News Release
LOUIS MELANSON GOLF ACADEMY PLAYERS CLARK & MAINVILLE WIN NB JUNIOR & JUVENILE TITLES!
July 20, 2006
Final round surge lifts Moncton junior to provincial golf crown
By Gerard McLaughlin
Times & Transcript staff
Nick Clark of the Moncton Golf and Country Club, left, won the N.B. junior boys golf title yesterday at the Country Meadows Golf Club. Jean Mainville of the Fox Creek Golf Club captured the provincial juvenile title.
Nick Clark didn't let this one get away.
Admitting he's been disappointed by a few final round scores in the past, Clark came up big when it counted yesterday and captured the New Brunswick junior men's golf championship.
Truth is, on a perfect day, Clark went out with grit and never let up until the championship trophy was in his hands.
Tied for seventh after 36 holes, Clark turned in a final round game of 3-under-par 69 at the Country Meadows Golf Club and captured the championship by two shots.
He finished the 54-hole event at 4-over-par 220 on scores of 75-76-69.
Alain Plourde of the Fraser Edmundston Golf Club was second at 222. He was tied for the lead after 36 holes and posted a final round 2-over-par 74.
Jean Mainville of the Fox Creek Golf Club was third at 9-over-par 225. The 16-year-old Mainville, who won the East Coast Junior Open at Golf Bouctouche earlier this month, had games of 78-72-75 and earned the provincial juvenile title.
Three players - Eric Michaud of Fox Creek, Tom Keddy of the Burro Hills Golf Club in Hillsborough and Matt Layden of the Petitcodiac Valley Golf Club - finished tied for fourth at 11-over-par 227.
Michaud has games of 79-76-72 while Keddy and Layden had identical rounds of 75-74-78.
But, the final round was all about the 18-year-old Clark, who plays out of the Moncton Golf and Country Club.
"I was in this position several times in the past few years and I've always struggled to finish," he said.
"There was always something. I wasn't comfortable. I was off with a big number, a bad hole so it feels good to play well and win it."
Clark did it with a total game, going out in 2-under-par 34 and coming home in 1-under-par 35.
His key sub-par game, the best in the championship, included five birdies, two bogeys and 11 pars.
Clark, a student at the Louis Melanson Golf Academy, knew early he was on the right track.
He started the round with a couple of goals - hold his game together on the first four holes, which he said was the toughest stretch on the course, and concentrate hard to put the ball in position.
For the very first time he played the first four holes in even par and then he reeled off birdies on holes five, six and eight before suffering a bogey five on nine.
On the back, he recorded a birdie 4 on 11 to go 3-under-par and then posted another birdie on 14 to get to four-under. He took bogey on 15 and finished his game with pars on the final three holes.
"I felt I needed a good start and when I did that I knew I was right in there after I got birdies on five and six," he said.
"I played very well. It hit the ball into position, which is so important here and I made a lot of good putts. All my birdie putts were 10 to 15 feet and I made them."
As the champion, Clark now earns an automatic spot on the New Brunswick team that will compete at the Canadian championship to be held at the Sussex Golf and Curling Club, Aug. 7-11.
The next 21 players and ties in the standings will take to the Country Meadows course again today and play one more round for the remaining three spots on the team.
While Clark rallied in the final round for the boys title, Stephanie Chubb of the Riverside Country Club in Rothesay won the girls championship leading from start to finish.
Chubb fired an 81 yesterday after recording scores of 83-79 in the first two rounds.
Her 243 winning score was 21 shots ahead of her nearest competitor, Jennifer Armstrong, also of Riverside.
The four-member New Brunswick girls inter-provincial team for the Royale national championship at the Gowan Brae Golf Club in Bathurst, Aug. 7-11, will feature Chubb, Armstrong, Kelsey MacDonald of Gowan Brae and Jennifer Whelan, also of Riverside.
Whelan earned the final spot by defeating Megan Akkerman of Rockwood Park in a three-hole playoff.
NOTES - Besides the three spots on the junior men's team, also up for grabs in today's final round are five quota spots that New Brunswick received to fill the field at the nationals. .. Clark will begin studies at the University of Toronto in the fall and he plans to play on the school's golf team. "I love golf, but I know how tough it is. I'm going to play a little more and see what happens. My goals are realistic right now. I just want to work at it a little longer and see how well I can play," he said. ..It was his steady play on the par 4 challenges at Country Meadows where Clark won the championship. He was 1-under par on the par four holes. He was 5-over-par on the par three's and even-par on the par fives.