Jets’ Morrissey ready to tee it up

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/01/2020 (2053 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Next on the tee: Josh Morrissey.

The 24-year-old defenceman is the latest member of the Winnipeg Jets to be chosen to play in the province’s premier professional golf tournament. He receives a sponsors exemption for the annual Winnipeg stop on the Mackenzie Tour—PGA Tour Canada, set for mid-August at Southwood Golf & Country Club.

And the event gets a new name, or an old one, depending on one’s point of view. Morrissey will play in the Manitoba Open, formerly the Players Cup.

It’s the third consecutive year a Jets skater will play in the event. Mark Scheifele participated in 2018 and Kyle Connor played a year ago.

“It’s an honour,” Morrissey said Thursday. “Golf’s such a different mental game, and I’m excited to talk to the (pros) and hear their stories and approach, see what that’s like. Not a whole lot riding on it, but you don’t have teammates to pick you up.”

The Calgary product first picked up clubs as a youngster but really didn’t put much time into the game until he was about 16. Eight years later, his handicap is just shy of a seven.

But he’s well aware playing alongside the stars of the tour, with hushed crowds at the tees and greens, will be a far more tense experience than teeing it up with his friends back home. He’s already spoken with Scheifele and Connor about what to expect.

“They said the first tee shot’s pretty nerve-wracking and those two- or three-foot putts seem a lot harder to make than when you’re playing with your buddies,” he said. “They said it was an unbelievable experience, something that’s such a rarity to have the opportunity. Interacting with the players, learning about what every day looks like as a golfer, the grind and the difficulty of the schedule these players deal with.

“(Scheifele and Connor) said it was an overall amazing experience. I definitely know what their scores were and I’m going to try to do better than them.”

Scheifele fired rounds of 87 and 86 at the par-72 track in St. Norbert, while Connor finished 94-90.

The Jets are four points below the NHL playoff line and need a strong push over the final 31 games — between Friday’s contest with the visiting Boston Bruins and the first week of April — to qualify for the postseason.

Morrissey is hoping a prolonged hockey season cuts deep into his Open preparation.

“This summer, hopefully going into this stretch (of the NHL season), I’m not playing too much golf before the tournament.”

The 72-hole championship carried the provincial name for seven decades until 1997. It then went through a couple of incarnations but now returns to its roots.

“Several name changes… but if you ask a lot of people that are heavily involved in the event, they still refer to it as the Manitoba Open. It really hits home for people to have Manitoba in the name, and I think that was really missing the last few years,” said tournament director Adam Boge. “The (other names) don’t resonate with the average Manitoban that loves golf.”

Past winners of the Open include legendary Canadian players George Knudson, Moe Norman and Dan Halldorson, while Winnipegger Rob McMillan prevailed in 1996.

“Word leaked out already and people have texted saying, ‘We love bringing Manitoba back to the event’. We’ve raised some excitement already,” Boge said.

The Mackenzie Tour—PGA Tour Canada also announced a partnership with the True North Youth Foundation, which supports Camp Manitou, Project Eleven, and the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy. The golf tournament raises about $100,000 every year for its charitable partner, tour vice-president Scott Pritchard.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell