Three local golfers would give it their best shot at the Ontario Amateur Golf Championship at Black Bear Ridge Golf Resort in Corbyville (just north of Belleville) last week, with one moving on to qualify for the 118th Canadian Men's Amateur Championship next month.
With highly consistent rounds of 73-70-71-72 (286), Alex Fowke would find himself all alone in 14th place, eight shots back of tournament champion Cameron Pero - but just one stroke away from a top-ten finish.
Pero, who led the 2022 Ontario Junior (U19) Boys Golf Championship at Timberwolf Golf Course in Sudbury last summer before being overtaken on the final day by Oscar Feschuk, walked off with a two-stroke win at Black Bear, with NHL referee and occasional Idylwylde Invitational participant Garrett Rank and Ashton McCulloch tied for second place (280).
Vince Palladino Jr recorded rounds of 75 & 78 (153), missing the cut line by four strokes while Josh Hayes also fell short of reaching the top 60 in a gathering of the province's best in a field that was comfortably more than double that size (144 golfers in all - or so).
Hosted roughly one week earlier at the Burlington Golf & Country Club, the 2023 Ontario Men's Mid-Amateur Championship would also feature some local content, as well as a larger number of faces who are familiar entries to the Idylwylde Invitational.
Jay Jewett (75-72-75 - Timberwolf) was part of a seven-way tie for 25th place at 222, fifteen strokes off the pace that was set by tournament winner Simon McInnis, a native of Toronto and one-time member of the University of Waterloo Warriors golf team.
Recognizable names in the top half of the field included Frank Kucher (Sault Ste Marie Golf Club), who cracked the top ten with a three round score of 215, as well as Kyle Rank and Dave Bunker, both at 2019, and Nick Hofland at 221.
The 108th Ontario Women's Amateur & Mid-Amateur Championship is set to tee-off Wednesday at the Donalda Club (North York), with Sudbury high-schooler Lea Lemieux the only local entry in the field of 96 players.
Over at The Club at Bond Head at almost exactly the same time, Nickel City hopes at the 2023 Ontario Junior (U19) Boys tournament will rest in the hands of a quartet of players that includes siblings Connor and Ryan Di Salle, as well as Ben Hickey and Johnny Svalina.
Many of these teenagers have cut their teeth on the Northeastern Junior Golf Tour, with Lemieux recently picking up wins at both Stone Ridge in Elliot Lake (June 18th), as well as this past Friday at Osprey Links in North Bay.
Connor Di Salle also finished first at Stone Ridge and was deadlocked at 87 with Tyler Stephanich last week. The most competitive bracket, simply in terms of numbers, the U17 division has featured victories by Ayrton Longe (72 at Stone Ridge) and Jeremy Lewis (79 at Osprey Links).
Ty Dubreuil, Blake Chenier and Edison Joly have jockeyed for top spot in the U15 bracket, the first two hitting the win column this summer while Camden Poirier (U13) has posted victories by five and seven strokes over Jordan Jantzi this past month.
