Royal Colwood Member Works Hard, Shrugs Off The Pressure And Does Her Club Proud
Article By Jeff Sutherland / Colwood, BC - 24/08/02 • When long-time Royal Colwood member Cynthia Adamek teed it up as the host Club's exemption into the 110th Women's Canadian Amateur, you might think she would be feeling some pressure. Not so much. She was more than prepared and totally focussed on competing well...
Cynthia Adanmek has played golf at Royal Colwood for most of her life starting at the age of 12. She won her first Club Championship as a junior in 2002. Then, like many golfers in their twenties, she took a break to have a career and kids. A return to playing golf on a more regular basis started around 2018 and Cynthia's trunk-to-tee game has been good enough to win her Club Championship four of the past five years.
"I've had children, I got married, I've switched careers", said Adamek in a phone interview the day after the final round competing with top female amateurs from across the country and around the world.
"Right now, I'm a single mom... Golf sort of became more of a hobby where I would come for the four and a half hours that you needed to be at the golf course and even that was a lot to be away from my kids. Then last year, I thought, 'My kids are getting a bit older, I have a little bit more time and I decided, 'You know what? Now's the time that maybe I can work on my game'... I knew I was a better player than the scores I was producing, and my goal was to find some consistency in my game."
That's when the Club's Director of Instruction, Class "A' PGA of Canada Professional Jamie Murphy, became involved, “For me to be successful with any student, it’s all about building trust and relationship. When I met Cynthia, I knew she was a good player. Our initial conversation revolved around how much she would push, work hard, stay patient and be disciplined to become the best version of herself.”
Adamek recalls their early days together in the Spring of 2023, "We started working together and I did exactly what everybody does when they start working with a coach. I got worse, and that was really, really frustrating. Jamie didn't think I was going to get worse, but I did get worse, and, in that, he saw what I really needed to work on, which was what was going on between my ears. So we did a lot of work on my game, but we also did a lot of work on my mental game. At first, it was only going to be four lessons in the spring but I decided to extend it so I worked with him all year."
It was at this point Adamek started to seriously think about competing in the national championship Royal Colwood would be hosting the following year. She was starting to play very well and even achieved a long-cherished goal to break 70, posting an impressive 66.
"My game has come a long way since I started working with Jamie, and I thought, 'You know what, maybe I want to give this a really good go'. And if I was going to represent our club, I wasn't going to do it by just saying, 'Oh, well, I got a spot', I wanted to do it well. We really got to know each other, which is really important. He knew how I was going to react to certain things. He knew how hard I was going to work. He trusted that I would put the time in and he knew when to skip steps that maybe other people would need. He also knew when to slow down."
Murphy was also very positive about Adamek’s development, “Once she committed to her program, trust was developed, and she learned right away that I wasn’t going to tell her what she wanted to hear and that she had to be committed to the plan. She committed to the plan and surpassed all of her goals. Her game has come a long way, however it’s her mindset, mental toughness and fight that is allowing her to see the big picture. It’s her greatest work to date.”
Cynthia played in a few local events for warm up and then used the Canadian Mid-Amateur held in early July at Crown Isle as her dress rehearsal and learning experience, "I never did college golf. So it really had been essentially twenty years since I'd done competition. Crown Isle was my first big tournament since junior tournaments. My scores were not as good as I would have liked, and I had a few really bad holes that really pushed my numbers up. But I also learned so much from that experience. I learned how I was going to react in a big tournament."
This would serve her well two weeks later at Royal Colwood. During the first round of the tournament, Adamek, after going three-over after three holes, would right the ship and play the next fifteen in just one-over. A score of 4-over, 76 put her tied for 52nd.
Fast forward to the late stages of Day Two and Cynthia had just bogeyed both the par-five sixth and the par-three seventh (her 15th and 16th holes of the day). Standing on the eighth tee, both she and Jamie - who was caddying for her - knew they would need to finish strong to get to play the final two rounds.
"I knew I needed to play two fairly decent rounds to make the cut, and I knew it was tight. I made bogeys on six and seven and although we didn't talk about it, I knew - and Murph knew - that there was no question, if I didn't make two pars or less on the final two holes, I was not going to make the cut. And so I gave it my all."
Two pars later, Adamek had posted a 9-over, 76-77-153 total on the par-72 layout making the cut on the number tie-ing for 65th.
While Cynthia says this was not her goal, it is clear that she is proud of the achievement, "I am not saying that I assumed I would make the cut, but more that I approached this week as a four day tournament not two days. I worked very hard to have my game be good enough to make the cut and I made the cut in the biggest amateur golf tournament in Canada, and that felt pretty phenomenal."
Her third round 78 was her highest score of the tournament and Adamek acknowledged that she lost a little focus and this was where having Jamie on the bag proved its worth, "The third day, I was not mentally present. I was really excited to have made the cut and I think I was goalless. As a caddy, this was where Murph did very well. There were moments where I wasn’t having fun on the third day. But he really tried hard to just keep me in the moment and say, 'Hey, you should be honored to be playing in this and I was honored to be playing with all of these elite golfers, Canadian and international golfers, and I deserve to be there'. So he was very good at keeping me positive."
The final round was where Adamek really found her form. The course was set with the same final day pins as the 2013 Canadian Men's Amateur Championship and she posted her low round of the tournament, a 74 that matched the average for the field and bettered more than a third of the competitors. Her final position was T57th (see scoring HERE)
"Friday, I just came out. I thought, You know what? My first goal was to have fun, and my second goal was to shoot low 70s. I met both of those goals on the last day and I played a lot more aggressively on the last day."
Four days on the bag showed a lot to Jamie Murphy as well, “First her play was fantastic, considering everything involved. Round three was interesting as I felt she would come in very relaxed. She was a bit anxious and really wasn’t as comfortable. She was having trouble enjoying the moment and staying focussed. That day was hard work for both of us but a huge learning moment in her development. We had a discussion after the round followed by a phone call. The goal for round four was, ‘ Embrace every minute of it, play aggressive and have fun.’ Well, she did that and showed the quality of golf she can play under high pressure situations. As I tell all my students, always be willing to learn something. What did she learn? She belongs! and has more fight than she knows.”
If Jamie's sage advice was the fifteenth club in Cynthia's bag, then the support of her fellow Club members was the sixteenth.
"Once I decided I was doing this, I felt like the whole club was behind me. They knew I was putting in the work which gave me even more of a boost to continue on or do more, because there were some weeks where I was tired or felt like giving up. During the tournament, I couldn't believe how many people, if they weren't at the golf course, they were following online. And the text messages and emails I was getting from people... I was just so touched by how much they understood how big a tournament this was, and how much it meant that I made the cut. It was amazing for me to know that so many people were watching and so many people cared."
Where does Cynthia go from here?
While she is not making any commitments yet, it is clear she would be excited about having Jamie Murphy be part of the process, "It's been a really great friendship that's developed, and to have him on the bag this week, I really needed that. I think we needed that for my future as well, because now he's seen me play four solid rounds in a tournament with the nerves, and he knows exactly what's lacking in my game So I'm feeling pretty honored that he's already got a plan. We're not talking about that for another week, though, but if I want to go further, he says he knows exactly what I need to work on."
Find out more about the tournament HERE