Nachtigall Westman’s sportsperson of year

It’s fitting that a helicopter flew over Evan Nachtigall’s head as he completed the crowning achievement of his life in amateur sports.

The 24-year-old golfer has been learning to block out noise for years, whether external or his own thoughts, so he can deliver when it matters.

He stood over the fastest putt he’d seen all week, a 10-foot downhill slider on the 18th hole at Southwood Golf and Country Club, and drilled it.

Nachtigall let out the deepest sigh of relief along with a subdued fist pump as he realized he was the provincial men’s amateur golf champion.

It was the most significant of many wins in 2025 for the Brandonite, who capped the season as Golf Manitoba’s male athlete of the year.

Now, he’s the Brandon Sun’s H.L. (Krug) Crawford award winner as Westman’s sportsperson of the year.

“It means a ton, just because I hadn’t really won anything meaningful,” Nachtigall said of the amateur title.

“Golf’s hard, because you know what you’re capable of, but until you actually do it, there’s always those doubts in your mind.

“It’s nice to see hard work paying off, especially the amount of time I’ve put into this game.”

LATE BREAKOUT

While it was the first time a golfer playing out of a Westman club won the province’s biggest amateur event, it didn’t surprise many. Nachtigall broke into the amateur golf scene in 2020, a full year after graduating high school, and didn’t take long to cement himself as one of the best players in Manitoba.

He seemingly came out of nowhere, since he didn’t have a storied junior golf career like most champs do, but fellow Shilo Country Club member Drew Jones said Nachtigall was laying the foundation for years prior.

He worked on the grounds crew at Wheat City Golf Course, where Nachtigall was a junior member in high school, and said he often saw him out for solo morning rounds.

“Anyone that plays the game would know if you’re doing that, getting up early, slinging the bag over your shoulder and walking the course by yourself and getting enjoyment out of it, you’re definitely in love with the sport,” Jones said.

“He showed really steady improvement throughout; he’s had lots of mentoring and help, and the rest is up to him as to how good he can get.”

Jones said Nachtigall’s breakout tournament came in 2021, when he was in the top 10 at the men’s amateur at Neepawa Golf and Country Club for most of the four-day event, and ultimately finished 12th.

Nachtigall finished tied for 11th the following year at Elmhurst Golf and Country Club, then sixth in 2023 at Oak Island Resort.

He closed last year’s amateur with one of his worst competitive rounds, a 10-over 80 to drop to T20 at Rossmere Golf and Country Club.

OFF-SEASON MOVES

At that point, Nachtigall had posted plenty of ridiculously low scores in casual rounds, won a Prairie Scratch Tour event and dropped his handicap to around plus-4, basically meaning he broke par the vast majority of the time.

But as any golfer who has entered a serious individual tournament knows, competitive golf is a different beast.

“Are you able to repeat the same golf swing under pressure?” Nachtigall asked.

“When I sat down and thought about it at the end of the year and more at the start of 2025, looking at video, I was relying a lot on my athletic abilities and basically just timing it up. My swing, to most, would look really good. My ball flight would look really good, the sound at impact would sound really good.

“Are you able to repeat that swing under pressure when it really matters, or are you only able to make it when you’re out with your buddies?”

Nachtigall took a chance in March, hiring a swing coach to mentor him online. He would trust the process, even if the outcomes were ugly early on.

Most of the changes were in his setup, with some emphasis on hitting a few different spots throughout the swing, and relying more on full-body rotation rather than elite hand-eye co-ordination to produce good shots.

One April day at the range on a quick pre-season golf trip to British Columbia, he went back for a second bucket because he couldn’t execute what he was supposed to on his first few dozen swings.

“I feel like I’m very good mentally on the golf course and I don’t show that frustration,” he said. “But … I was absolutely livid.”

Mind you, the majority of these shots were still better than most golfers could imagine hitting.

But the drive for perfection in golf, as unattainable as it will always be, envelops every serious player.

“What makes Evan such a good competitive golfer is the competitive part, the competitive edge in him. He has a really good game but he really relishes competition and really likes to win,” Jones said.

“If his game’s not in a position where he thinks he can win, he practises and works on his game to get all aspects of his game to a point where in his head, he can be the best in the field.”

EARLY PROMISE

Nachtigall kicked off the provincial season with the match play qualifier in Winkler. He was 2 under through 13 holes before rattling off birdies on four of the last five to shoot 65 and claim medallist honours.

“I wouldn’t say I hit the ball remotely close to good that day,” Nachtigall said.

“I definitely made some putts. I never hit it in trouble, which is obviously what you have to do.

“I would not say that round in Winkler gave me a bunch of confidence, just because of how I struck the ball.”

He felt it was more of the same during the match play portion, where he plotted his way around Elmhurst for the first three rounds, but the mistakes caught up to him against Elmhurst member Michael Tanchak, who beat him on the first playoff hole.

Nachtigall continued to struggle with his swing at the Elmhurst Invitational, finishing T12 with a 3-over 74 after the second round was cancelled due to weather.

He won another event on the Prairie Scratch Tour, battling through 60-kilometre-per-hour wind at the Whispering Winds of Warren and beating Jordy Lutz in a playoff after both carded 73s.

At the PST event the week before the amateur, Nachtigall blew up on one hole, losing four balls off the tee on a par 5 and falling out of the running.

But it didn’t rattle him.

“That was honestly very good mentally for me to shoot a high score and still be like ‘I’m fine,’” he said.

He still wasn’t happy with his ball striking the day before the amateur. During his practice round, he decided to try something different.

“With my trail arm, let’s feel like I’m doing a bicep curl in my backswing,” Nachtigall recalled.

“I started to hit it good, I started to see the cut off the tee, how I like it.”

THE AMATEUR

All was fixed, right?

Wrong.

“Just an absolute nightmare start to Round 1,” Nachtigall said.

He made two bogeys and a double on the opening nine, and sat just five spots off the bottom of the leaderboard.

The lefty had been playing more conservatively lately, since he still didn’t fully trust his swing. But he switched his mindset and decided he wanted to birdie every hole on the back nine. He didn’t but still birdied more than half of them to shoot up into a tie for the lead with a 3-under 69.

Nachtigall shot 70 on the second day to sit one shot back of the leader, Jones.

The two stayed at the same Airbnb that week, so they had plenty of time to talk about the pressure-packed day ahead.

They kept chatting throughout the final round, which started with Nachtigall birdieing the first hole to tie it up and the two staying knotted at 8 under heading to the last nine.

Nachtigall had played the early stretch of the back nine better than anyone in the field for the first few days, and while the sparks stopped flying, he pulled ahead on a few Jones bogeys.

Suddenly, the lead was three with three holes to go.

“I was thinking to myself when I was walking, ‘He wants this so bad, I know how bad he wants this and he wants it more than I want it, honestly,’” Jones said.

“He seemed like a man on a mission the entire round, even though he was still Evan, we were still laughing, telling jokes and talking to each other the entire round, right up to the final putt on 18.

“I could tell how much it meant to him, and he was able to get out of his own way and let his golf do the talking.”

While Nachtigall made his only two bogeys of the day on the 16th and 17th holes, he still led by two at the par-5 18th, and safely reached the green in two shots.

After lagging a 70-footer to 10 feet, he was a tad confused and thought he would need to make it to avoid a playoff, should Josiah Tong sink a short birdie chip.

Nachtigall knew he had some breathing room, but also knew he could run his putt well past the hole.

He went for it and struck it perfectly.

“When it went in, the release of tension in my body, and obviously excitement, it was a weird feeling. I felt chills. It was like a wave throughout my entire body; it was the craziest thing,” Nachtigall said.

“Drew’s there to come give me a big hug, and it was pretty special.

“It was probably one of the best rounds of golf, circumstantially, that I’ve ever played until the couple of mishaps on 16, 17, which are strictly circumstantial and nerve-related.”

AFTERMATH

Nachtigall went on to compete on some bigger stages, the first being the Canadian men’s amateur in Ottawa, where he missed the cut, and his first PGA Tour Americas event, the Manitoba Open.

It was shortened to 36 holes due to torrential rain soaking Breezy Bend Country Club, and Nachtigall struggled through a pair of mid-70s rounds to finish near the bottom of the leaderboard.

But he also bounced back and played a few crazy rounds, including shooting the competitive course record of 63 at Wheat City to win the Golf Manitoba men’s four-ball as he and Jones carded a 12-under 59.

Nachtigall has also fired 9-under 63 at Shilo, 8-under 64 at Oak Island, and this summer, 10-under 60 at Glen Lea Golf Course, to hold or share the record at four Westman courses.

With every big finish or crazy score comes the question: When are you turning pro?

DECISION TIME

Nachtigall has always been one to live fully in the present, to lean into whatever he’s doing and give it all he has.

It’s how he became a AAA hockey player before hanging up his skates and focusing on football in high school.

It’s why he broke the Winnipeg High School Football League’s single-season passing yards record behind a sieve of an offensive line at Neelin High School.

It’s the reason he’s been able to accomplish so much on the golf course.

But even as he ascends further than he has in any sport with his most recent passion, he admits it’s more challenging than anything else.

“Playing team sports my whole life, that was what I lived for,” Nachtigall said. “Going to this, that’s why it’s very mentally exhausting, this game.

“There’s no one there to push you. There is sometimes, and I have a lot of very close people in my life that do that, that I’m very thankful for … At the same time, they’re not always physically out there with you.

“At what point do I actually feel like I can get better, and can I continue to get satisfaction and exceed my expectations?”

He just completed his bachelor’s degree at Brandon University, something that has arguably served as a crutch to delay his decision on golf.

That decision, to turn pro or find a new path and continue chasing goals in amateur golf, has been weighing on him more than ever.

As great as he is, the talent it takes to make a living swinging a club is greater yet.

Naturally, one overwhelming thought is doubt.

“Am I motivated enough to go do all that is needed alone and sacrifice all this money and maybe pure enjoyment for the game, just to maybe have a chance at success? I don’t know,” Nachtigall said.

“I almost felt like other people wanted me to go chase pro golf way more than I actually did.”

On the other hand, it’s been the goal for five years now, and the thought of leaving it behind is as daunting as going all-in.

“I think pretty deeply about my purpose and I feel like I was put on this earth to just try,” Nachtigall said. “I do think if I didn’t try, I’d be sitting with it.

“When the game’s on and I’m firing on all cylinders, I literally feel like I can beat anyone, but then you get the times where you’re grinding, you’re thinking way too much and it’s not going well.

“At the end of the day, I don’t want to sink every last penny of my name into it to play bad at the wrong time. If money wasn’t something that was so important to be able to live your life down the road, I would have done it yesterday.”

Whether golf remains Nachtigall’s serious passion or becomes his profession, it’s here to stay as an integral part of his life.

The game his grandfather taught him to play growing up is one that few from this area have mastered quite like him.

The crazy part is he has yet to reach his ceiling.

“The more mature I get, the smarter I get, I’m able to think my way around the golf course better,” Nachtigall said. “The past three years has probably been the hardest I’ve worked at any sport I’ve ever played.

“And I did some pretty cool stuff.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com