Lefty chasing Peake performance at women’s amateur

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/07/2022 (1329 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The pressure’s off for Clara Peake this week.

The Binscarth product enters back-to-back weeks of Golf Manitoba major championships with a berth in junior nationals and her spot on a college team secured for 2022-23.

Coming off a 2021 provincial junior girls title, Peake is set to take on 17 of Manitoba’s top female players in the women’s amateur at Granite Hills Golf Club today.

“I’m actually feeling good going into it,” Peake said. “I’ve been hitting the ball well right now and I’m excited to play Granite Hills. I’ve heard it’s really nice.”

Peake only started playing golf three years ago but spent time the past few winters at an academy in Florida. One of her coaches there helped her land with Redlands Community College of the National Junior Colleges Athletic Association in Oklahoma for 2022-23. She’s hoping to keep improving and move on to an NCAA Division I school in a few years.

Peake, 18, picked up her first big win in the 2021 junior at Shilo Country Club and is working for Golf Brandon this summer, which allows her to play and practise at Shilo, Wheat City Golf Course and Northern Pines.

She fine-tuned her setup and swing path with Wheat City head professional Dave Scinocca last week and is ready to take on a demanding 5,423-yard track in Lac du Bonnet for three days.

While it’s a short course for someone who’s regularly playing tees over 6,000 yards — she seldom plays the forward tees — Peake has learned how tough multi-round events can be.

“It’s hard. It’s really hard mentally and you get really tired by the last day but you just have to do it,” Peake said. “It’s nice if you have a bad round, you can always come back in the next couple of days.”

Peake finished tied for fifth at Golf Canada’s NextGen Prairie Championship at Quarry Oaks last month with rounds of 6-over 78 and 83 before the third was washed out due to rain. That earned her a trip to the Canadian Junior Girls Championship on July 26-29 at The Marshes Golf Club in Ottawa.

She still has a chance to play for Team Manitoba with a top-three finish at junior provincials at St. Charles next week.

And in case that’s not enough competitive golf, a top-four finish this week secures a spot in the Canadian women’s am, July 19-22 at Westmount Golf and Country Club in Kitchener, Ont.

Then she’s off to Oklahoma in August. If someone told the former Club West volleyball player back in 2019 that this was the path she’d take …

“I would think they were lying,” Peake said.

Killarney’s Cala Korman, coming off a women’s city and district championship victory, is also in the field, along with Brandon’s Payton Oakden, Swan River’s Crystal Zamzow and Clear Lake members Jeri and Jewel Lafleche. They’re competing for a title that Erickson’s Bobbi Uhl is not back to defend.

• • •

It appears some mercy is being taken on the 51 players in the men’s mid-amateur. While Granite Hills stretches to nearly 7,100 yards from the back tees, they’re playing it from the 6,642-yard blues.

It’s still no picnic, however, with five holes along the lake and punishing bush awaiting errant tee shots.

Todd Fanning, who won in 2021, is not playing. There’s a solid Shilo contingent including Drew Jones, Chris Sitko, Nolan Tutkaluk and Brad Pardy, along with Glenboro’s Glen Ford and Carberry’s Joel Baron.

Manitoba has 11 spots in the Canadian mid-amateur on Aug. 23-26 at Ontario’s Thornhill Club, with three reserved for players age 40 and up.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @thomasmfriesen