Lucas Punkari
A trifecta of golfers from the Fort High boys’ golf team will be making their way up to Kenora next Thursday to compete at the NWOSSA championships as a result of their strong showings at the NorWOSSA qualifier in Sioux Lookout on Monday.
Leading the charge for the black-and-gold was Abe Germain, who easily shot his career best round over 18 holes with a score of 78.
“That was the lowest score he’s ever shot in his life, so he was really excited about doing that, and I don’t think he was expecting to be qualifying for NWOSSA as well,” head coach Brian Johnstone said.
“I’ve been working with Abe on a few things this week heading into the tournament, in particular with course management, and when he puts his career best round in what he thought could of been his last event of the year, it just goes to show you the jump that he’s made.
“So I’m really excited about the strides that he’s made, and at this point, everything from here on in for him is just an added bonus,” he enthused.
Also joining Germain in Kenora will be Brandon Sinclair and James Brown, who shot rounds of 78 and 89 respectively on Monday.
“James had a rough day on Monday, but he’s been pretty consistent for most of the year,” Johnstone noted.
“Brandon’s coming back from knee surgery and he hasn’t played a whole lot, but I know that he hasn’t been too happy with his performances so far and there’s the potential for him to get better,” he added.
Rounding out the squad that made the trek to Sioux Lookout were Brady VanUden and Dylan Chapman, but both golfers found themselves on the outside looking in when it came to qualifying for NWOSSA.
“Brady has slowly gotten better at every tournament as well, and for a guy who has just started playing golf in the last year, he’s been putting up some solid numbers,” Johnstone said.
“Dylan’s been battling a bad back as well, and he wasn’t able to practice this week so it was a bit of a battle for him,” he added.
Monday’s tournament came off of the heels of a tournament in Atikokan last Tuesday, where Sinclair and Brown led way for the black-and-gold with rounds of 83.
“That was Brandon’s first time back out since he had his knee surgery, and while he wasn’t too happy with the score, I thought he did quite well considering that he hadn’t played in about a month,” Johnstone explained.
“James had a good opening nine holes before he stumbled a little bit on the back nine, but all in all it was another pretty good score from him,” he added.
With a little over a week before the NWOSSA championships, which will be held at the 18-hole Beauty Bay Golf Course in Kenora, Johnstone will be working on a number of different things with his golfers before they tee off next Thursday.
“With Abe we will continue to work a lot on course management and how to play the golf course, which is what we have been doing already,” he said.
“With James, we have to do a little bit of work on his short game as he’s been struggling a little bit with his chipping, and with Brandon it’s all about just getting reps and getting the rust off,” Johnstone added.
At stake next Thursday will be a trip to the all-Ontario championships, which will be held at the Twenty Valley Golf & Country Club outside of St. Catharines from Oct. 9-10.
