B.C. brothers in hunt at Manitoba men’s amateur championship

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This article was published 21/07/2023 (1151 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OAK LAKE — It didn’t take long for Justin Bjornson to feel right at home, nearly 2,000 km from his home course.

The Surrey, B.C., teen paced off a 66-foot birdie putt with plenty of break and slope, then nailed it en route to an even-par 72 to open the Golf Manitoba men’s amateur in 13th place. He’s two shots behind his brother, Bailey, who’ll play in the final group today with leader Braxton Kuntz (67) and Ryan McMillan (68).

“Back in B.C., you got a lot of slope, a lot of stuff like that so coming back here feels more like home,” said Justin, who moved to B.C. from Winnipeg in 2016 when he was 10 years old.

“A lot of memories here. It’s where I learned to play golf so it’s coming back to the roots and testing it against some of the local people again.”

The brothers were fast becoming household names in the Manitoba golf scene, especially since Bailey qualified for the U.S. Kids World Golf Championship in 2010 at age six.

He didn’t slow down over the years, winning 11 Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour events and finishing runner-up in 11 more.

Bailey showed his touch Thursday, stuffing one wedge shot after another close to pins to go 2-under.

He has played golf for Simon Fraser University — just 30 minutes from his house — at the NCAA Division II level for the past two years.

“(They) help me keep it in perspective and view it as, ‘It’s just a game.’ There’s a lot of worse things that can happen than making a double (bogey) on a hole or shooting a high score. Just trying to keep golf in perspective, if you don’t like it you’re doing the wrong thing.”

Bailey’s had a great ‘teammate’ in Justin to pursue golf success together, and this fall they’ll wear the same colours as the youngster also committed to SFU.

Justin said the chance to stay close to home and Bailey made it an easy call.

“It’s awesome. He’s always pushing me to get better, always seems to be a couple of strokes better… and he’s always super encouraging,” Justin said.

“I’ll admit it, his game’s definitely a little more solid than mine right now.”

The brothers are a good moving day away from pairing up with a chance to win Saturday. If that happens, Bailey says it’s anyone’s game.

“I think it’s pretty close… I wouldn’t want to beat him all that bad because I love my brother but at the same time, I want to stick it to him,” Bailey chuckled. “It’d be a clash of emotions.”

Winning this event, however, means getting through the stars like Kuntz and McMillan, who fed off each other’s hot starts and combined for 11 birdies.

McMillan held the clubhouse lead for all of 20 seconds before Kuntz tapped in his fifth birdie and opened his title defence bogey-free.

“It’s a good start. This course, there’s a lot of birdies out there if you’re hitting it well and putting well,” McMillan said. “There’s also some higher scores you can make so starting 4-under’s good. I gotta go a few more to be right there on the last day but it’s a good start.”

McMillan birdied four of the first seven holes before showing a few glimpses that he might, in fact, be human.

Automatic birdies on the two par-5s on the back restored doubt.

He’ll play with Kuntz again today as the pair everyone else is chasing. McMillan likes it that way.

“I just like playing with Braxton in general. He’s a good guy to play with, he always keeps it light, keeps it fun but you also know he’s there to compete,” McMillan said.

“I played with him in the match-play qualifier this year as well. It was just rolling off those vibes as well.”

Brandon’s Evan Nachtigall joined the five-way log jam for third at 2-under, even though he missed a handful of short putts on the front nine. The Wheat City Golf Course staffer made a terrific sand save for a birdie on 18 — Oak Island’s regular ninth hole — to finish his day.

The projected 36-hole cutline — top 60 plus ties — is around 13 over.

— Brandon Sun