MIKE DEAL \/ WINNIPEG FREE PRESS\nRob Oliphant on the back nine of the last round of the Manitoba mid-am at Selkirk Golf and Country Club. See Tim Campbell story 110728 - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - (MIKE DEAL \/ WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nBut golf was where Oliphant quickly found success. Four years after starting, he played in his first Manitoba junior Championship. By 15 he had a four handicap. Two years later he won the Rossmere junior club championship.<\/p>\n
“I started improving right away by playing against better competition,” Oliphant explained.<\/p>\n
His success continued on larger stages. In addition to winning another Rossmere championship, Oliphant made two Manitoba Mid Amateur teams and once finished fifth at the Canadian junior championships.<\/p>\n
When he was 25, life got busy and Oliphant stopped playing competitive golf, though he did manage to win another Rossmere title in his 30s, keeping the streak alive.<\/p>\n
Oliphant returned to competitive golf after he turned 40 and found himself playing against golfers half his age. They hit longer than he could, especially after a back injury limited his swing power. <\/p>\n
“They average 15 to 20 yards longer than me,” Oliphant said. “I try and play a consistent game.<\/p>\n
“Make par your friend.”<\/p>\n
That forced Oliphant to adjust his approach, with more concentration on placement, his short game and putting. <\/p>\n
“My putting has gotten worse over the years,” Oliphant admitted.<\/p>\n
It was still good enough to help Oliphant win more Rossmere club championships in both his 40s and 50s, making it five straight decades he has captured the trophy.<\/p>\n
Winning the Rossmere title against competitors younger than his own kids has earned Oliphant a unique nickname from Rossmere’s Mundie Putter team.<\/p>\n
“They call me Reggie Dunlop — Paul Newman’s character in the hockey movie Slapshot<\/em>.”<\/p>\nIn the movie Dunlop is an aging veteran, trying to win one last title. Might Oliphant follow the movie script and retire on top? <\/p>\n
While he was non-committal about whether or not he would try to win a Rossmere title in his 60s, Oliphant did say he never expected to win in his 50s either.<\/p>\n
“I am not an avid golfer,” Oliphant said.<\/p>\n
“I can go weeks without playing.”<\/p>\n
Tony Zerucha is a community correspondent for East Kildonan. Email him at zerucha@hotmail.com<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":209595342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-338925582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-correspondents"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Tony Zerucha","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2015\/10\/30\/oliphant-has-a-title-for-every-decade","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Oliphant has a title for every decade","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2015\/10\/30\/oliphant-has-a-title-for-every-decade","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2015\/10\/30\/oliphant-has-a-title-for-every-decade"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-comm-eastkildonan-zerucha-supplied-nov4.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-comm-eastkildonan-zerucha-supplied-nov4.jpg"},"articleSection":"Community Correspondents","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"feedloaderapi"}],"creator":["feedloaderapi"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2015-10-30T19:19:00Z","datePublished":"2015-10-30T19:19:00Z","dateModified":"2015-10-30T19:40:22Z"},"rendered":"
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