Medicine Hat's Michael Valk lines up his putt on the 18th green during the first round of the Alberta Men's Amateur Championship golf tournament at Medicine Hat Golf and Country Club on Tuesday.--NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Michael Valk is in the conversation at the Alberta Men’s Amateur Championship after shooting a 2-under 69 to kick off the three-round tournament at Medicine Hat Golf and Country Club Tuesday.
Valk went even through the first nine, then birdied the 10th hole and dropped an eagle on 11 before closing out his opening round in a tie for sixth place – just three shots off the pace set by leader Chandler McDowell of Innisfail.
“I didn’t do anything special, didn’t do anything stupid and made it through alright,” said Valk. “I was a little shaky off the beginning but once I settled in, I made some good swings, made a couple putts and just kind of trucked along.”
Valk opened the shortened, spectator-free tournament in a pairing with Desert Blume Golf Course teammate Lanny Seefried. The two were slated to play with fellow Desert Blume golfer Derek Whitson, however he was forced to withdraw prior to the event.
“He’s another friend of ours so it’s not the best situation, but to play with Lanny? We’re good friends and just keep it calm the whole day with no stress,” said Valk, who also plays for the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. “We’re very lucky to be out here. I know a lot of places aren’t able to play golf right now, so I’m very grateful that we are able to play.”
Seefried – who sits tied for 23rd after shooting a 3-over 74 Tuesday – says he sees big things out of Valk this week.
“He’s going to be right up there near the end, he’s the local favourite,” said Seefried, adding his goal is to make the cut. “I’m getting a little bit older, it’s harder to compete with the young bucks, so my only goal was to make the cut and maybe have a top-30 or top-40 finish.”
Valk and Seefried are two of 10 local golfers at the event. Medicine Hat Golf and Country Club’s Ryan Hodgins closed out his first round tied for 12th at 1-over par, followed closely by teammates Mitchell Kurtz (2-over) Nolan Burzminski (3-over) and Matthaus Taylor (3-over).
“Tough last hole, but other than that it was pretty good,” said Hodgins. “I hit the ball good, only missed I think three fairways all day, so ball striking I was happy with. I didn’t make a whole lot of putts, but not a lot of mistakes either.”
Burzminski says he’ll be looking to improve on his putting entering today’s crucial second round, while Taylor says he just needs to keep things consistent in order to move his way up the leaderboard entering Thursday’s finale.
“I think I played better than the score indicated today,” said Taylor. “I think I hit a lot of really good putts today that just didn’t fall, just slight misreads, but that’s just golf, you can’t really do anything about it.”
“It was perfect conditions and I kind of struggled a little bit on the greens,” added Burzminski. “I’m not overly happy but there’s a lot to build on for tomorrow, so hopefully I can get things sorted out on the greens and post a better number.”
Desert Blume’s Jordon Forsythe went 4-over to sit in a tie for 33rd, while teammate Ryan Werre sits just behind at 5-over.
“I just didn’t play good today, there’s no excuse for it,” said Werre, adding he’ll need to climb to make the cut in the three-day sprint. “There’s only really one moving day ahead of us and I’m going to have to shoot a low one … to even be in the conversation. It’s for sure disappointing that way, but I totally understand why it’s just three days and I acknowledge Alberta Golf for even putting the events on.”
Medicine Hat’s Sam Bratvold sits tied with Werre for 44th with a 5-over-par performance in the first round, while teammate Will Wood closed out his round at 7-over.
