda Orr of Southwood Golf & Country Club met with the media to talk about this year’s honour.
Orr & Kuntz named Female & Male Amateur Golfers of the Year
On behalf of Selection Committee members Clayton Dreger, Jill Hardy, Adam Speirs and Ken Wiebe, Golf Manitoba is pleased to recognize the 2023 Amateur Golfer of the Year Award winners.
This year’s recipients were announced on October 25, 2023, at the annual Golf Manitoba Awards presented by AVID GOLF that was held at the Glendale Golf & Country Club.
Rhonda Orr of Southwood Golf & Country Club is the 2023 Female Amateur Golfer of the Year.
Orr, 62, from Winnipeg, won the Hodson Financial Women’s Senior Championship and Super Senior Championship. She finished third in the Diamond Athletic Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, fourth at the British Columbia Women’s Senior Championship, T7 at the Canadian Women’s Senior Championship and ninth at the Diamond Athletic Women’s Amateur Championship. The Southwood Golf & Country Club member also qualified for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.
Orr has won the last eight consecutive and 10 of the last 11 Hodson Financial Women’s Senior Championships. With the selection, it is the fifth time that Orr has been recognized as Female Amateur Golfer of the Year (2016, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023).
Braxton Kuntz of Breezy Bend Country Club is the 2023 Male Amateur Golfer of the Year.
Kuntz, 19, from Winnipeg, won the Manitoba Match Play Championship presented by St. Vital Dental Centre and the Nott Autocorp Men’s Amateur Championship. Representing Nicholls State University (NCAA) south of the border he placed fourth in the Gulf Coast Collegiate Championship, T6 at the Colin Montgomerie Invitational and T7 at the Tunica National Intercollegiate Championship. The Breezy Bend Country Club member was also T8 at the Elmhurst Invitational and T9 at the Glencoe Invitational.
Kuntz was the first player in Manitoba to win both the Manitoba Junior and Men’s Amateur Championship in back-to-back seasons (2021 and 2022). He is also just the third player to have won the Men’s Amateur Championship in three consecutive years (Todd Fanning 1990, 91, 92 and R.J Reith 1935, 36, 37).
With the selection, it is the third time in as many years that Kuntz has been named Male Amateur Golfer of the Year (2021, 2022, 2023).
Kuntz was unavailable to attend the awards banquet in person as he is currently in his junior year at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
About the Golf Manitoba Amateur Golfer of the Year Award – The Manitoba Amateur Golfer of the Year award recognizes outstanding performance by Manitoba golfers in all levels of competition with the first award presented in 1975. In 2015, the award was re-established to include both a female and male category.
About Golf Manitoba – Golf Manitoba is the governing body for golf in the province of Manitoba and Northwest Ontario. Its mission is to develop, promote, govern and service the sport of golf for the benefit of all participants.
Finalists announced for 2023 Female & Male Amateur Golfer of the Year
Golf Manitoba is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2023 Female and Male Amateur Golfer of the Year Awards.
This year’s female and male award finalists were chosen by the selection committee of Clayton Dreger of Golden West Radio, Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press as well as former Golf Manitoba Junior and Amateur Champions Jill Hardy and Adam Speirs.
The winners will be announced at the Golf Manitoba Awards presented by AVID GOLF on Wednesday, October 25, 2023 at the Glendale Golf & Country Country Club.
The 2023 Female Amateur Golf of the Year Finalists are Addison Kartusch, Cala Korman, Jeri Lafleche and Rhonda Orr.
Kartusch, 17, from Winnipeg, won the Manitoba Match Play Championship presented by St. Vital Dental Centre and the Women’s City & District Championship. She finished second in the Junior Division of the Elmhurst Invitational, third at the Golf Canada NextGen Prairie Championship and fourth in the Junior Girls Championship presented by the Alex & Peggy Colonello Foundation. The St. Charles Country Club member also placed seventh in the Diamond Athletic Women’s Amateur Championship, 31st in the Juvenile Division of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship and T42 in the Canadian Junior Girls Championship.
Korman, 18, from Killarney, won the Golf Canada NextGen Prairie Championship at the Evergreen Golf Course in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. She finished second in the Diamond Athletic Women’s Amateur Championship and third in the Junior Girls Championship presented by the Alex & Peggy Colonello Foundation. The Golf Manitoba Public Player member also placed T35 on the leaderboard at the Canadian Junior Girls Championship and 78th at the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship.
Lafleche, 16, from Winnipeg, won the Diamond Athletic Women’s Amateur Championship, finished second at the Junior Girls Championship presented by the Alex & Peggy Colonello Foundation, third in the Junior Girls Division at the Elmhurst Invitational and was a semi finalist in the Championship Flight of the Manitoba Match Play Championship presented by St. Vital Dental Centre. The Clear Lake Golf Course member also completed the Canadian Junior Girls Championship T32 on the leaderboard in the Juvenile Division and T46 in the overall championship.
Orr, 62, from Winnipeg, won the Hodson Financial Women’s Senior Championship and Super Senior Championship. She finished third in the Mid-Amateur Championship of the Diamond Athletic Women’s Amateur Championship, 4th in the B.C. Women’s Senior Championship, T7 at the Canadian Women’s Senior Championship and ninth at the Diamond Athletic Women’s Amateur Championship. The Southwood Golf & Country Club member also qualified for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.
The Golf Manitoba Awards selection committee would also like to recognize Charmaine Hayden (2nd place at the Mid-Amateur Championship of the Diamond Athletic Women’s Amateur Championship and 3rd place at the Women’s City & District) and Crystal Zamzow (Champion of the Junior Girls Championship presented by the Alex & Peggy Colonello Foundation and Champion of the Junior Girls Division at the Elmhurst Invitational) on their accomplishments during the 2023 season.
The 2023 Male Amateur Golfer of the Year finalists are Jay Doyle, Todd Fanning, Braxton Kuntz and Marco Trstenjak.
Doyle, 56, from Winnipeg, won the Hodson Financial Senior Men’s Championship and finished sixth in the Mid-Masters Championship of the Diamond Athletic Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship. The Niakwa Country Club member also placed T20 on the leaderboard at the Diamond Athletic Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship and T48 at the Canadian Men’s Senior Championship.
Fanning, 55, from Winnipeg, finished second in both the Hodson Financial Senior Men’s Championship and the Diamond Athletic Men’s Mid-Masters Championship. The Niakwa Country Club member placed third at the Nott Autocorp Men’s Amateur Championship, T8 at the Diamond Athletic Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship and T12 at the Canadian Men’s Senior Championship.
Kuntz, 19, from Winnipeg, won the Manitoba Match Play Championship presented by St. Vital Dental Centre and the Nott Autocorp Men’s Amateur Championship. South of the border he placed fourth in the Gulf Coast Collegiate Championship, T6 at the Colin Montgomerie Invitational and T7 at the Tunica National Intercollegiate Championship. The Breezy Bend Country Club member was also T8 at the Elmhurst Invitational and T9 at the Glencoe Invitational.
Trstenjak, 23, from Winnipeg, won the Elmhurst Invitational. He finished 2nd in the Manitoba Match Play Championship presented by St. Vital Dental Centre and finished seventh at the Nott Autocorp Men’s Amateur Championship. The Elmhurst Golf & Country Club member also place T45 on the leaderboard at the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship.
The Golf Manitoba Awards selection committee would also like to recognize Curtis Markusson (Mid-Masters Champion at the Diamond Athletic Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship) and Patrick Perrin (Diamond Athletic Men’s Mid-Amateur Champion) for their play during the 2023 season.
Tickets are available for purchase until 5pm on Friday, October 20th by contacting Golf Manitoba at (204) 925-5730 or by email at info@golfmb.ca.
Tickets are $25 per person, appetizers and food stations included.
About the Golf Manitoba Amateur Golfer of the Year Award – The Golf Manitoba Amateur Golfer of the Year award recognizes outstanding performance by Manitoba golfers in all levels of competition with the first award presented in 1975. In 2015, the award was re-established to include both a female and male category.
Past Amateur Golfer of the Year recipients >>
About Golf Manitoba – Golf Manitoba is the governing body for golf in the province of Manitoba and North West Ontario. Its mission is to develop, promote, govern and service the sport of golf in Manitoba and North West Ontario for the benefit of all participants.
For more information:
Brian Munz
Director of Communications
Golf Manitoba
(204) 899-1092
brian@golfmb.ca
Trstenjak wins Hurricane Invitational
Marco Trstenjak (Elmhurst Golf & Country Club) led the Georgia Southwestern men’s golf team to victory at the Hurricane Invitational in Albany, Georgia.
Trstenjak finished the 54 hole event at 2-under par 214 (75-68-71) at the Doublegate Country Club.
The 15-team tournament included eight programs ranked in the Top 25 of NCAA Division II golf.
For the full story on the Georgia Southwestern website, click here.
National Golf League supports of First Tee – Canada
With the 2023 golf season in the rear view mirror, it’s time to look back on some of the endeavours both on and off the course Golf Manitoba, Golf Canada and its members accomplished.
New this season was the BDO National Golf League, a nationwide, season-long competition created by Golf Canada to enhance the league experience for men, women, and junior players.
For results, including the regional qualifier held at Southwood Golf & Country Club, click here.
In addition to enhancing your existing league experience, participation in the BDO National Golf League supports First Tee – Canada, a youth development program striving to bring accessible and inclusive pathways to golf participation at schools, community centres, and golf courses across the country.
There is no registration fee to play in the BDO National Golf League. Instead we’re asking every participating player for a $50 tax-deductible donation to their province’s First Tee chapter. All donations will stay within your province, so you can feel good knowing that your gift will help youth right here at home.
Golf Manitoba Awards to be held October 25
The 2023 Golf Manitoba Awards presented by AVID GOLF, will be held on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, at the Glendale Golf & Country Club.
The annual event recognizes and celebrates all that’s great about the sport of golf in the province – from volunteers to elite performers, teams and milestone achievements including the annual Male and Female Amateur Golfer of the Year awards.
The Golf Manitoba Annual General Meeting will also be held on October 25 and just prior to the start of the Awards banquet. Under Golf Manitoba by-laws, notice of the annual meeting has been sent to all member clubs and leagues via email and to the attention of the Club President & Member Club Representative. All member clubs are invited to RSVP one voting delegate to attend the meeting and to vote on behalf of the club/league.
Tickets are now available for $25 and can be purchased by emailing amy@golfmb.ca. Appetizers and food stations included with a cash bar available.
For more information about the Golf Manitoba Awards presented by AVID GOLF, please contact Golf Manitoba Director of Communications Brian Munz at brian@golfmb.ca.
About AVID GOLF: Located at 1580 Taylor Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba, AVID GOLF houses 6 indoor simulators using Foresight Sports technology, has an indoor putting green and a bar and lounge. AVID GOLF caters to both serious and recreational golfers in addition to providing a social venue for people looking for a fun and interactive experience.
For more about AVID GOLF including winter league and membership information, visit avidgolf.club.
Top 10 start for Kuntz at Purdue Fall Invite
Winnipeg’s Braxton Kuntz is tied for seventh place through 36 holes of the Purdue Fall Invite at the Ackerman-Allen Golf Course in West Lafayette, Indiana.
The Breezy Bend Country Club member shot rounds of 71 and 69 for a 140 total.
The final round will be played today.
For the leaderboard, click here.
Lafleche finishes 4th at NextGen Fall Series West Championship
Jeri Lafleche (Clear Lake Golf Course) shot a 1-over par 73 in her final round at the Golf Canada NextGen Fall Series West Championship, fueled by JOURNIE Rewards hosted at The Hills at Portal Golf Club in Surrey, B.C.
Lafleche finished the 54 hole event at 8-over par 224 (76-75-73), eight strokes back of Clara Ding of British Columbia, who won the championship at even par 216. Ding’s final round was a 5-under par 67.
For the final leaderboard, click here.
AVID GOLF named presenting partner of Golf Manitoba Awards
Golf Manitoba Executive Director Jared Ladobruk announced today a new multi-year partnership with AVID GOLF.
Under the agreement, AVID GOLF will become the presenting partner of the annual Golf Manitoba Awards event until 2025.
“We are looking forward to embarking on this new relationship with AVID GOLF” said Ladobruk. “In speaking with Luc and seeing their business in operation, we have a common goal of growing the sport of golf for all age levels and playing abilities.”
“It’s hard to love something for only six months of the year so we created AVID GOLF in an effort to grow and allow everyone to enjoy the sport of golf 12 months of the year” said AVID GOLF Founder & CEO Luc Bohunicky. “It’s important to us to not just be looked at as just a sim lounge, we want to be active in the community and allow people to have fun while also improving their skills at the same time.”
About AVID GOLF: Located at 1580 Taylor Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba, AVID GOLF houses 6 indoor simulators using Foresight Sports technology, has an indoor putting green and a bar and lounge. AVID GOLF caters to both serious and recreational golfers in addition to providing a social venue for people looking for a fun and interactive experience.
For more information, visit avidgolf.club.
About Golf Manitoba: Serving the Manitoba and Northwest Ontario golf communities since 1915, Golf Manitoba strives to provide quality, innovative and accessible golf programs and services. We strive to align with all golf stakeholders through a connected golf community while encouraging both youth and adults to play more golf, more often. Our Mission is to develop, promote, govern and service the game of golf in Manitoba and Northwest Ontario for the benefit of all participants.
About Golf Manitoba Awards: The annual Golf Manitoba Awards event recognizes and celebrates all that’s great about the sport of golf in the province – from volunteers to elite performers, teams and milestone achievements including the annual male and female Amateur Golfer of the Year awards.
Golf courses can be great places for junior activity
Carrie Julie knows Sawmill Golf Course won’t be around in 30 years if she and her husband, Jeremy – the owner-operator pair at the course near St. Catharines – don’t put in a grow-the-game effort now.
“That’s simply what it comes down to,” she says.
Sawmill was one of the inaugural winners of Golf Canada’s National Facility Award for Junior Golf in 2022 (awarded “to a facility that provides exceptional access and membership opportunities for junior golfers”) and Julie knows that drumming up even more interest in the game amongst youngsters starts with one thing leading to another – opportunity to access.
NATIONAL FACILITY AWARDS FOR JUNIOR GOLF
There is a myriad of junior programs at Sawmill, she explains, including a golf-and-hockey camp that targets that hockey-playing group if kids and gets them interested in golf (“The retention has been off the charts”) and Try Golf Days, supported by Stephen Ames, that happen on Saturdays. Three hundred and fifty-two kids tried golf this year.
The club also made a pact with its members that the only tournaments it will host are for juniors.
When Julie and Sawmill won the Junior Golf Opportunity Award last year, she said she accepted it on behalf of the 300-or-so members. They step up. They know the importance of this program. She often turns away volunteers for junior tournaments because she has just too much interest.
The club made this choice, and she knows it was the right one.
“We certainly haven’t made the commitment to juniors for pats on the back, but I have to tell you, it was a really nice honour in the inaugural year to win the award,” Julie says. “It really cemented we’re doing the right things for the right reasons.”
Through the start of the COVID-19 pandemic golf saw a boom unlike any other in recent history in Canada. Tiger-Mania couldn’t hold a candle to how many people started to play golf, picked golf up again, or played more golf than they ever had before. It resulted in the popularity of the sport in Canada being as high as it ever had been. A lot of courses, however, needed to make a choice they were never faced with before on junior golf because of the demand for tee times. Could they still give up a tee-time for $20 for a youngster if they had a line of adults waiting to pay $100+ for the same time?
“We’re super empathetic about some of the unintended challenges that a participation spike creates,” Golf Canada chief sport officer Kevin Blue says. “But at the same time, we’re trying to think about the health of our sport over the next 30, 40, or 50 years and clearly junior golf is a part of that.”
Blue has spoken at length about his time growing up as a non-family sponsored junior member at the Bayview Country Club, which, he says, allowed him to develop as a golfer significantly. A non-family sponsored junior program allows junior golfers to play and practice at a private club for a reasonable annual fee without their parents having to join. While many clubs across Canada continue to have programs like this, some have scaled back access for juniors due to increased demand for tee times. Blue suggested that all private clubs in Canada should consider adding a limited number of non-family sponsored juniors – for example, two girls and two boys – to help some tournament-playing youngsters have access to quality facilities.
“They pay a reasonable annual fee for being there […] and the club rallies behind these players,” Blue says. “A casualty (due to golf’s increased popularity through the COVID-19 pandemic) in some instances has been these non-family sponsored junior programs. Or at least shrinking them. We understand the influences involved and why these choices are made. But at the same time, that’s had a direct impact on (junior) opportunities to be able to train and practice and develop.”
Nick Taylor, the three-time PGA Tour winner and – of course – the reigning RBC Canadian Open champion, was one of those youngsters able to take advantage of an affordable junior program. Growing up in Abbotsford, B.C. (about an hour outside of Vancouver) Taylor recalls his parents paying about $220 to have full access to the course (minus, he thinks, sometimes on the weekend) where he would be at the course every day from sun up to sun down.
“It was the greatest babysitter,” Taylor says with a laugh.
Now as a father of two, he reflects on the opportunity afforded to him by this junior-golf program and those are the two key things he hopes other clubs across the country will be able to offer – accessible, affordable golf for kids.
With Taylor’s win at the RBC Canadian Open now four months in the rear-view mirror, he’s been able to reflect on his position in Canadian golf as someone who can inspire the next generation, like Mike Weir did to him after Weir’s 2003 Masters triumph.
Taylor has his own charity golf tournament each year at home in B.C. and this year there was the Nick Taylor Junior Golf Day, with 94 young golfers asking questions and watching Taylor hit balls. Monies from his charity event went right back into the community.
“It’s obviously very important […] to maybe be that person to get some more kids in the game and get them determined to be as best as they can be,” Taylor says.
Taylor had affordable access to a course that was supportive of kids learning the game and becoming the next generation of golfers in this country. Julie, at Sawmill, is committed to having a place like that.
There are plenty of other great examples across the country providing a safe space for kids to learn – and love – golf. But there’s still even more room to grow.
“I often say to my peers, ‘go on and copy and paste our program. It would be an honour,’” Julie says. “It’s who our club is.”
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On Oct. 2, 2023, Blue took part in a Golf Journalists Association of Canada (GJAC) Virtual Summit with the topic being Courses Supporting Junior Golf.
The series is part of an ongoing GJAC series intended to help membership stay connected, as well as to generate discussion and opportunities around important issues in the game.
Panelists for this Summit included Blue, as well as Nick Taylor, 2023 RBC Canadian Open Champion and Carrie Julie, Owner/Operator, Sawmill Golf Club. The Summit was moderated by Dan Pino, Golf Canada’s Senior Director of Communications. You can watch it below.