A Barrhead resident has won the Junior Open golf tournament at a Grande Prairie golf course. Nathan Schmidt, a long-time golfer, participated in the event with over 60 other competitors on Aug 8-9 in Grande Prairie, at The Dunes Golf Course, shooting a 73 on Day 1 and a 77 on Day 2. “I was one stroke back from the leader on the second day and it was really cool, I’d never done that good at a tournament before,” Schmidt said, adding this was his first golf-related competition of the year. “I knew which guy I was back from and I knew I had to do better than him, so we were in a battle all day. At every hole, we were pretty much the same.” The front nine holes, he said, went well for him but the back nine not so much.
“At the last hole, I had to tie with the leader for a chance at forcing a playoff between the two of us, and when we both ended up tying that hole the organizers had to recount our scores,” he added.
Schmidt said it was very nerve-wracking because all of the other players and their parents were spectating.
“My second and third shots were really good, and I was excited because I knew after that first hole that I had won,” he said.
Schmidt, who plays for the midget Barrhead Steelers hockey team in the winter, will be heading off to the University of Alberta this fall to undertake kinesiology — a course he says takes up to five years to complete.
“I’m not sure if I will be playing varsity golf while I’m there, but it is a possibility,” he said.
