Being part of the junior division didn't stop Regina's Aaron Vogel from beating all of the junior and senior golfers in the Estevan Comprehensive School Invitational high school golf tournament on Wednesday at Estevan Woodlawn Golf Club.
When his 18 holes were complete, the Grade 10 student from LeBoldus High School had already locked up first place in the junior championship flight; but his day wasn't quite over yet. Vogel was tied with two seniors - Estevan's Michael Hengen and Weyburn's Tyler Myrglod, who all shot a round of 74.
In order to determine the overall winner of the tournament, a playoff hole was needed.
The three golfers stepped up to the tee on the par-4 10th hole. With the pressure on, Vogel played a near-flawless hole, reaching the green in two and sinking a six-foot birdie putt. Hengen and Myrglod couldn't quite match the Reginan's score - both parred, forcing a second playoff to decide the winner of the senior championship flight.
"I've never been in a playoff before, so it was kind of new for me," Vogel said after the round. The pressure of his first ever playoff didn't have an effect on the junior golfer though, as he made quick work of the two older golfers.
"I've been to lots of tournaments, so I wasn't that nervous, but I was definitely feeling it a bit," Vogel said.
The playoff hole topped off a good day overall for Vogel.
"I played pretty good. There were just a couple of holes where I made some bad choices and did some stupid things," Vogel said. "I hit the ball well. I definitely had a few putts that could've dropped that didn't, but I definitely got some good breaks too."
On the second playoff hole, Myrglod dropped his tee shot onto the green, and two-putted to defeat Hengen in the senior championship flight.
Hengen admitted he was a little nervous heading into the playoff holes.
"You're just thinking 'don't duff it, or skull it - just hit it good,'" Hengen laughed.
Poor weather has kept Hengen from getting in a lot of practice early in the season. Despite having only golfed four rounds, the Grade 12 ECS student was happy with how his tournament went.
"[The round] went pretty good actually - I just kind of blew up in the playoff," Hengen said.
Amazingly, the weather co-operated for all of the golfers on Wednesday, despite downpours throughout the long weekend.
"The course is nice right now. The rain helped a lot," Hengen said.
In the girls' division, Estevan's Haley Lingelbach was the runner-up to Weyburn's Elanne Krainyk in the championship flight.
Lingelbach finished the round with a score of 89, four strokes off the lead.
Estevan also came in second in the team competition, falling short to Weyburn. For the team competition, the top four scores from each school are tallied - three from the boys and one from the girls.
ECS had a number of winners of the novelty events in the tournament as well. Maddie Blischak and Torey McKellar had the closest approaches of the day in the girls' and boys' divisions respectively; and Janelle Gedak was the winner of the long drive competition in the girls' division.
