It has been a busy couple of weeks for Barrhead golfer Ty Steinbring.
When the Leader first talked to Steinbring, 15, on June 23, he was busy preparing for the Alberta Provincial Junior and Juvenile Golf Championships in Lethbridge on June 29 to July 2.
Steinbring qualified for the tournament by placing in the top 21 junior golfers in a tournament in Edmonton in early June.
On Monday, July 6, the Leader caught up with Steinbring again to see how things went.
“I am pretty happy with my performance,” he said. “Going into the tournament one of my goals was to be playing on the third and fourth days of the tournament and I did that.”
Not only did Steinbring achieve his goals, but he exceeded them ending up placing 13th in his age category and 49th overall. More than 120 golfers participated in the championships.
“I was pretty nervous,” Steinbring said. “I have never played in a four-day tournament before and I really didn’t know what to expect going in.”
Adding to his nervousness was the fact that he wasn’t familiar with the course. Although Steinbring received a scouting report of the course from Jessica Luciuk, a Barrrhead golfer who has won the Alberta Ladies Championship multiple times, he really didn’t have a chance to study the course before he left for the tournament.
To help alleviate his nerves, Steinbring and his mother, Trisha, decided to leave Barrhead early so that he could get in a couple of practice rounds.
Because of the abnormally warm weather, Ty was only able to get one round in before the tournament started.
“It was really hot that day, I think it was something like 33 degrees Celcius,” Trisha said, adding that during a tournament players are not allowed to use golf carts, but because of the heat she decided to drive Ty along the course that day.
The hot weather continued for the entire four days of the tournament. However, Steinbring considers himself fortunate, because for many golfers heat wasn’t the only element they had to battle.
Often in southern Alberta wind can also be a factor.
“There were a couple of holes near the end of one of my rounds when it started to get a bit windy, but nothing major, which is surprising because it tends to get pretty windy down there,” he said.
On the first day of the tournament, Steinbring got off to a slow start, adding that every day he struggled with his nerves.
“I was definitely nervous,” he said, “Especially early on. I don’t think I hit a solid first tee shot the whole tournament, but after a couple of holes I settled down and it was just golf after that.”
Steinbring finished the first day of competition tied for 60th place after shooting a 79.
Although he said he was happy with how he played the first round, Steinbring knew that he had a lot of room for improvement. Especially in his long game.
“I wasn’t striking the ball all that well, but I was just hitting it well enough,” adding that as the round progressed so did his game. “It was a solid score and I knew I was in a good position going into the second round.”
To make the cut after two rounds golfers needed to finish in the top 60.
Day two of the tournament, Steinbring said he didn’t feel quite right and struggled for consistency. For the second straight round, Steinbring found himself hovering around the cut line.
“I couldn’t seem to get anything going on the second day,” he said, adding the main reason was because of his long game. “I couldn’t keep my driver in play at all and on that course in order to shoot low you really need to have that part of your game going for you.”
At the end of the day Steinbring shot an 80 which was good enough for 58th place overall and by the time his age category was taken into account, he was able to move to a tie for 53rd.
“I knew I had put myself in a bad position, but when I found out I made the cut I was so proud of myself,” he said. “To make the cut at just 15 is quite an accomplishment.”
However, Steinbring didn’t have time to celebrate. The next day he was back on the course trying to prove that he truly deserved to make the cut.
The third day of a golf tournament is what many golfers call moving day. Either they move up in the rankings, or move down out of contention.
After getting off to another slow start on day three, Steinbring turned his game around and ended up having his best performance of the tournament.
“What really kicked off my round is that I birdied the par five on the fifth hole,” he said, adding that his birdie streak continued for the next two holes. “It was a really good moving day for me, I shot a 77 and moved up a lot of positions to 44th place.”
Even though Steinbring was buoyed by his previous day’s performance, he said the wear and tear of the tournament started to get to him by day four.
“You try to muster up as much energy as you can to shoot a good round, but I was so mentally drained and exhausted I knew it was going to be an uphill battle,” he said. “I hit my driver OK and my putting was good, but I couldn’t get the ball to drop for me.”
Steinbring ended the day shooting an 80 and finished the tournament in 49th place overall and tied for 13th in the 15 years-old and under age division.
As for what is next for Steinbring, he said he is currently preparing to compete in the CN Future Links Western Canadian Championships. If he does well in this tournament, Steinbring could qualify to play in a national tournament put on by Golf Canada.
“I am really excited to play in this tournament. I played this course before (Gibbons) in a McLennan Ross Junior Golf Tour tournament, but it played much different,” he said, adding unlike the previous tournament, this one will start on the back tee. “It’s a tough, difficult course. It has the most water of any golf course in Alberta. It’s just a really difficult course and it will be a good challenge for me.”
After the CN Future Links tournament, Steinbring will take the rest of the month off to prepare for a busy McLennan Ross Junior Golf Tour tournament schedule. In August, he plans to compete in at least six McLeannan Ross tournaments in hopes to qualify for their tour championship.
