Muskie golfers endure rough trip to Kenora

The Muskie golf team headed up to Kenora last Wednesday and Thursday missing many of its senior players and subsequently fell behind the competition.
“The end of the school year is difficult because everything is culminating,” noted Muskie head coach Greg Ste. Croix. “Some of the older players were not able to make it {due to academic commitments].”
Missing leaderboard stalwarts like Andrew Easton, Ben Bruyere, and Matt Hebert, the black-and-gold needed some strong showings from the likes of Alex McDonald and Jordan Sinclair.
The pair put up identical scores of 83 and 81 at the Kenora Golf Course and Beauty Bay, respectively.
“Pretty good,” according to McDonald.
“I was doing good. I kind of had a slump but got back into it,” he added, referring to a triple bogey on a rainy hole that set him back.
“Your grips get all wet. It’s kind of hard to play,” he explained.
While McDonald and Sinclair were the bright spots last week in Kenora, Ste. Croix is hoping for more at the team’s final tournament tomorrow at the Ojibway Golf and Country Club in Sioux Lookout.
“Both Alex McDonald and Jordan Sinclair had been shooting low 80s. It’d be nice to see them take the next step,” he remarked.
As for the rest of the team, Ste. Croix remained optimistic.
“Things are moving in the right direction,” he said. “It was interesting to see Jordan Davis go from a 97 to a 79 [between the two days in Kenora].”
One of the Muskie golfers who played below expectations was Kevin Jackson, who posted his highest scores of the season (100 and 95).
Jackson admitted last week wasn’t his best, but he also was saddled with his putter breaking in mid-tournament.
“It was kind of crooked,” Jackson noted, adding a few other players were making fun of the condition of the club the night before.
“I didn’t notice it.”
He bent the putter at the joint irreparably and was forced to play on the greens with wedges for the remainder of the second tournament at Beauty Bay—making a strong second day all but impossible.
Jackson did manage to post a better score without the putter, but insisted that it was simply because things went so bad the day before.
“Kenora Golf Course was pretty hard,” he said.
Ste. Croix is looking for the team to shoot for par, so to speak, to end the season.
“I’m hoping we can at least shoot the same. I’m hoping we sort of stay put,” he admitted.
McDonald, who leads the Muskie team in league points, thinks he can end things with a bang.
“Probably,” he guessed. “My short game’s been getting better.”