Amateur champ makes golf look very easy
If you’re one of those frustrated golfers who struggles to break 100, you might not want to read this column.
Hugo Bernard started playing golf at age 9 because he wasn’t good at hockey. He shot left on the ice and uses a left-handed swing in golf, breaking 100 for the first time when he was 12. At 13, he broke 90 and the next year he broke 80.
Last year, the 22-year-old from Mont-Saint-Hilaire won the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship, firing a final round of 5-under-par 65 at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club. Bernard, who is a member at Laval-sur-le-Lac, became the first Quebecer to win the national amateur championship since Montreal’s Craig Matthew in 1998. Bernard also won the Quebec Men’s Amateur Championship in 2013, one year after winning the Quebec Junior Boys’ Championship. You still reading? This might make you want to stop if, no matter what type of driver you buy and how many balls you bang on the practice range, you still struggle to break 100 — or maybe 90. While playing the 12th hole at Royal Montreal Thursday on a Golf Canada media day — a 570-yard par-5 from the back tees — Bernard pounded a 339-yard drive, followed by a 6-iron to the back fringe, about 30 feet from the hole. He then two-putted for birdie. Easy game. I was fortunate to play in the same foursome as Bernard and it’s incredible to watch someone hit a golf ball so far and so straight up-close in person. His black golf shoes with red laces and the Golf Canada logo on the heels are also pretty cool.
“I have a pair of white ones, too,” he said with a smile.
On the 10th hole, a 460-yard par-4, Bernard hit a 2-iron off the tee almost 300 yards, followed by a 9-iron into a sand trap to the right of the hole. He blasted out to about seven feet and sank the par putt.
Bernard’s best score ever was an 11-under 61 two years ago in the first round of a 36-hole Minor League Golf Tour event at the Abacoa Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. Did he win the tournament? “Of course,” Bernard said with another smile. “I followed that with a 63.”
Confidence is a big part of golf and Bernard seems to have plenty of it. Last year, he won the NCAA Division II national individual championship as a member of Florida’s Saint Leo University Lions.
Golf is one of the toughest sports in the world, but there are many great players and making it to the PGA Tour isn’t easy, which is Bernard’s ultimate goal. In September, he’ll try to qualify for the Web.com Tour, a step below the PGA.
“Everybody can hit every shot almost,” Bernard said of the top players. “I think it’s the mental part, the confidence, how much you can relax. Those things make a big difference.”
Bernard is a good ball striker with a strong mental game, but says he needs to improve his wedge play and putting. As the old golf saying goes: drive for show, putt for dough.
Bernard wasn’t keeping score on Thursday, instead he was having some fun while working on different shots on media day as Team Canada’s 2017 amateur squads were presented.
On the men’s side, Bernard is joined by Jared du Toit of Kimberley, B.C., Austin James of Bath, Ont., and Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald. The women’s team is made up of Maddie Szeryk of Allen, Texas, (who has dual citizenship), Victoria’s Naomi Ko, Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee and Ottawa’s Grace St-Germain.
Golf Canada allocates more than $1.5 million annually to the national team program, providing players with coaching, strength and conditioning work, sports psychology, nutrition, biomechanics and technique development.
“We have everything we need,” said Bernard, who is 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds.
Bernard played in the Canadian Open for the first time last year, missing the cut at Glen Abbey after disappointing rounds of 81 and 76.
The player who impressed him the most was American Dustin Johnson, who is ranked No. 1 in the world.
“He’s just so good,” Bernard said. “He hits it so far, so straight, so consistent.”
Bernard said distance is a big key to success in golf today.
“If you look at Johnson, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, all the big players on tour hit the ball super far,” he said. “I think the game’s easier if you hit the ball 310 down the middle.”
I wouldn’t know. Very few recreational golfers do.
Bernard has three words of advice for golfers — both young and old — who want to improve their game: “Practice, practice, practice.”
He added: “And just have fun out there.”
Remember that the next time you drive your ball into the woods.
I think it’s the mental part, the confidence, how much you can relax. Those things make a big difference.