Team Manitoba member Cala Korman has achieved one of her top goals in the 2022 season, attaining a scholarship to attend Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

Brenda Burch has been honored as the 17th recipient of the Golf Manitoba Volunteer Distinguished Service Award. The announcement was made during the 2022 Golf Manitoba Awards event that was held on November 2 at the Breezy Bend Country Club.

Brenda began her volunteerism in the early 1970s with the Manitoba Ladies’ Golf Association as the Assistant Tournament Director. After two decades of running championships, she joined the course rating team in 1997 and continued until her retirement in 2019.

During her time with the MLGA and Golf Manitoba, Brenda rated over 110 courses in Manitoba and Northwest Ontario. In addition to her field work, Brenda attended numerous provincial, national and USGA course rating seminars. Her expertise and dedication to course rating earned her the distinction of Level 4 Master Rater, which there are few of in Canada.

Dennis Langrell (1954-2021) was posthumously honored as the 18th recipient of the Golf Manitoba Distinguished Service Award.

Dennis volunteered with Golf Manitoba for over 28 years. He served in various compacities including player development, officiating and most recently as the president of the Golf Manitoba Scholarship Fund until his passing in April of 2021.

Dennis was an instrumental contributor to the junior golf development program with Golf Manitoba.  He assisted in managing the association’s junior boy’s Mundie Putter team, assisted at numerous junior golf camps and acted as non-playing captain for Golf Manitoba at the Canadian Junior and Western Canadian Juvenile Championships.

Also recognized at the Awards event was eleven individuals who reached milestone volunteer anniversaries with Golf Manitoba.

5 YEARS
Gerald Diamond
Mary Lou Milhausen
Don Wilgosh

10 YEARS
Gerry Hawryluk
Ken Warwick

15 YEARS
Michael Culley
Mike Lagace
Peggy McLeod

30 YEARS
Don MacDonald
Clare Nesbitt

40 YEARS
George McLeod

For more information about volunteering with Golf Manitoba, please visit golfmb.ca/volunteering.

WINNIPEG, MB – The 2022/23 Golf Manitoba Board of Directors was announced at the Golf Manitoba Awards reception that was held on November 2, 2022 at the Breezy Bend Country Club. The twelve-member board was elected during the associations 20th Annual General Meeting.

Elected at the meeting were returning Board members Mike Berney (Delahunt Golf & Country Club), Susan Wright-Cassan (Emerald Greens Golf Club), Fred Smith (Wildewood Golf Club), and Kathy Turner (Breezy Bend Country Club). Janice Rees (Windsor Park Ladies Golf League) was also elected as the newest member of the Board.

The Board of Directors is comprised of dedicated volunteers from across the golf community in the Golf Manitoba jurisdiction. The Board’s duties are to direct the business affairs of the association.

The members of the 2022/23 Golf Manitoba Board of Directors are:

OFFICERS

President: Wayne McWhirter, Southwood Golf & Country Club
President Elect: Sue Wright-Cassan, Emerald Greens Golf Course
Vice-President: Bob Peters, St. Charles Country Club
Past-President: Ken Warwick, Niakwa Country Club
Treasurer: Kathy Turner, Breezy Bend Country Club

DIRECTORS

Michael Berney, Delahunt Golf & Country Club
D’Arcy Lachance, Elmhurst Golf & Country Club
James (Jim) Gosman, Golf Manitoba Public Player
Craig Martin, Assiniboine Golf Club
Janice Rees, Windsor Park Ladies
Matt Simmons, Whitewater Golf Club
Fred Smith, Wildewood Golf Club

In addition to the election, Golf Manitoba also released its 2022 Annual Report, which includes a recap of the past season, as well as the association’s 2021/22 Financial Statements.

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 game of golf for the benefit of all participants.

For more information:

Jared Ladobruk
Executive Director
Golf Manitoba
204.925.5729
jared@golfmb.ca

11 Manitobans wrapped up play Sunday in Orlando, Florida at Orange County National competing in the 2022 Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour National Championship.

Ryan Tuck of St. Boniface Golf Club finished as the best scoring Manitoban with a 36 hole total 153 (73-80) in the Bantam Boys division.

Also representing our province:

Bantam Boys:
Adam Blair, Golf Manitoba Public Players Club 84-75-159
Brayden Boge, Pine Ridge Golf Club 81-84-165

Juvenile Boys:
Carson Inman, Portage Golf Club 80-82-162
Payne Wood, St. Boniface Golf Club 79-84-163
Jackson Delaurier, Golf Manitoba Public Players Club 83-81-164
Jacob Taweel, Elmhurst Golf & Country Club 87-81-168
Kaleb Lambert, Elmhurst Golf & Country Club 84-86-170

Junior Boys:
Jack Rudick, St. Charles Country Club 82-78-160

Peewee Boys:
Hunter Oakden, Golf Manitoba Public Players Club 84-79-163

15-19 Girls:
India Young, Carman Golf & Curling Club 88-88-176

For the complete leaderboard, click here.

15 year old Ryan Tuck of St. Boniface Golf Club shot a one over par 73 and is only one stroke off the lead in the Bantam Boys division of play after the opening round at the 2022 Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour National Championship at Orange County National in Orlando, Florida.

Also representing Manitoba:

Bantam Boys:
Brayden Boge, Pine Ridge Golf Club 81
Adam Blair, Golf Manitoba Public Players Club 84

Juvenile Boys:
Payne Wood, St. Boniface Golf Club 79
Carson Inman, Portage Golf Club 80
Jackson Delaurier, Golf Manitoba Public Players Club 83
Kaleb Lambert, Elmhurst Golf & Country Club 84
Jacob Taweel, Elmhurst Golf & Country Club 87

Junior Boys:
Jack Rudick, St. Charles Country Club 82

Peewee Boys:
Hunter Oakden, Golf Manitoba Public Players Club 84

15-19 Girls:
India Young, Carman Golf & Curling Club 88

The final round tees off tomorrow (Sunday) morning.

For the complete leaderboard, click here.

11 Manitobans will tee off starting tomorrow morning in the 2022 Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour National Championship at Orange County National in Orlando, Florida.

The 36 hole championship will be played tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday.

Representing our province are:

Adam Blair – Golf Manitoba Public Players Club (Winnipeg) – Bantam Boys
Brayden Boge – Pine Ridge Golf Club (Winnipeg) – Bantam Boys
Jackson Delaurier – Golf Manitoba Public Players Club (Dauphin) – Juvenile Boys
Carson Inman – Portage Golf Club (Portage la Prairie) – Juvenile Boys
Kaleb Lambert – Elmhurst Golf & Country Club (Lorette West) – Juvenile Boys
Jacob Taweel – Elmhurst Golf & Country Club (Winnipeg) – Juvenile Boys
Payne Wood – St. Boniface Golf Club (Winnipeg) – Juvenile Boys
Hunter Oakden – Golf Manitoba Public Players Club (Brandon) – Peewee Boys
Jack Rudick – St. Charles Country Club (Winnipeg) – Junior Boys
Ryan Tuck – St. Boniface Golf Club (Winnipeg) – Bantam Boys

India Young – Carman Golf & Curling Club (Carman) – 15-19 Girls

For the opening round tee times, click here.

On behalf of selection committee members Clayton Dreger, Jill Hardy, Adam Speirs and Ken Wiebe, Golf Manitoba is pleased to recognize the 2022 Female and Male Amateur Golfer of the Year Award winners. 

This year’s recipients were announced at the annual Golf Manitoba Awards reception that was held at the Breezy Bend Country Club.

Rhonda Orr of Southwood Golf & Country Club is the Female Amateur Golfer of the Year. 

Orr, 61, from Winnipeg, won the Mid-Amateur Flight and finished second overall at the Diamond Athletic Women’s Amateur Championship. She represented Team Manitoba at the Canadian Women’s Amateur. The Southwood Golf and Country Club member won the Hodson Financial Women’s Senior Championship, her seventh senior provincial championship in a row and ninth in the last ten years. Orr went on to finish 10th on the leaderboard playing for Team Manitoba at the Canadian Women’s Senior Championship. Orr also tied for eighth place at the AGA Women’s Senior Amateur Championship in the United States.

With the selection, it is the fourth time that Orr has been recognized as Female Amateur Golfer of the Year (2016, 2018, 2019).

Braxton Kuntz of Breezy Bend Country Club is the Male Amateur Golfer of the Year.

Kuntz, 18, from Winnipeg, won the Manitoba Junior Championship presented by the Alex & Peggy Colonello Foundation and represented Team Manitoba finishing in a tie for fifth place at the Canadian Junior Boys Championship. The Breezy Bend Country Club member also won the Nott Autocorp Men’s Amateur Championship. Kuntz is the first player in Manitoba to win both the Manitoba Junior and Amateur Championship in back to back seasons (2021 and 2022). He also finished tied for third place at the Elmhurst Invitational.

With the selection, it is the second time in as many years that Kuntz has been named Male Amateur Golfer of the Year (2021).

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 North West Ontario. Its mission is to develop, promote, govern and service the sport of golf for the benefit of all participants. 

From Moe Norman to Mike Weir and Sandra Post to Brooke Henderson, Canada has a rich golf history.

But there’s also a little-known golf hotbed in Lunenburg, N.S.

Located on the south shore of Nova Scotia, with a population of 2,396 according to the 2021 census, the port town is home to HB Studios, creator of the new “PGA Tour 2K23” video game.

Founded in 2000 by transplanted Englishman Jeremy Wellard, HB Studios collaborated with various publishers including Electronic Arts on an array of sports games. The studio recruited locally and all over the globe to get expertise in everything from cricket and rugby to soccer, football and golf.

“When I started here, I was definitely one of the local people,” said HB Studios creative director Josh Muise, who has more than 15 years experience with the company. “I was born on the East Coast and grew up out here. I remember walking through the studio the first day and the number of different accents that I came across was certainly delightful and kind of interesting to find in a small sleepy fishing village in Nova Scotia.”

The studio now also has an office in Halifax, with combined staff of about 100 and growing.

“This has become a really major project and it’s become a very big game,” Muise said of the golf title. “We’re very lucky to be able to continue attracting world-class talent and growing the franchise.”

Muise, 40, was born on Cape Breton Island and spent a lot of his school years in New Brunswick. While he admits to some reservations back in the day about moving to “a 1,200- to 1,500-person seasonal fishing village, as beautiful as it was in the postcards,” he is now an unabashed fan of Lunenburg.

“It’s been a wonderful transformation. The town has radically shifted in the last five, 10 years in particular, where you’re seeing a lot of new businesses and you’re seeing a lot of new people coming in. And it’s really become a hotbed.”

The trend toward working remotely has helped bring an influx of young high-tech workers looking to leave the city. The fact that Halifax is only an hour or so away adds to Lunenburg’s attraction.

HB Studios mirrors that growth, as shown by the fact that its newest title features Tiger Woods on its cover.

“The thing that we’re proudest of with that is that we feel like we earned the opportunity,” said Muise, whose name is pronounced muse. “We went from an independent golf game, not all those many years ago, to building up to earning ourself the spot to having the PGA Tour licence come into play and being part of our partnership, ultimately bringing in 2K (Games) and everything that they offer, and then leading up to bringing in Tiger Woods as well.

“The team worked very very hard to put a great game out there. We worked with the community. We were receptive to the feedback. And we kind of grew together. So for it all to culminate with the best, I would say, single-sport athlete of all time on the cover of the box, nothing could feel better.”

That first independent golf game was “The Golf Club,” released in 2014, which eventually became “The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour.”

In 2020, the studio released “PGA Tour 2K21” for 2K Games. A year later, 2K Games bought HB Studios and signed a deal with Woods.

Today the PGA Tour 2K franchise is the studio’s main focus with 2K Games’ expertise from its NBA franchise helping the studio with the complexities of golf licensing and partners.

Woods and Canadian Brooke Henderson are among the 16 playable pros available at launch in “PGA Tour 2K23,” which was released Oct. 14 for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One and PC via Steam. Basketball icons Michael Jordan and Steph Curry also appear in the game.

“Being a Canadian studio, it was important for us to try and bring in a great Canadian icon like Brooke,” said Muise.

“She’s a great ambassador for the sport. She’s an all time Canadian legend.” he added. “And (we’re) absolutely thrilled to have her as part of our roster.”

Gamers can also play St. George’s Golf and Country Club, set up in tournament condition as it was for the 2022 RBC Canadian Open in June.

The 2K franchise will have competition next spring, with Electronic Arts getting back into the game with “EA Sports PGA Tour,” boasting video game access to all four majors including the Masters.

“We know that there may be a new product coming into the space but ultimately we feel very confident and very comfortable that golf is where we want to be,” said Muise. “And golf is where we intend on staying. And we’re going to keep building on our current success and pushing it.”