Garrison claims Alberta women’s golf amateur title
Two late bogeys were a bit of a bummer. Not for long, though. Calgary’s Sabrine Garrison racked up six birdies in the final round of the 2017 Sun Life Financial Alberta Ladies Amateur Championship at Red Deer Golf & Country Club, building enough of a cushion that a couple of late blips turned out to be no big deal.
“I was trying not to think too much about score for most of the round and then coming into about Hole 14 or Hole 15, I started to think, ‘Ok, I could be close.’ Then, a little bit of nerves came in, and I bogeyed two of the last three holes, so I actually kind of convinced myself that I maybe lost it there,” Garrison said.
“Coming off, I actually had accepted, ‘Oh well, it might not have been quite good enough to win.’ And all of a sudden, people were coming up to me and saying I had won. It was quite the shock.
“Coming off a little disappointed and then hearing the great news that I had won was definitely a rollercoaster.”
Garrison’s trip of 2-under 70 in Thursday’s final round equalled the best score of the week at Red Deer G&CC.
With a three-day tally of 3-over 219, the 21-year-old finished two shots clear of the pack.
Andrea Kosa (Glencoe) finished as the runner-up to Garrison at the provincial shindig but didn’t leave empty-handed, doubling up as winner of both the mid-amateur and mid-master divisions.
With Garrison and Kosa both unable to attend the Canadian Women’s Amateur in Guelph, Ont., Team Alberta will be represented at the national showdown by Kat Kennedy of Okotoks and Calgary’s Kenna Hughes (Willow Park) and Lauren Diederichs (Elbow Springs).
Garrison returns for her senior season with the NCAA’s University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
“I’m applying to medical school, and I’m taking my MCAT exam in August,” she said.
“So I’m kind of shifting the priorities to the academic side now.”
“To finally have the Alberta Championship under my belt, it means a lot,” Garrison said. CHIP SHOTS: The Sun Life Financial Alberta Men’s Amateur Championship tees off Tuesday at Ponoka Community Golf Club. The field is deep but missing a couple of top contenders, including reigning champion Evan Holmes (Glencoe) and 2017 Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur trophy-collector Emmett Oh (Glencoe). Both are playing the Pacific Coast Amateur this week at Chambers Bay … Twotime champion Jaclyn Lee (Glencoe) had to skip her title defence at the Alberta Ladies Am, instead digging divots at famed Pinehurst No. 2 during the Women’s North & South Amateur Championship in North Carolina. The 20-year-old Lee — a member of Golf Canada’s national amateur squad — finished T-2 in the stroke-play portion before later losing a close match in the Round of 16 … Logan Carver (Calgary Golf & Country Club) scratched out a one-stroke victory at the Future Links driven by Acura Western Championship in Fernie, B.C. The 18-year-old signed for a three-round total of 1-under 209, circling back-to-back birdies on his final assignments to seal the deal … Wes Heffernan has always been a big fan of Redwood Meadows, and it showed during a PGA of Alberta Players’ Tour shootout last week at the tree-lined track. Heffernan, a longtime touring pro and now an instructor at Golf Canada Calgary Centre, fired rounds of 69 and 68 to finish one shot better than any of his buddies.