The storied history of the Manitoba Open

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/08/2023 (790 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Golfers have been competing in the Manitoba Open golf tournament for more than a century. The first championship was held in 1919, right after the First World War and was won by Karl Keffer of the Royal Ottawa Golf Club. He was a founding member of the Professional Golfers’ Association of Canada and inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1986.

When you scroll down the list of Manitoba golfers who won the event, several names jump out at you. Amateur Bobby Reith from the Assiniboine Golf Club won in 1932, 1934 and 1935 and again in 1950. He then followed his father Charlie as the pro at Assiniboine. Kaz Zabowski, who grew up near the Pine Ridge course and became the pro there in 1931, at age 20, won three times between 1936 and 1939. Allan Boes, from the Southwood Golf and Country Club, was a dominant player in the 1940s, winning four open championships in 1941, 1943, 1944 and 1948. He also won the Manitoba amateur title the same four summers.

Harold Eidsvig was playing out of Pine Ridge when he won the amateur and Open in 1947. He was the pro at Assiniboine when he won the Open in 1949, and won two more Opens, in 1952 and 1955, while he was pro at Niakwa. Joe Tachan, the pro at Elmhurst from 1945 to 1963, won his first Open in 1946 and two more in 1951 and 1957.

Manitoba’s greatest golfer, George Knudson, learned to play at St. Charles Golf and Country Club, where he became a provincial junior champion. After moving to Toronto in 1958, he came home to win three Manitoba Opens in a row from 1958 to 1960. Brandon’s Dan Halldorson, who, like Knudson, had success on the PGA Tour in the United States, won the Open in his home province in 1983 and 1984.

Once the Manitoba Open became part of the Canadian Tour, the entry list was filled with pros hoping to hone their game in Canada while dreaming of making the PGA Tour down south. After Halldorson’s victory in 1984, golf fans had to wait until 1996 to see a local golfer hoist the championship trophy. It was 20-year-old amateur Rob McMillan, and the Winnipeg Free Press front-page headline on July 15, 1996, was “City kid slays giants”.

Playing on his home course of Pine Ridge, McMillan shot a 14-under-par 274 to win by four strokes over Mike Grob from Montana. The Winnipeg product, who was attending the University of New Mexico on a golf scholarship, shot a seven-under 65 on the final day. In 1995, McMillan proved that he could play with the pros wen he finished second in the Open at Pine Ridge just three strokes behind Trevor Dodds from St. Louis.

McMillan wasn’t finished winning championships in the summer of 1996. On July 25, he won the Manitoba Amateur played at Bel Acres by 11 strokes when he shot a five-under 283. It was his third amateur title. On Aug. 18, at Glendale, he made it a golf triumvirate when he captured the Canadian amateur championship beating Craig Matthew from Montreal 4-3 in the match play final. It was the first title for a Manitoban since Jimmy Doyle of Elmhurst won in 1969.

The 2023 Centreport Canada Railpark Manitoba Open will be played at Southwood Aug. 21-27.