Golf Manitoba season tees off with match-play championship

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This article was published 30/05/2023 (331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Addison Kartusch stood on the opening tee at the Manitoba junior women’s golf championship nearly a year ago in search of a breakthrough performance. And shine she did, winning the title by 13 strokes at St. Charles Country Club, her home course.

What a summer it turned out to be for the Winnipeg teen.

After a top-five finish in the provincial women’s amateur at Granite Hills and a victory at the junior championship, Kartusch, 16, was invited to Golf Canada’s NextGen Selection Camp in Caledon, Ont., then placed in the top-30 at the Canadian junior, and finally, represented Manitoba at the Canada Summer Games in Ontario’s Niagara Region.

She capped a fabulous 2022 season by making a verbal commitment to attend Bowling Green (Ohio) State University, an NCAA Division 1 program, in the fall of 2024.

Indeed, Kartusch cemented herself as one of the finest young golfers in the province and will look to build on that in 2023. Her quest starts Thursday in the match-play championship at Glendale Golf and Country Club, where she headlines the field of 12 after firing a tournament-low even-par 72 at last weekend’s women’s qualifying round.

“It’s always exciting to be looking forward to the season — with all the courses coming out with what they’re hosting — and playing competitively against the girls I always play with. It’s always fun,” said Kartusch, who doubles as a forward on the St. Mary’s Academy hockey team in the winter months.

Kartusch is hardly a stranger to the match-play event. She won in 2021 as a 14-year-old and then nearly repeated in 2022, losing in a semifinal that came down to the final hole.

Even with her championship pedigree, Kartusch will be challenged by a lack of familiarity with Glendale. Her qualifying round was her first tour of the course.

Working in her favour, however, is the match-play format, which she said eases the pressure a bit.

“Match play is just a big back-and-forth game, and whoever can stay the most consistent for the longest, especially with their emotions, is going to win,” Kartusch said.

“That’s why I love this tournament so much. I could be having a not-so-good day and still win a match because I can have a couple of good holes and two or three bad holes but you can still come out on top. There’s always that comfort in knowing if you have a bad hole, it’s literally just erased after that — (it’s) no biggie, you’re not really counting your score.”

The match-play championship is just the start of a jam-packed 15-event season for Golf Manitoba. It won’t be long before Kartusch attempts to defend her title at the Manitoba junior championship in Teulon (July 3-5).

The marquee event on the women’s calendar, the women’s amateur, takes place July 10-12 at Pine Ridge before the men’s amateur from July 20-22 at Oak Island. Young phenom Braxton Kuntz will seek a third consecutive victory in the event.

The summer will close with the men’s four-ball championship on Sept. 21 at Bridges Golf Course.

“Really excited,” said Marco Trstenjak, who will look to defend his title in the match-play championship this week. “Obviously, we have a good lineup of events as usual. The match play, the Elmhurst Invitational and some Prairie Scratch Tour events I’m probably going to take part in, as well.

“Just really excited to get going. We’ve only had one day of competitive (golf) and I think we’re all out there having fun already.”

The 23-year-old is seeking a consecutive title at a Glendale course he’s become quite fond of over the years. Two of his 20 career rounds at the track came in the 2020 men’s amateur when he fired rounds of 73 and 72 on the weekend en route to a three-stroke victory over Neel Soni.

This week, he’s the second seed in a stacked men’s bracket that includes Kuntz, 19, whose four-under 68 bested Trstenjak by one stroke in the qualifying round to claim the top seed in the tournament.

Kuntz is looking to build off a historic 2022 when become the first player to defend the Manitoba men’s junior and amateur championship in the same season. His reign will end this week if Trstenjak has anything to do with it.

“I think I’m playing really solid golf right now,” said Trstenjak, a finance student. “So, I’ll say I’m excited for the season and I just want to be prepared to play in every event and give my best and be in contention in every one — and, hopefully, win them all.

“I’m sure we’ll have some good battles, me and Braxton or me and whoever else is going to be at the top of the leaderboard, so I’m just excited for those final round competitions that really up the pressure. We’ll see who can take it this year.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jfreysam