Golf Manitoba’s Male and Female player of the year both have something in common, apart from being members of the same club. Their greatest accomplishment of 2019 took place outside of the province.
Rhonda Orr and Colwyn Abgrall were named the winners of the prestigious honours during Golf Manitoba’s 17th annual awards ceremony which was held Wednesday Night at St. Charles Golf and Country Club.
During her acceptance speech, Orr spoke about overcoming a slow start to work towards the highlight of her season which was qualifying for a second straight year to play in the USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, and making it to the match play portion of the event where she won her first match to advance to the round of 32. And the three time Female Golfer of the Year was quite emotional during her acceptance speech in talking about how special it was to have her 21 year old son Brendan on the bag with her for that event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in late August. “He told a friend of mine before we left that he didn’t want to do anything that would annoy me,” Orr told reporters following the award presentation. “I have to say, he did an excellent job. There was one incident where I got a little miffed, but it was in the heat of the competition. He did fantastic and just walking down the first fairway and watching him be so proud to put on that USGA bib with my name on it. It’s a memory I’ll treasure forever.”
Orr had a fifth place finish in the Diamond Athletic Women’s Amateur Championship in early July at Selkirk Golf and Country Club. That was followed by a fourth consecutive win in the Manitoba Senior Women’s Championship later that month at Rossmere. Rhonda helped lead Team Manitoba to a 5th place finish in the Inter-Provincial Competition at the National Senior Championship in Osoyoos, BC and wound up tied for 11th overall on the final leaderboard. “It’s certainly pretty special, but I did have a good year though- and I was hopeful,” was how Orr responded to being asked about winning her third Female Golfer of the Year award in the last four years, and second straight. “But you never know. Charmaine and Hannah also had excellent years. All you do is go out there and you have certain goals and try to achieve them through the year and see what happens at the end.”
Hannah Diamond of St. Charles and Breezy Bend’s Charmaine Mackid were the runnersup while honourable mentions in the female category went to Kate Gregoire of Quarry Oaks, Killarney Lakeside’s Cala Korman, Marissa Naylor of Pineridge and Swan River Golf Club’s Crystal Zamzow.
Abgrall’s milestone moment for 2019 also occurred south of the border when he tied for first at a US Men’s Amateur qualifier in Fargo in early July to punch his ticket to Pinehurst. “Although I won the (Nott Autocorp) Provincial Amateur at Quarry Oaks, and that was a great accomplishment of mine, I think the biggest accomplishment that people might not know how tough it is to do is to qualify for the United States Amateur,” said Abgrall. “That was just a scary experience, both at the qualifier and at Pinehurst. Definitely the highlight of my year for sure was to punch my ticket and get to play a few rounds at Pinehurst course #4 and #2.”
Abgrall says he went into the event with “very realistic” expectations, and missed the cut for match play by 13 strokes after rounds of 77-81-158. “I knew I was not going to do anything special out there,” said the 22 year old who spent two years at Scottsdale Community College prior to graduating in 2017. “Not to be in a negative mindset or anything like that, but I knew how tough those courses were going to be and the strength of the field. I saw some guys that I’ve seen on line at these Tournaments. They’re amateurs but they have this celebrity superstar feel to them. You’re hitting balls next to them on the range and it’s a crazy atmosphere to be in, a mind blowing experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world.”
Closer to home, the Niverville resident kicked off his year with a runner up finish to Austin Dobrescu in the season opening Match Play Championship at Minnewasta in Morden and followed that up with top ten finishes in the Grey Owl and Elmhurst Invitational – prior to putting his name on the Amateur Men’s Trophy. And Abgrall admits it’s something to see his name alongside Manitoba’s elite on the Golfer of the Year award. “Obviously it’s a really cool experience. It’s something you don’t think about, but you let the play do the work and things like this happen,” is how Colwyn sees it. “The McMillans – both Rob and Dave -they have a rich history throughout Manitoba and Canada. Same as Todd Fanning. I played with him a handful of times last year and it’s just good to pick his brain and see how I can improve.”
Abgrall says he doesn’t know Aaron Cockerill, nor have the two spoken, but he looks at the 2010 and 2013 winner as a “silent mentor.” Then there’s the relationship with Dobrescu, who he developed a rivalry – and relationship with during the match play final, the finishing stretch of the Men’s Amateur, and at the Canadian Amateur where he was on the bag for the first 36 holes for the Shilo Country Club Golfer, who took his place at the Canadian Men’s Amateur in Nova Scotia, as well as the first two rounds of the Players Cup – because of his US Men’s Amateur commitments.
Dobrescu and Jacob Armstrong of St. Boniface were the runnersup, and Abgrall clearly demonstrated he viewed either contemporary as a deserving recipient of Golfer of the Year by not having an acceptance speech ready. “You want to win it, but you can’t expect to win it because you’re up against great nominees like Austin and Jacob,” said the 45th recipient of the award. “That’s part of the reason why I didn’t prepare anything to say. You just don’t expect to win it, but it’s obviously a great bonus.”
The list of runnersup for the honour included former five time winner Garth Collings – along with Breezy Bend clubmates Eric Johnson and Braxton Kuntz, as well as Drew Jones of Shilo, Jordy Lutz of Elmhurst and Neel Soni of St. Charles.
Also honoured on an individual basis was long time Rules Referee, and former Golf Manitoba President Lou Spado who became the 13th volunteer to receive the Distinguished Service Award.
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