Winged beast kept at bay

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This article was published 08/07/2020 (2232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Veronica Vetesnik was battling a bellyful of butterflies when she teed off Wednesday afternoon in the final round of the Manitoba women’s amateur golf championship.

By late in the day, they’d morphed into pterodactyls.

But the 23-year-old from Kingswood successfully kept the winged beasts at bay with some solid shotmaking down the stretch to capture her first amateur title at warm, windy Bel Acres Golf & Country Club.

Vetesnik fired a 3-over 76 to finish the 54-hole championship at 9 over, one shot better than Shilo’s Bobbi Uhl and five up on Marissa Naylor of Pine Ridge.

“Honestly, it feels great. I’ve played in it a few times and this was always the one tournament I struggled the most in,” said Vetesnik, who played three practice rounds at the track just north of the Perimeter Highway as a tune-up for the championship. “This year, I’ve put in more practice and have set aside a little more time to prepare for this tournament.”

Vetesnik had a loose hold on the lead — just a one-shot cushion over Uhl and Naylor — and felt the jitters when the day began. By the turn — and with five frustrating bogeys on her scorecard — the graphic designer from Winnipeg was tied at 10-over with Uhl but felt like things were slipping away.

“I was calm when I got here. I didn’t really feel the pressure until we got on the course. Especially, the last few holes,” said Vetesnik. “We went back and forth a few times. I was down a few, up one and then back and forth. Bobbi was really putting on the pressure. There was a few holes she hit her drive like 10 feet off the green and I was in the trees. I had a few struggles.”

Uhl found herself trailing by three after the 13th but picked up a pair of strokes with a birdie on the par-4 14th while Vetesnik settled for a bogey. Both players made easy birdies on the short par-5 15th and then registered pars on the 16th.

On the par-4 17th, a lazy swing off the tee left Vetesnik short and right, behind a small tree, while Uhl absolutely crushed her drive to within yards of the fringe. But Vetesnik advanced the ball to the fairway and made a sensational up-and-down to save par — sinking a slippery, down-hill seven-footer, while Uhl’s chip for eagle skidded six feet past the cup. And she couldn’t drain from there, taking an unsatisfying par.

“I could feel on the tee when I was setting up I should have taken a step back. I felt it in my arms. They were shaking a little bit. And I didn’t full accelerate through the swing and hit it short and into the trees. I got lucky and I had a little bit of a swing to chip out,” Vetesnik said. “I was very excited to make that (putt).”

Still down one, Uhl played two picture-perfect shots on the par-5 18th but flubbed her chip and then watched as her birdie try circled the full circumference of the hole but stayed out. Vetesnik hit the green in three, casually rolled her 16-footer to within 12 inches and tapped in for a par and the championship title.

Afterward, Uhl lamented failing to take advantage around the last two greens.

“Two birdie putts that just missed. I thought that last one (on 18) was in, actually,” said the 20-year-old Erickson product, who won the Manitoba women’s match play championship last month at St. Charles. “(On 17), I was thinking on that chip, ‘just get it close.’ But when it landed, it didn’t spin, it skipped and just wasn’t going to stop.”

Naylor, the 2017 champ, struggled to a final-round 80, while 2018 winner Greer Valaquenta, two shots off the lead to begin the day, soared to an 85.

The only downer for Vetesnik is that she won’t get the opportunity to represent Manitoba at the national women’s amateur championship later this month. Golf Canada cancelled all of its amateur competitions for the duration of the 2020 season, owning to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Canadian amateur was to have been staged at Royal Montreal Golf Club, the oldest course in North America.

“With how much effort I’ve put in this year, it would have really been nice to see how I could place at the Canadian (amateur), but there’s always next year,” she said. “We’ve got time to enjoy the rest of the summer.”

 

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell