New Brunswick golfer Leanne Richardson was the lone golfer to avoid finishing in the black on Day 1 of the 2022 Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur & Senior Championship at Winnipeg’s Breezy Bend Country Club.
The Indian Mountain, N.B., resident turned in a very consistent opening round of even par 72 for a one-stroke lead over a trio of B.C. golfers that includes six-time winner and defending champ Christina Spence Proteau of Port Alberni, 2021 tournament runner up Nonie Marler of Vancouver, and two-time Canadian Senior Women’s champion and former Mid-Amateur title holder Jackie Little of Procter who are all at one over 73.
Richardson bogeyed the 2nd and 11th holes while picking up birdies on the 8th and 15th to go along with 14 pars.
Spence Proteau was very much in contention to finish in the red at three under through 13 holes before stumbling a bit down the stretch. “This year has been a bit of a different year for me. I haven’t played any major events until this event, so I knew there would be some rust. I just didn’t know in what form it would show up,” said Proteau, who cited spending more family time and other personal factors as reasons for playing a reduced schedule. “I started off just very solid and committed. I think overall, I struck the ball very well and was nice and tidy with the short game. That carried through most of the back nine until 16 when I pulled it into the bunker. And I did hit a poor tee shot on 17.”
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Marler, who lost to Proteau in a sudden-death playoff at last year’s tournament in Bromont, Que., was also in contention to top the Day 1 leaderboard – sitting at two under through 15 holes – before running into three consecutive bogeys to finish her round.
“I was really pleased with my play. You just gotta mentally stay in it, and you gotta take it a shot at a time like everybody says,” pointed out the 2022 BC Women’s Mid-Amateur Champ. “I was proud of how I did that today.”
Also very much in contention through the first 18 holes is another British Columbian – Shelly Stouffer of Nanoose Bay – who is tied for fifth place at two over 74 with Helene Chartrand from Valleyfield, Que.
Stouffer is the defending national senior champion and made headlines earlier this summer in becoming just the fourth Canadian to win a U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur title when she topped the field at the 2022 tournament in Anchorage, Alaska.
But the 52-year-old, who grew up in Prince Rupert, says she’s even more fired up from her recent tie for 29th place at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open which wrapped up last week near Dayton, Ohio.
“I left there Monday morning at 2:30 a.m. and then flew from Toronto and then to here,” said the fourth-highest woman on World Amateur Golf rankings. “I got some good momentum from that because I made the cut and played pretty well the last couple of days.”
Rubbing shoulders with the likes of golf greats Annika Sorenstam, Helen Alfredsson, and JoAnne Carner at that tournament was also a thrill for the former basketball player. “It was amazing. Every day was awesome.”
Topping the 12 Manitobans in the field of 60 competitors for the Mid-Amateur title at plus seven 79 are Hannah Diamond of St. Charles and former Manitoba Women’s Amateur champ Veronica Van der Meer. Of note, Diamond is playing in the tournament while seven months pregnant with her first child. She has been given a medical exemption to ride in a cart.
Southwood’s Rhonda Orr is tied for 12th place in the seniors tournament, also after shooting an opening round seven over 79.
B.C. has a healthy nine-stroke lead in both the Mid-Amateur (Nova Scotia) and Senior (Alberta) Divisions of the team competition, which has returned for the first time since 2019.
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