TEEING OFF: Gilbert Plains set to test Manitoba’s best

GILBERT PLAINS — The province’s top golfers are on one of the longest treks they will ever make for a provincial championship this week.

It’s worth the trip.

For the first time, Gilbert Plains Country Club is staging a Golf Manitoba major championship when the women’s amateur and men’s mid-amateur begin on Wednesday.

The course hosted the Golf Manitoba rural amateur from 1997 to 2000, then hosted the 2024 Manitoba Games golf event.

“To get another Golf Manitoba event out here is really exciting for our community and exciting, obviously, to showcase the golf course,” said Scott McCallum, GPCC golf professional and general manager.

“One of the hardest things about this job is travelling around the province and having people say, ‘I’ve heard of your golf course.’ You’ve just got to get out and play it.”

I’ll admit I was one of those for seven summers in Brandon, hearing nothing but good things about Gilbert Plains but not making the time to travel a few hours north during golf season.

That was a mistake. It’s one of the best public tracks in Manitoba.

GPCC features a great combination of holes that make you think and ones that let you blast away off the tee. It rewards good shots and punishes bad ones.

It features the craziest hole I’ve ever seen in the 422-yard par-4 11th, which takes a solid 230-yard tee shot to the dogleg to set up for a shot straight up a hill to a green you can’t see — with bushes on both sides.

But after that, you get two solid birdie holes and a scenic downhill par 3 as a payoff.

There are a few that seem simple off the tee, but less than perfect execution makes the second shot remarkably tough.

“Left to right golf course, and target golf,” is McCallum’s assessment.

“You definitely pay attention to your yardages and how far you’re hitting the ball, and obviously, stay below some of the pins on the greens.”

He’s in his 19th year at the club, so he knows the course as well as anyone — well, except for his right-hand man, superintendent Don Senyk.

“Donny is a very, very wise superintendent and he’s done a great job. We work really well together, so it’s a treat to come to work every day and he gets excited about every project I throw at him,” McCallum said, adding he’s grateful for all the staff around him helping prepare for events like the one this week.

Senyk worked closely with Alternative Landscaping recently, widening the course’s creeks to mitigate flooding.

It has paid off. Despite heavy rainfall this month, the course has been in fantastic shape and has some of the purest greens in Westman.

The course will max out at 6,540 yards and play as a par 70 for the 59-player mid-am, and 6,055 yards as a par 71 for the women’s amateur field of 20. Both events feature two-time defending champions in Allan McDonald and Addison Kartusch, who just made her Epson Tour debut on June 19, shooting rounds of 75 and 70 to finish 1-over par and miss the cut by just two strokes on the circuit one step below the LPGA Tour.

The women’s field also includes Killarney’s Cala Korman and Binscarth’s Clara Peake.

On the men’s side, 2025 amateur champion Evan Nachtigall of Brandon has turned 25, making him eligible for his first mid-am, joining a field that includes three-time runner-up Drew Jones, headlining a strong Westman presence.

The 54-hole event concludes on Friday.

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Brandon’s Brayden Hamm shot a 1-over 72 at Steinbach Fly-In Golf Club on Friday, qualifying for the men’s amateur, which takes place July 13-15 at St. Boniface Golf Club.

Also qualifying were Brandon’s Spence Mott (73), Oak Island’s Cameron Duncan (73), Gilbert Plains’ Cash McCallum (77), Shilo’s Brad Pardy (78) and Will Kinsman (79) and Dauphin’s Eric Prokopowich (80).