New Hatter riding the wave of golf success over summer

By James Tubb on July 21, 2023.

James Tubb
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com

Sarah Armstrong has been enjoying a hot stretch of golf over the past couple of weeks.
The 17-year-old finished fifth in the Alberta women’s championship, she won the Saskatchewan Junior Girls championship and finished second in the Alberta U19 Girls championship. She says it’s been a lot of mental work to get to this point.
“It’s been a lot of mental application work to get some tournament results out of my game,” Armstrong said. “More so necessarily than it feeling fantastic, but it’s been pretty good.”
Armstrong spoke to the News from the second hole of her home course in Desert Blume. She and her family moved to Medicine Hat this year from Vancouver Island seeking a place that would be nice in the summers and in large part because of the Blume.
“The Blume was a big reason for coming here, it’s an amazing golf course and I’ve really liked it,” Armstrong said.
Her fifth-place finish at the Alberta women’s championship qualified her to play at nationals being held this week in Halifax but she turned it down due to it being too far away and already spending a lot of time on the road.
Looking back on the Saskatchewan championship, Armstrong entered the tournament held at Swift Current with the mindset of capturing the title.
“We stayed in an RV there at this nice little RV park off a farm so that was pretty cute and I really wanted to win that one,” Armstrong said. “I’d gotten there with that in mind and shot 75 the first day to be one back and went out and shot 69 the second day to take a six-stroke lead in the final day. After the second day I was pretty relaxed and pretty happy. But from the first day I was definitely very focused on getting something done.”
Her second place at the Alberta Junior tournament was the highest finishing score of a Medicine Hat golfer with two other locals competing at the provincial finals held at Timber Valley in Turner Valley. Wyatt Bishop came in fifth place and Owen Bruins finished tied for 41st in the boys U19 finals.
She was happy with her first round at the provincial finals, a “scrappy 72,” before a girl in the group ahead of her took the tournament.
“The second round was kind of average and the girl that won was actually in the group ahead of me and there was only a leaderboard for our group,” Armstrong said. “I didn’t know what she was doing but she shot 68 to win. I was happy for her but I wish I’d shot 68 as well.”
Armstrong is taking her high school courses at Coulee Collegiate which makes it possible for her to practice her golf during weekday mornings. She started the sport when she was young, liking the scoring aspect and getting the ball in the hole.
“Since then it’s kind of evolved into so much more now, the competitive side of it, the practice and having something to work on every day,” Armstrong. “I just love the game.”
She has continued to work on her mental game by reading books such as those written by Raymond Floyd, and applying tips to her game. There have been too many tips to count, she say,s but the most recent one she adapted was to brandish a smile while playing, no matter the previous shots outcome.
“You feel better when you smile, so I’m trying to smile a lot because it makes you feel happy,” Armstrong said. “I found it was helpful. I had heard that (tip) a couple years ago and kind of forgot about it and started doing it again and it’s definitely helpful for me.”
She already has her next few tournaments lined up, as she’s hoping to play at the Next Gen Fall championship at Peace Portal before heading to the United States for some tournaments in the winter.

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