Starr of the show

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This article was published 16/08/2022 (1359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OAK LAKE — Drake Starr had a lot to prove and did it in a swift 13 holes on Tuesday.

The 16-year-old from Sandy Bay First Nation returned to the Westman Junior Golf Tour after finishing second last in the 18-and-under division in 2021.

This time around, Starr was locked in from the first tee to the 13th at Oak Island Resort, smashing Russell’s Colby Lowe 6 and 5 to capture the championship.

“I was playing pretty good,” Starr said after a rare bogey to halve the par 5. “I was sticking darts and felt pretty solid with the all-around game.

“… Going from second last, last year to winning it this year feels pretty good.”

Brandon’s Rhett Ryden finished second in Tuesday’s event when Dauphin’s Quinten Fisk carded a red-hot 4-over 76 but collected eight points to pass Brayden Watt for the 14U division crown. Brandon’s Brayden Hamm ran away with the 12U title.

Starr grew up playing golf with his dad and started taking it seriously three years ago. He joined Neepawa Golf and Country Club a few seasons back and said the tight fairways and demanding tee shots have helped his game.

It certainly made a difference in last week’s semifinals. Starr got to play on home turf against Rossburn’s Dru Mushumanski and closed him out on the 17th hole to advance.

It was Starr’s second meeting with Lowe, who beat him 1 up at Pleasant Valley during the regular season.

“He’s a really solid player,” Starr said. “It’s nice to beat a player that beat you before this.”

Lowe didn’t have his best stuff and Starr took full advantage. He raced ahead, winning five of the first six holes — he gave Lowe a four-footer out of sympathy on the fifth — then gave up two before a bounce-back birdie to make the turn 4 up.

Starr took the 11th and 12th on Lowe’s mistakes and just needed a halve on the 13th. When Lowe had to reload on the tee box, it was all but over.

Starr was just a few strokes over par at that point and not many WJGT players would have put up a fight.

“Hard work pays off, practice makes perfect, that’s always what I’ve been taught,” Starr said. “… I didn’t really feel like I was playing match play, it felt like I was playing a round with my dad and with friends. Just tried to keep that mindset throughout the whole round.”

Ryden was half a point back of Watt going into the final. The scoring system awards 10 points for first, eight for second and decreases by one point per place after that. Ties award half points, so Ryden had to finish ahead of Watt and either tie or beat Noah Jensen to win. The three were all within a stroke at the turn, hovering around bogey golf, but Ryden posted a back-nine 40 to ice it.

He was stoked to learn he’d won the season-long race.

“It’s just lots of golf, had to keep playing,” he said. “Had some good, some bad but stuck to what I was good at.

“I can drive the ball pretty far, just need to work on keeping the ball on the fairway.”

Ryden, 14, jumped up the standings with a victory at the Wheat City stop, taking advantage of his home track.

The 12U event was Hamm’s to lose. Realistically, anything but a disqualification was good enough and he played solid all day.

“Feels good. I just tried to play the best I can,” Hamm said. “My putting can be a bit better but my long game’s pretty good so it helps.”

That makes sense as the 12-year-old is a member at Mulligan’s Driving Range and gets plenty of swings in throughout the summer.

He was on a roll entering the week, too, after breaking 80 for the first time at Neepawa last week, even with a double-bogey on the par-3 18th.

“That was the best I’ve ever played.”

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