Being a weekend golfer typically means playing a fun, maybe competitive, round or two of golf with friends after the work week is over.
That’s the case for 25-year-old Carson Ouellette of Stonewall. He is a talented but not professional golfer who enjoys spending his summer weekends on the course, trying to work on his game while having a good time.
Over the past three years, he and a few buddies have begun participating in a couple of team scramble tournaments to see how well their play compares to that of other golfers like themselves.
Entering the annual RBC PGA Scramble events all around Canada, Ouellette and company found they might be better than average and, in fact, might be at the level of the best golfers not on tour in the country.
Ouellette’s team won their local qualifying round last year, sending them to the regional finals of the RBC PGA Scramble.
Though they didn’t win at regionals, it was an eye-opening experience that made them want to return.
This year, Ouellette joined a new foursome of golfers entering the event who shared the same aspirations of winning regionals and making it to nationals.
As Ouellette’s new team began RBC PGA Scramble events this year, they started dominating play, and the national dream quickly became a reality.
A couple weeks ago, Ouellette along with Interlake locals, Matt Glowa, Chris Plishka, and Mark Skibinski dominated the local qualifier at Steinbach’s Quarry Oaks to advance to regionals.
Then, at regionals last Monday, with the addition of Colwyn Abgrall, a former U.S. Amateur from Winnipeg, the newly formed five-some shot a 17-under, 53, at Rossmere Golf & Country Club to win the tournament and qualified for the 2024 RBC PGA Scramble Nationals in Cape Breton, NS.
“It’s a huge accolade for me and the team,” said Ouellette on Tuesday afternoon. “Really not often in my golf career have I got to experience an event with such a competitive environment. It’s really the biggest event that a weekend golfer could possibly find. The organization of it, they treat you like absolute professionals out there. I just think it’s really cool to compete. As somebody who’s not a professional golfer, being able to compete and play against other teams is a fun thing, the competition is what drives me to play.”
At nationals, Ouellette and company will take on the fellow top five-some’s from across the country who won their regional events.
Though nationals is entirely new to Ouellette, teammates Glowa and Plishka were on the team that represented Manitoba in 2023.
For Ouellette, having those guys alongside him has helped him know what to expect for the three-round national final.
“Mentality and confidence the most,” said Ouellette. “We’re texting each other, doing practice rounds, truly believing we’re supposed to win this thing rather than just going in their hoping for the best. It was a mentality of we belong there, and our mentality was going to win it for us.”
The team will be tried heavily, not just by competition at the national level. The tournament courses at Cabot Cliffs and Cabot Links offer one of the biggest challenges any golf course in Canada offers.
Both courses, listed as the two best non-private golf courses in the country by Golf Talk Canada, are a long and gruelling challenge with a scenic backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean’s waters.
Having only played single rounds in each of the two qualifying events, Ouellette knows that the three rounds on such a course will be a physical and mental test.
“You need to sustain the mental focus for a lot longer,” said Ouellette. “Myself, I’m not too worried about the physical nature of it but sustaining the mental focus over three rounds is going to be difficult. We did a 36-hole day yesterday to try to sustain both mental and physical energy over a long period, but just getting the reps and keeping in game shape, and it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.”
The team will head off to Cape Breton next month for the welcome dinner on Oct. 5 before play begins.
The tournament will wrap up on Oct. 9, and the winning team will be crowned the 2024 RBC PGA Scramble National Champions and awarded a team trip to watch the 2025 RBC Canadian Open at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley next July.
