Coming off a strong year, Golf Manitoba continues to make an impact across the province, and from golfers, to tournaments, to all-age events, big things are expected for 2026.
Building off last year
"2025 was fantastic," explains Brian Munz, Director of Communications and Development for Golf Manitoba, says with a smile. "Record numbers across the country and obviously here in Manitoba for amateur golf and how it continues to grow. I've said it before, I think most people around golf have always looked back on that, COVID was such a world changer for everybody. Maybe one of the lone bonuses was the sport of golf. To get everybody involved. It was one of the few things that you could do during those lockdown times. It seems like a lifetime ago, but it wasn't. Here we are, we had a great day out at Pine Ridge for our Media Day, the championship season got underway this past weekend with our match play qualifier presented by St. Vital Dental Center at Scottswood Links. We're off to Whispering Winds of Warren Golf and Country Club, coming up on Thursday to open four days of match play. So it's great to finally be outside after another long Manitoba winter for sure."
Golfers representing every community
Munz says that seeing so many golfers come from across the province, be it Southeast, Pembina Valley, Westman and more, it's been incredible and shows how much talent is in Manitoba. "It's huge," he says with a grin. "We're over 110 member facilities now across the province and into Northwest Ontario as well. It really shows how much people enjoy golf as much as we all love to sit on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to watch the PGA, the LPGA, or the DP World Tour. It's one of those sports where you can be five years old, or you can be 100 years old, and go out and play together with, obviously, the way people can put their handicaps into the Golf Canada app and keep everybody on a level playing field. So it's tremendous. It's so much fun, and we all try to take advantage of it, for sure."
Travelling around to different venues
With so many golfers representing all corners of the province, Munz says it's meant a lot to Golf Manitoba to hold events at many different courses, with more still on the list to visit. "Well, this is five summers for me now in this role, and I've been fortunate. I think I'm at 85 different golf courses that I've been to now throughout the province and into northwest Ontario, down as far as Dryden. So it's cool. We are so lucky in this area to have the golf courses we have in Winnipeg and outside the perimeter. I think the big thing that we try to remind people of is that we're not Golf Winnipeg. We're Golf Manitoba. We want to have our championships across the province, and people love the opportunity to get to see new facilities. Like a lot of people, they just play at their own home course. But when the chance and the opportunity presents itself to get out, try something new, they've been able to take full advantage, and we've been really, really fortunate with the quality of places that everybody can play."
Younger golfers are the future
Looking down the road as to where the game can grow, Munz believes a key is getting younger players to fall in love with the sport. "I think just like everything, you know, you want to see juniors out there," he explains. "You want to see golf clubs in young people's hands because that's where our world grows. Unfortunately, when you become a senior, at some point, time catches up. The game has to continue to grow and keep going there. Over the last number of years here, we've obviously seen some tremendous growth in female participation as well. Not only competitively, but on the amateur side, where it's fun to go out and play nine holes and just hang out. We'd love to see people keep score and input their scores. But for those that don't. Just get out, enjoy the sport, enjoy the Manitoba summer, because as we've all found out, sometimes they're a little bit slower starting than what we would like. It all seems to come to a crashing halt, usually in October or November."
Munz adds that the junior golfers coming up are incredible athletes and are making names for themselves through hard work and talent. "It makes golfers of a certain age shake their heads, because they're so much better than us already at 8, 9, 10, 11 years old," he says with a laugh. "You know, it's a treat (for Media Day). We've got Ryder St. Laurent and Cameron Thomas to come out and play here. There are only a couple of media members who might give them a battle for the top of the leaderboard. Other than that, we're all going to be looking up. It's special. It's like every sport when you see the young people develop. When you're a dad or when you see your kids or you see your neighbour's kid doing well, it's pretty cool. With Golf Manitoba, all our athletes have a big cheering section and an entire province supporting them every time they tee it up."
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