Joey Payeur
Tyson-Skylar Morrisseau made it back to the NWOSSAA golf championships on a bad wing and a prayer.
Good thing he’ll have three good wingmen to accompany him.
Morrisseau and fellow Muskie Kendyn Faragher earned spots in the field that will tee off at the Strathcona Golf Club in Thunder Bay tomorrow after getting the job done at the NorWOSSA season-finale last Wednesday at the Beauty Bay Golf Course in Kenora.
But Muskie coach Brian Johnstone revealed yesterday that Sheldon Jourdain Jr. and Austin Geurts also will represent Fort High at NWOSSAA after two Red Lake Rams’ golfers who already had qualified withdrew.
Morrisseau suffered a shoulder injury that forced him to withdraw from the Muskies’ home tournament Sept. 17 at Heron Landing Golf Course, which was serious enough to have his arm put in a sling for a couple of days.
But he battled through his ailment to card a round of 91 in Kenora, which left him tied for 11th with Sean Gula (Red Lake Rams).
“He re-injured the shoulder with five holes to play and when he came through at that point, I was hoping he wasn’t going to make it worse,” said Muskie coach Brian Johnstone.
“But he fought through it.
“I told him he was not allowed to hit any balls for a few days after the round was done,” added Johnstone.
Morrisseau ended up 15th overall in the boys’ standings with 145 points.
But he needed only to make it into the top five point-getters outside of players from the top three teams (Kenora Broncos, St. Thomas Aquinas Saints, and Dryden Eagles), who qualified automatically for the NWOSSAA final, to punch his ticket to Thunder Bay.
His 68 points earned in Kenora last week bumped Morrisseau up to third place among the players from Fort High, the Rams, and Sioux Lookout Warriors.
Red Lake’s Cody Bruchowski (213) and Gula (189) finished ahead of Morrisseau on the top-five list, but their decision to stay home opened the door for Jourdain Jr. and Geurts.
“It’s always good to have more going,” reasoned Johnstone.
“The experience they are going to get is going to be good for them,” he stressed.
Faragher, meanwhile, carded a 96 in the rainy conditions in Kenora last Wednesday to finished tied for 17th on the day with Jade Litwin (Red Lake).
But the 50 points he picked up gave him 132 for the season—which was 17th overall but fourth among the top five non-team qualifiers.
“That’s pretty good for Kendyn and Tyson, considering both of them only completed two events,” noted Johnstone.
As for the rest of the Muskies, Jourdain Jr. and Brandon Jones each shot 101 to finish tied for 23rd in Kenora.
Geurts and Ian Tookenay each fired 105 to tie for 26th.
Johnstone didn’t let their higher scores in the wet weather dampen his enthusiasm for seasons to come.
“Everyone on the team gained a lot of experience and got better each and every week,” he lauded.
“I’m looking forward to do it all again next year.”
“We’ve got Ian and Kendyn for three more years each, and Austin another two or three, so there’s a promising future staring us in the face,” Johnstone reasoned.
Jourdain Jr. finished 22nd overall in the standings with 111 points while Geurts was 23rd with 108.
Jones was 27th with 81 points, followed by Dylan Ossachuk (who did not play in Kenora) in 28th with 77 and Tookenay in 29th with 75.
Fort High, meanwhile, ended up fifth in the team event at Kenora with a combined score of 393.
That gave the Muskies their third-straight fifth-place finish of the season.
Kenora won the team event on its home course with a 335 total, followed by St. Thomas Aquinas (342) and Dryden (347).
The Broncos swept the team events this season to finish first in that category with 30 points, followed by St. Thomas Aquinas (19), Dryden (17), Red Lake (nine), Fort High (six), and then Sioux Lookout (four).
Owen Stebnitski (St. Thomas Aquinas) won the overall NorWSSA boys’ championship with a total of 282 points, one ahead of Bronco Matt Krolyk (281).
The Muskie representatives must finish in the top two out of all the golfers in Thunder Bay to make it to the OFSAA boys’ championship Oct. 15-16 at the Stratford Country Club in North Stratford.
“In a one-day tournament, anything can happen,” a hopeful Johnstone said.
“The boys have played that course before,” he noted.
“So we’ll go in on Wednesday so they can get in a practice round and we can talk about how the course sets up,” Johnstone added.
