Rocky View golfers had a good showing in the season’s first significant event in Lethbridge, last weekend.
Nick Scrymgeour of Cochrane won the boys’ 14-16 division, while Crossfield’s Patrick Murphy came third, during the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour’s MJT 1st Choice Savings Series event at the windy city’s Paradise Canyon Golf Resort, April 30-May 1.
Airdrie’s Riley Fleming finished third in the boys’ 17-19 division, with Derek Rucki of Chestermere placing sixth and Cochrane’s Zac Sparks finishing 29th. Chestermere’s Andrew Rados also placed ninth in the 14-16 division, while Carter Cissell of Crossfield finished second in the boys’ 13 and under category.
Players braved stormy and mixed conditions on day one, followed by warmer weather on day two. Scrymgeour, 15, shot four strokes under par on the front nine of the final round to secure the victory.
“I birdied six through nine on the front to really get into it,” he said. “This is a great way to kick start this year. We had a great time, as Patrick (Murphy) and Matt (Williams, second-place finisher) are good friends. It kept me calm. The golf course was awesome, the pairings were awesome – it was perfect.”
Scrymgeour, who had rounds of 75 and 70, for an overall 145, also earned an exemption into an upcoming PGA Junior Series event in the U.S.
The Maple Leaf Junior Golf tour is Canada’s only national junior tour run exclusively by Canadian PGA professionals, and is considered the road to college golf for aspiring young players.
Its next event is scheduled for May 14-15, at the Nanton Golf Club, and will be a major international qualifier for the Callaway Junior World Championships in San Diego later this year.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes selected three Airdrie Xtreme players during the 2011 WHL Bantam Draft at Calgary’s BMO Centre on May 5.
Forward Tyler Wong, at 101st overall, defenceman Roman Melzer, at 114th, and captain Colby Chartier, at 173rd, were all drafted by the southern Alberta club that finished just out of the playoffs at ninth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference this season.
The first Airdrie player picked in the draft was defenceman Jake Dube, who was selected 98th overall by the Kootenay Ice. The Brandon Wheat Kings also picked Mackenzie Bauer with 165th pick.
Those eligible for the 2011 WHL Bantam Draft were 1996-born players who reside in Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Thirty of the top bull riders in Canada will be in Cochrane this weekend. The ninth annual Cochrane Classic bullriding competition, which is a sanctioned CPRA event, will take place at the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre on May 14 at 7 p.m.
