Locals take aim at national contest
The Whistle Bear Junior Performance Team will have three representatives at next week’s Canadian junior boys championship in Kingston.
Bennett Ruby, Dylan Henderson and Eric Shea are in the 156-player field that will tee it up Monday at the Cataraqui Golf and Country Club. Sam Meek of Peterborough is back to defend the title he won last year in St. John’s, N.L., and is attempting to become the first repeat champion since London’s Mitch Sutton accomplished the feat in 2008-09.
Of note, Sutton won his second championship at the Westmount Golf and Country Club and finished the tournament one shot ahead of current PGA Tour regular Mackenzie Hughes.
Ruby, Henderson and Shea warmed up for the national championship by competing at this week’s Ontario match-play championship at Tangle Creek in Thornton, south of Barrie, and will gather Sunday for a practice round at Cataraqui with Whistle Bear Junior Performance Team head coach Dave Smallwood.
Shea, who lives in Brantford and plays out of the Brantford Golf and Country Club, is enjoying his best season to date and will continue his education and golf career next month at Southern Wesleyan University in Central, S.C. He has high hopes for the national championship and credits his time on the Whistle Bear team as the biggest reason behind his improved play.
“This is the best season of my life and with the way I’ve been playing, a top-10 finish would be nice,” said the 17-year-old Shea.
“Dave has helped me with some swing changes this year … and my attitude on the golf course has really improved.”
Ruby, a soon-to-be Grade 11 student at Waterloo Collegiate who plays out of the Westmount Golf and Country Club, has cause for optimism after knocking off the top-ranked player Tuesday at the match-play championship. The 64th-ranked player at Tangle Creek, Ruby scored a 2-and-1 victory over No. 1 Abe Holmes.
“My game has come a long way since the beginning of the year and I’m hitting the ball and putting much better than I did, so if it all comes together, I have a shot at being in contention,” said Ruby, who earned a spot in the national championship with a fourth-place finish at this month’s Future Links Western Championship in British Columbia.
Henderson, a Whistle Bear member who attends Bluevale Collegiate, was unavailable for comment.
He finished in a tie for 14th place at the Future Links Western Championship and in a tie for 20th at the Ontario junior boys championship.
The last local player to win the tournament was Kitchener’s Danny Maue, who won by 10 strokes in 1978, a record margin of victory at the time. Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., improved on that by scoring an 11-stroke win in 2006.
Kitchener’s Gary Cowan, Doug Silverberg, George Knudson, and Doug Roxburgh were all Silver Cup winners that went on to fine amateur and professional careers and enter the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame.
Meanwhile in Cumberland
Kitchener’s JiaYin Liu, another member of the Whistle Bear Junior Performance Team, is the only local player in the field for next week’s Canadian junior girls championship at the Camelot Golf and Country Club in Cumberland, Ont.
Team Canada’s Naomi Ko, of Victoria, B.C., is the reigning champion, having shot a 5-underpar 283 at The Links at Penn Hills in 2016. Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member Sandra Post and current LPGA Tour star Brooke Henderson are past champions at the event.
The winner will receive an exemption into next year’s Canadian women’s amateur championship at Marine Drive Golf Club in Vancouver.
Solid results for Rank and Moser
Elmira’s Garrett Rank, playing in this week’s RBC Canadian Open, finished in a tie for fifth place at the 53rd Porter Cup in Lewiston, N.Y. The National Hockey League referee shots rounds of 70-71-69-66 at the par-70 Niagara Falls Country Club to finish seven shots behind champion Brandon Wu of Scarsdale, N.Y. Rank finished a 4-under 276 and was two shots better than Waterloo’s Luke Moser, who finished in a tie for eighth place at 2-under 278 (70-69-68-71). Tyler Douse of Waterloo would up in a tie for 39th.
Youngsters head to Puslinch
The Ontario peewee (U13) girls and boys championships will be held Monday and Tuesday at Puslinch Lake Golf Course.
There are 29 entries in the boys competition and 13 entries in the girls tournament, none of them are local.