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Blind Golf Canada

Join Gerry Nelson and Darren Douma for the Blind Golf Canada podcast! Throughout the golf season, Gerry, Darren and special guests discuss their regional, national and international tournaments.

Blind Golf Canada

Join Gerry Nelson and Darren Douma for the Blind Golf Canada podcast! Throughout the golf season, Gerry, Darren and special guests discuss their regional, national and international tournaments.

2022 Blind Golf Canada Year in Review

Announcer:
Tee up. It's time for the Blind Golf Canada Podcast.

Gerry Nelson:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Blind Golf Canada Podcast. I'm Gerry Nelson, alongside co-host Darren Douma. We have Andy from AMI and producer Marc behind the scenes making Darren and I sound really good.
Darren, my friend. How are you? It's been about four months since we last did our podcast at the Canadian Open in Simcoe. How have you been doing?

Darren Douma:
Excellent. And yeah, it's been quite a period of time in between. So, nice to be back at a podcast.

Gerry Nelson:
Yeah, it is really, really good to get back in the saddle. And here we are recording what, 11 days before Christmas on Wednesday, December 14th. And looking back over 2022, there's a couple of things that really stick in my mind, and one of them is how good it was to be back in real-time at live person golf tournaments, golf events, but also, how quickly the year went by. It just... We blanked and we were done.

Darren Douma:
It went very quickly and it was good to get back to it, but it flew by and here we are.

Gerry Nelson:
It really did. So I guess hopefully, the winter will go by as quickly as last summer did, but let's take a look back at 2022 and go back to Calgary in July for the Western Canadian Blind Golf Championships.

Darren Douma:
Yes, that was the AMI Western Canadians in Calgary at the Inglewood Golf Club. We had an exceptional time there. Great weather, over 60 participants with players and coaches and just some highlights there. We had a couple of our players from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan who have been really active, and they really brought their games to that tournament.
And I'll just highlight the first gentleman, Robert Gentil-Perret. He just turned 60, so he was able to play in the Seniors category in which he won. And then secondly, we also incorporated a team aspect to that tournament and he also won that division with our oldest blind golfer from Langley, BC, George Circle, who's 87. So they took the team event.
And then secondly, we had another gentleman from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Curtis Parenteau, who played unbelievably too, and he was the overall champion for that event for the net.
And then other highlights, of course, were our B1 Gross Champion, which is our very own Gerry Nelson. And our B2 champion from Calgary was Derek Kibblewhite. And our B3 Gross was Keifer Jones, our Canadian champion as well. So it was a really great event out there and great play. And other than the mosquitoes, we had a great time.

Gerry Nelson:
Well, and the weather certainly cooperated as well, didn't it? There had been a lot of rain up until that point and it just seemed to clear off when we got there and was good for the whole tournament.
And I would also like to shout out a new golfer out with us for the first time at his first tournament. I played with him the one day, Jason Yuha, and he's a young fella out of Calgary, and Jason hits the ball a mile and little bit challenged directionally at times, but his dad is his guide and I know when they get that under control, they're going to be a force to be reckoned with, certainly.
So yeah, all round it was a great tournament. Stableford event, which is always a good time. Everybody is in the mix and makes for a great event. So yeah, that was Calgary.
Anything else you want to add there, Darren?

Darren Douma:
Nope, that was it in a nutshell. And then we headed off to Ontario.

Gerry Nelson:
Yeah, to Simcoe, Ontario. We were at the Greens at Renton, which is just an absolutely fabulous venue to host actually two blind golf tournaments, the Ontario Provincial and the Canadian Open Blind Golf Championships. Why don't you summarize that for us?

Darren Douma:
Oh, we had a fantastic week there. The golf course staff treated us royally. It was a great track to play on, very blind golf friendly and we had lots to look forward to there.
And my biggest highlight was we had hosted our junior clinic there. It turned out to be an all-abilities clinic after the fact, which was open to everybody because we wanted to be more inclusive to everybody.
But we did have a couple of juniors come out and play and I was paired with the one junior in the practice round and this was his first round of play ever on a golf course. And this young lad ended up getting a hole-in-one, his first hole-in-one, his first round of golf. And that was phenomenal because this young lad is dealing with vision loss and hearing loss and I think he deals with a little bit of self-esteem and all that. He's very quiet. And following that hole-in-one, he became more energetic, more open to everybody. And his mother reports that he's just a changed lad and he's boosting with confidence and all that. So that was a really big highlight for me out there.

Gerry Nelson:
If I can just jump in for a sec, buddy. I spoke with Jacob's grandparents who were with him at the tournament, after the round was done. And I couldn't see their smiles of course, but I could certainly hear it in their voices. And I got to tell you, that's got to be the number one feel-good story of the season.
We're just getting our junior clinics underway and to have Jacob come out with his grandfather coaching him and his grandma was there, and just an absolutely exceptional family. And to have something like that happen for Jacob, just the icing on the cake, and I really hope it propels him to come out and play in more events in Ontario and anywhere in Canada, for that matter.
So yeah, it was a great circumstance or happening that day the way it did.

Darren Douma:
Absolutely. It was kind of a pleasant tearjerker to witness that, and just seeing him experience that was phenomenal, and being a part of it was fantastic.
And other highlights too from that day were a local resident there from the Waterford area, Reg Apersco, won the senior category and shot two exceptional rounds of 81, and he plays at the Renton quite a bit there.
And then one of our longtime BGC members, Doug Penner from Winnipeg, he also won the overall net championship and played exceptional as well.
And of course, our gross winners were again in the B1 category, our very own Gerry Nelson, and from Winnipeg, Manitoba we had Darcy Furber from the B2 category. And then again from the B3 category, we had Keifer Jones.
So exceptional play as usual and well-represented of all our players in Blind Golf Canada.

Gerry Nelson:
Now buddy, I think we would certainly be remiss here if we didn't take our hat off to local resident Hugh Montgomery, his wife, Lori, his coach Lori Smith, and the entire host committee, just what they had gone through and dealt with leading up to this tournament.
They actually started back in 2019 trying to organize this tournament and then COVID hit, and things looked pretty dismal for a while in terms of fundraising and sponsorship, and it was questionable whether or not the tournament would even be a go.
But I tell you, they rallied beyond belief and they put on a Canadian Open Week, an Ontario Provincial Week that, as I said at the wind out banquet, really second to none. The job that this committee did, pulling off this tournament and actually making it happen, was absolutely phenomenal. So we really need to take our hats off to these people and I think they really raised the bar in terms of what hosting a blind golf event can possibly mean and what it can possibly be.
So, hats off to the tournament host committee from all the executive and board here at Blind Golf Canada.

Darren Douma:
Excellent, Gerry. Great way to wrap that up because there's a lot that goes into a tournament and for a committee to be dedicated to that length of time and stay focused on pulling it off was phenomenal. And yeah, they did 110% class act job for us, so we should be thankful.

Gerry Nelson:
Yeah, we truly are, for sure.
After the fabulous week in August, you went on to participate in an event called the Nation's Cup, which in some ways, was kind of a resurrection. This event used to take place in the past. I was part of it when it was hosted in Nova Scotia, but why don't you tell us about that event?

Darren Douma:
Yes. Thanks, Gerry. That event is like a Ryder Cup format and it had Team Canada taking on the United States. We were in Wadsworth, Ohio for that event and we played at Pine Valley Golf Course, an excellent golf course. The owners there were just phenomenal with us and we had a great competition there.
We hadn't had it since 2015, I believe, like you said, in Nova Scotia. And at that time, we had won. But unfortunately, Canada just narrowly lost to team United States there in Ohio. But we all, both teams played well and we had a great time and a lot more great memories for us all. And looking forward to the next one, whenever that may be.

Gerry Nelson:
I was just going to ask you if you know yet, is there any kind of speculation as to when the next version of the Nation's cop might actually happen?

Darren Douma:
They have not yet. To balance off the scheduling, I believe, they will host again, but it won't be in 2023 because they're hosting a different event there in Wadsworth. So it'll likely be in 2024, but they'll be more from that to come out from ABG in the future.

Gerry Nelson:
Okay. And then after that, in September was the Vision Cup, the ISPS Handa Vision Cup, and that was held at the venerable TPC Sawgrass courses in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Ponte Vedra Beach. And that is the biggie, the granddaddy of them all. The Vision Cup is certainly the Ryder Cup version of team match play and it was just unbelievable.
When you talk about Sawgrass, and if you're a golfer at all, you've heard about the famous Island Green 17 at the Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass. I have to admit I never hit it once the whole week that I was there, but it was just a fabulous week. And we played both courses, the Dyes Valley and the Stadium course. We played the Pro-Am or the Shamble, they called it. And it was a neat format because everybody hit a drive and then you picked the best drive and played your own ball in from there. And then all scores were based on your handicap and net play from there on him.
Team Nelson, I'm happy to say, we actually won the event. There was a gentleman there from, I want to say California that played on our team who was a friend of one of the American blind golfers, Chad Nesmith. This gentleman was there and the head of Blind Golf in Costa Rica was also on our team, as well as my son, Wyatt, and myself of course. And we happened to actually win that event and we are pretty proud of that because there was like 156 golfers and I don't know how many teams that works out to, but we won, so pretty happy about that.
And my son Wyatt, I never hit the green once that week. On the Scramble day, the Pro-Am day, he hit it to eight feet on the Island Green and actually won closest to the pin on that date.
So the Vision Cup itself is played over three days. It's two days of modified Pinehurst system where two golfers are paired together against another pair of golfers. We had Team North America against Team World. And then the final day was singles. And I have since forgotten the breakdown of who did what each day, but I do know that team North America was leading after the first day. We were also leading after the second day and we ended up winning the Vision Cup for the very first time by a total of nine points. So that was absolutely phenomenal to wind up a great week like we had, winning the Vision Cup.
And I'm happy to say, very happy to say that I'm probably, I'm going to guess the second Canadian ever to drink beer out of the Vision Cop. I want to say that Derek Kibblewhite was probably the first one because he brought the cup to me to have a drink and I'm guessing that he had had one already prior to that point. So it was just a fantastic week.
And the Stadium course at Dyes Valley at Sawgrass, absolutely amazing. And it just gives you real, truer respect, I guess, for what the pros can actually do on courses like that. And there was some question as to whether it was the best venue for Blind Golf Match Play Tournament. That will probably be debated forever. But the thing is, everybody had to play the same two courses.
And I will say one thing, that the rough there is unlike any rough I've ever played out of. And we had great weather for the week, but prior to us getting there, they had had a lot of rain, and that grass in some places was three or four inches thick and wet, and sometimes you couldn't even get a club through it to move your ball. It was just unbelievable. Unlike anything that I'd ever played out of before.
But we managed to do it and get it done. And like I said, we won for the first time in, I believe, five tries. Darren, was this the fifth version of the Vision Cup?

Darren Douma:
Fifth Edition, yes.

Gerry Nelson:
Yeah.

Darren Douma:
So Team North America finally did it, and I've got to give my hats off to the four Canadian players that represented us on Team North America and you being one of them, Gerry, and you guys went and got it done. And I believe our Canadian players all did quite well, right?

Gerry Nelson:
I absolutely want to shout out my Canadian players, but my whole team, all my teammates, in fact. There were 14 per side. There were 10 Americans and four Canadians.
And an interesting little tidbit here. There was Keifer Jones, who's a B3, and Keifer got three points for Team North America out of a possible three points. There was Derek Kibblewhite who's a B2, and he got three points out of a possible three points. There was myself, I got two points out of a possible three. And there was Julie Moroney, who was one of the two lady golfers on each side, and Julie got one point out of a possible three. So that's a total of nine points. And what did Team North America win by? Exactly nine points. So shout out to Canada and our participants.
And I have to tell our listeners this was Julie's first Vision Cup, and I know she was nervous, but at the same time, Julie played absolutely wonderfully throughout all three of her matches. The other two were very, very close. Julie and I managed to win our match and gain a point that day for Team North America. And Julie had her husband, Pierce, on the bag. And I just want to say that I would be happy and elated to play with Julie and Pierce anytime, anywhere, on any team because they're absolutely exceptional, quality people. And Julie never quit for a second. She ground it out on every hole and Pierce kept the nerves in check and steadied her down when it was needed. And we just had a great time playing together that day and managed to get a point for Team North America.
And I'd also like to shout out one other teammate of mine and that's Derek Kibblewhite. And it actually goes back to the tournament in Calgary. I played the practice round with Derek and after the round, he came over and he talked to me and congratulated me on how well I was playing, and he said that he had seen vast improvement in my game from what he saw last year. And that was one of my goals over the winter was to work on my game and get better. And he saw evidence of that in the practice round at Calgary. So that really boosted my confidence and gave me a real great state of mind moving into the season.
I did play well in Calgary, thanks to Derek. I also played well in Ontario. And then moving on to the Vision Cup, probably some of the best golf that I had played all summer long, and Derek was right there beside me pumping my tires every day and leading the chant, "Gerry! Gerry!" in the team room. It was really, really cool. And culminated the week in coming up to me during the festivities, the night the tournament wrapped up and drinking beer out of the Vision Cup. That is a memory that I will cherish forever.
But certainly, I got to take my hat off to all my North American teammates. It was totally a team effort and met some new golfers from the United States. Great, great people and all around, it was just a wonderful event.
And Team World will host the next one in 2024. We don't know where that's going to be yet, but I certainly hope that I can be part of it again because to be a part of it this many times and finally win one, there's there's no better feeling. So, it was great.

Darren Douma:
Awesome. Hats off to Team North America and let's hope we keep that cup for a while now. Fantastic.

Gerry Nelson:
That's basically 2022 in a wrap. Is there anything else, Darren, that you think we may have bypassed or forgotten?

Darren Douma:
Nope, that's 2022 in a nutshell and we're looking forward to 2023, hopefully, sooner than later.

Gerry Nelson:
Yes we are. And for both of us, it's going to start relatively quick. It will be the soonest I've ever started a season and the first event that I will be going to will be the US Open in Columbus, Georgia from March 19th to the 23rd. And I'm really looking forward to this because Green Island Golf Course in Columbus is where the very first Vision Cup was held and it's just such a beautiful setting at Green Island.
I said to my buddy and guide Chris that if ever there was a tournament here again, I would like to come back. And it's been brought to my attention that that's where the US Open is going to be. And we are planning on attending.
Now, the week after the US Open in Columbus, Georgia is the World Championships and the South African Open in Cape Town, South Africa. Do I have that right?

Darren Douma:
That's correct, Gerry. And that will be following the US Open.

Gerry Nelson:
And you and some other Canadian golfers will be attending.

Darren Douma:
There'll be five Canadians in Cape Town for that week of golf for both those tournaments. We're all looking forward to that to kick off the start of the 2023 season. And that'll get us kind of prepped for our summer tournaments with the Western Canadians. AMI Western Canadians will be in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in July, which is in Warman.

Gerry Nelson:
Buddy, before we talk about that, if I can interrupt you just a sec, I think we need to mention the Canadian golfers that are going to the World Championships. There's yourself and who else?

Darren Douma:
We have Kevin Frost from Ottawa, Ontario. We have Henri Therrian from Montreal, Quebec. We have Keifer Jones from Calgary, Alberta, and we have Hugh Montgomery from Simcoe, Ontario.

Gerry Nelson:
Well, that's great to see that that many golfers from Canada are able to go and represent Blind Golf Canada. That is a trek. That is a journey to get from anywhere almost in North America, I would say, especially Canada, to get to Cape Town, South Africa.
Did you ever figure out how long it's going to take you to actually get there?

Darren Douma:
It's over 30 hours with all your layovers and the actual time in the air, so it's going to be quite a long trip. But hopefully, it will be worth it with some memories and some great play of golf.

Gerry Nelson:
Well, I think it's going to be fantastic once you get there, just as long as you can survive the trip and still have energy when you get there to be able to play some golf.

Darren Douma:
It'll be a couple of days of trying to get the wind in the sails, for sure.

Gerry Nelson:
And coming home, it would be the same thing. I guess it'll take a few days at home to recuperate from that whole trip, won't it?

Darren Douma:
Absolutely. But yeah, looking forward to it nonetheless.

Gerry Nelson:
Let's move on from the Worlds in March. And you mentioned, I know that there's a smaller Provincial Tournament going to be held in Saskatchewan in June. We don't have a golf course and an exact date as of yet. And I know other provinces, this is when the Provincial Tournaments tend to get started because we're a little busier in July and August. But why don't you talk briefly about the AMI Western Canadian Championships in Warman?

Darren Douma:
Yep. Thanks, Gerry. I'll get back to that.
That is in mid-July and we will be there for three days for a Stableford competition, and back by popular demand, a team portion to that as well at the Legends Golf Course in beautiful Warman.

Gerry Nelson:
And we're actually going back to the Legends, aren't we? We were there in... Oh my goodness. What year would that have been? 2018? Does that sound right?

Darren Douma:
Oh, 2017. I think 2017, Gerry. But here you're catching me off guard here.

Gerry Nelson:
2017? Okay. Yeah, it's taken me a little bit to remember that too.
Anyway, I know the first time we were there, the facilities were excellent, the course played great, all the players were really, really happy with the venue. The hotel is like a block away within walking distance. It was just all around a great week. And I think everybody will be happy that we're going back there. And again, a Stableford type of format where everybody's in the mix and it's going to be a great, great time.

Darren Douma:
Yeah, absolutely.

Gerry Nelson:
And from there, in July we move into August and out to Nova Scotia for the Brian McLeod Memorial Tournament backed up by the Canadian Open Blind Golf Championships.

Darren Douma:
Yes, we'll be back in Truro, Nova Scotia playing at the challenging and beautiful Mountain Golf Course there. And we will have a week of great golf there with those two events as well.

Gerry Nelson:
And that's being held, as Darren mentioned, at the Mountain from August 18th to the 26th. And I know other people have been there more recently than I have, but I am definitely looking forward to going back to the Mountain because when Brian McLeod was alive for about... Well, it was 10 years straight that I was out there every year. At that time, it was called the Nova Scotia Open, and sometimes it would be held in conjunction with the Canadian Open as well.
And yeah, people are really looking forward to getting back out there and doing another Canadian Open in Nova Scotia.

Darren Douma:
I'm looking forward to it too because that golf course has always challenged me and I want another crack at it, so it's always a great time there.

Gerry Nelson:
It sure is and the hospitality is second to none.
Now, in case people are wondering, we didn't purposely skip over the Ontario Provincial. I think, Darren, and correct me if I'm wrong, we are just waiting on a date and location for the Ontario Provincial, are we not?

Darren Douma:
I can confirm that now. I believe they've selected August 11th to the 13th for dates. We just need to know whether or not we're going to be at the Greens of Renton or in Chippewa Creek in Mount Hope. So that has yet to be determined. To be determined.

Gerry Nelson:
Okay, good. And information will certainly go out to the members of Blind Golf Canada as it becomes available. And we want to touch on, you've got some all-ability tournaments possibly happening in B.C. this summer. Darren, what can you tell us about those?

Darren Douma:
Absolutely. We're having the BC All Abilities Championships for the first time. They have been confirmed at the McCreary Golf Club. It's a course with the city and looks exceptional, and their dates are going to be June 12th and 13th for those championships.
And then later in the year, usually mid-September, we will have the Golf Canada All Abilities Championships as well. And they were in Toronto last year. They will come to BC and it sounds like it'll be in the Southern Interior somewhere in mid-September. But those dates have yet to be confirmed. But we are looking forward to having these events out here in BC and bringing all the abilities together in some great championship play and making some great connections through that process.

Gerry Nelson:
Certainly. And again, information will be dispersed as it becomes available.
Anything else to add, buddy?

Darren Douma:
I think that's 2022 and 2023 all wrapped up in a nice little bow just before Christmas.

Gerry Nelson:
Well, certainly. Yeah, a shorter podcast this time, but we would be remiss if we didn't thank our sponsors in our podcast and of our podcast because without our sponsors, we wouldn't be able to do what we do. So you want to thank our sponsors for us, Darren?

Darren Douma:
Yes. I would like to thank CNIB Foundation as well as AMI Media, and also the CCB National, and all our Lions Clubs in Canada. And last but not least, ISPS Handa. Without their support, we couldn't do what we do, like you say, Gerry.

Gerry Nelson:
Yeah, for sure.

Darren Douma:
So, thank you.

Gerry Nelson:
Well, and I just want to take a moment to say thanks to all our members and everybody for coming out and participating in our tournaments because without you, the golfers, there would be no tournaments. So we appreciate your support and patronage throughout the year, and I hope that 2023 is happy and healthy for everybody. I hope it doesn't go by as quickly as 2022 did.
But Darren, I want to wish you and Andy and Marc and everybody out there listening the very best this holiday season, and we look forward to bringing you another podcast early in 2023. Happy holidays everyone.

Announcer:
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