Winston Sjodin poses with his dad Curtis after winning the Under 7 longest drive division July 24 in Calgary at an an amateur long drive competition. - PHOTO COURTESY OF CURTIS SJODIN
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
One of Winston Sjodin’s favourite parts of golf is watching the ball fly through the air, which it does for a long time when it travels 201 yards.
That’s how far the seven-year-old Hatter recently hit a golf ball to win a long driving competition.
Sjodin, alongside his dad Curtis, competed at the Amateur Long Drive event in Calgary on July 24, marking the young golfer’s first competition. He won the U7 division with his 201-yard drive while his dad won the 35-plus age group and had the second-longest drive of the day among all golfers.
Sjodin has been competing for a year and a half and said the competition was a great time to share with his son.
“He wanted to come to an event that was cancelled a month earlier here and he was kind of devastated. He really wanted to go and give it a try,” Sjodin said. “When we got there, I mean, he’s obviously one of the youngest people there and hitting, so he had lots of support behind him. He really wanted to do it and was excited. Then when he did well, it was just cool to see him be excited and see him do well. It’s always good to see your son do well.”
He said Winston picked up the game when he was young, hitting plastic clubs until he had a junior set at the age of two. Now Sjodin says, his son loves the sport and he and his wife Lisa are trying to get their daughter into the sport, which is made easier as the family lives on Connaught Golf Club.
“We just want to keep it fun for them. We let them drive the cart and have snacks,” Sjodin said. “We’re lucky because we can go out and play one, two or three holes. Both of our kids get memberships because I have a membership, so if we want to play two holes, we play two, if they want to play five holes, we play five. We’re definitely not pushing them into it. If they asked to go, we’ll take them but we just try and keep it fun. I’m not trying to give them lessons. It’s just have fun, hit the ball.”
On top of watching the ball, the young golfer said he also likes putting and was quick to admit he is better at it than his dad.
Lisa said her son is a professional driver of the golf cart and likes visiting the snack shack to pick up his favourite snack, a cookies and creme chocolate bar.
“We definitely don’t push them into it but, we get to do it together, which is obviously great,” Sjodin said. “For him to want to compete and then to see him do well in front of a big group of people, it’s amazing.”
He said they are planning on participating in another event on Aug. 14 and one in September to potentially get enough points to earn a trip to the world championships, something Sjodin was able to do last year.
He represented Canada in the worlds long drive competitions last year in Chicago, something he hopes to do again this year when it is in Florida. He said the worlds competition has a U7 division and joked that it is pretty close to Disney World, a win win for the family of four.
