Western Canada Summer Games Selection Time Nearing
by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf
Time is ticking for the four boys and four girls who will comprise the British Columbia golf team for the Western Canada Summer Games to be held in Wood Buffalo, Alberta this August.
British Columbia Golf held its last High Performance Camp before the final selections are revealed in mid-April and 17 aspiring young golfers – 6 boys and 11 girls – took over three facilities in Burnaby to strut their stuff and show coaches Jody Jackson and Matt Palsenbarg, along with Debbie Pyne, British Columbia Golf’s Managing Director of Player Development why they deserve to be on the team.
Fortius Sport & Health served as the base of operations for the camp, with classroom seminars and gym work being conducted during the day and on-site accommodations used to house the campers on Saturday night.
Through the generous support of the City of Burnaby, the camp participants played a full 18 holes at Riverway Golf Course during a brilliant February afternoon and then spent Sunday morning going through drills and exercises at the driving range and chipping and putting greens at Burnaby Mountain Golf Course.
“This was a chance to see how some players have developed since we held our last High Performance Camp (at Northview) in October,” said Palsenbarg. “We want to see growth and development.”
Pyne said that while no final decisions have been made - several players who didn’t attend this camp because of a scheduling conflict are still under consideration for the team – the coaches are using the camp to evaluate players not just for Wood Buffalo, but for three other teams, the Eddie Hogan Cup, the North Pacific Junior Girls and the Girls Junior America’s Cup, which British Columbia will be fielding teams for this summer.
Camp began early Saturday morning with Lindsay Manion leading a fitness regimen at Fortius that included everything from stretching and exercising using a foam roller to playing basketball.
Classroom work on Saturday included Jackson working on the mental side of competition and a memorable exercise where participants learned to sync their mind and their muscles to move a key around.
Matt Palsenbarg Teaches The ‘Moneyball: Golf version’ To High Performance Participants Bernie Xu, A.J. Ewart, Natalie Chu, Megan Ratcliffe And Tiffany Kong - Image Credit Alfie Lau
Campers also got re-introduced to the concept of health eating, as they ordered from the delectable menu at the Riverway Clubhouse. What they may not have realized was that the coaches were taking note because 30 minutes after lunch concluded, the participants were out on the course playing 18 holes at Riverway.
“We want them to experience similar conditions to what they would face if they made the team,” said Pyne. “Sometimes you don’t have a lot of time for lunch and you have to make smart decisions in a short amount of time.”
Palsenbarg put together the four “provinces” with captains Mitchell Thiessen, A.J. Ewart, Evan Merrier and Alisha Lau leading their teams into competition with the top three of four scores counting (much like will be the case in Wood Buffalo).
The coaches took note of how players confronted certain risk/reward situations. For example, the 3rd hole at Riverway is a par-5 with a creek 100 yards from the green.
The players had to figure out whether they wanted to lay up on their third shot and if so, whether to lay up short of the creek or past the creek, where multiple hazards came into play.“We want to see how players think themselves around the course,” said Palsenbarg.
Several holes later, at the par-4 7th, players were faced with hitting a mid-iron tee shot to the fat part of the fairway, 140 yards from the hole, or taking a longer club to get within 100 yards of the hole. The latter option is much more harrowing, as the fairway pinches in after 140 yards, with water on the left and a bunker on the right.
The team competition would be won by Lau’s team of Khan Lee, Christopher Dale and Phoebe Yue, while the individual competition was won by Nanaimo’s Shirin Anjarwalla, who carded a (-1) round of 71.
Sunday began bright and early with a catered breakfast at Fortius – once again, coaches took note of how players approached their nutritional requirements – before the players rotated through four teaching stations at Burnaby Mountain.
Guest coaches Alex Ludeman and Jodi Reimer ran the Flightscope and putting/chipping stations respectively and all players competed for points in two separate skills challenges.
Ludeman had players hit 15 pitch and chip shots ranging from 35 to 100 yards and they had to hit it within an 18 foot by 18 foot range for the first 12 shots and 12 foot by 12 foot range for the final three shots.
With a maximum score of five points per shot, the maximum points that could be accumulated was 75. Ewart would win with a score of 22 points, as the players realized how hard it is to hit even a short shot to within such a small range.
Reimer’s chipping and putting challenges included lag putts, sand shots and greenside chips, with Mary Parsons of Delta scoring the top mark, with 80 points.
Palsenbarg talked to the students about the 'Moneybal'l aspect of golf, which involves using statistics to track each shot and how those statistics can help golfers improve their game. Jackson continued her talk about the mental side of the game and how players need to commit to each and every shot in competition.
It was back to Fortius for lunch, where certified nutrition expert Cristina Sutter reinforced the importance of making smart food choices before, during and after competition.
The camp participants were then given some one-on-one feedback from Palsenbarg and Jackson, along with a reminder from Pyne that the next six weeks are important because there are multiple local MJT and CJGA competitions that will form part of the final judging criteria for the eight Western Canadian spots.
Coaches would like to see each player complete six or seven competitive rounds before mid-April so that the final pieces of the evaluation puzzle are complete.