Photo courtesy of Scott Roblin

By Scott Roblin

Model of Consistency

Valk fires back-to-back 68s to win second Medicine Hat Golf & Country Club title

Aug 11, 2019 | 9:09 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Michael Valk’s ascent back to the top of the Medicine Hat Golf & Country Club was made complete on Sunday afternoon.

For the second straight day, Valk carded a score of 68 on Sunday to win the second MHGCC Championship men’s title of his career.

“I’ve been playing pretty good lately, so I was pretty excited coming into the week,” said Valk. “Came off to a hot start early [Saturday] and I just kind of kept riding that.”

Entering Sunday’s final round, Valk had a comfortable six-stroke lead over 2019 Victoria Day Classic winner Mitch Kurtz.

While both Kurtz and Jesse Florkowski were able to shoot well under par on Sunday, it was Valk putting up the best score of the day to take home the MHGCC crown.

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Valk had previously won the championship at his home club in 2016, but was forced to take the annual tournament off the following year.

He had a five-shot lead heading into the final day of competition in 2018, but a final round surge by Ryan Werre stole victory out of Valk’s clutches.

“I didn’t play two years ago and I was kind of upset that I wasn’t able to,” said Valk. “Last year, I ended up finishing second. So, it definitely feels good to be able to come back, play as well as I did, and take it home this year.”

Valk was the only competitor from the 96 golfer field to shoot under par in both of his rounds over the weekend.

He credits that to a recent change in philosophy regarding how he approaches the game.

“I’ve been known to be pretty conservative in other tournaments,” he said. “I’d go around and I’d make a ton of pars, not a lot of birdies, not a lot of bogeys. But, I kind of just wanted to do something different this time and I came out here and made 15 birdies this week. So, I really changed that up and I was very pleased at the way it turned out.”

It’s been a busy summer for the Medicine Hat product, putting together a pair of top-15 finishes at both the Alberta Open Championship and the Alberta Men’s Amateur Championship.

Valk said he’s becoming more aggressive in his game and the strong results this summer are paying dividends.

“I’m starting to get to the point in my career where pars aren’t going to do it anymore, you got to start going as low as you can,” he said. “So, it definitely feels good to actually execute properly on what you’re trying to do.”

Kurtz finished seven shots back of Valk to take second place after firing a three-under, 69 on Sunday, while Florkowski earned a third place finish with a 70 in his final round to finish nine shots back of the lead.

Martin holds on

Photo courtesy of Scott Roblin

Becky Martin was able to go wire-to-wire in the ladies bracket, winning by eight strokes after shooting a 71 on Saturday and a 79 on Sunday.

Martin was able to fend off Kaitlyn Reniak’s Sunday-best round of 78, while 2018 MHGCC champion Pat Hall was 20 shots off the lead and wound up in the bronze medal position.

Sunday was a strong one for Kelly Risling in the senior men’s ranks, carding a 71 to dominate his division by 12 strokes to beat two-time defending champion Ed Wagner.

It took a playoff for Carol Wonko to best Carol Kavanaugh in the senior ladies division, with both finishing their final round tied at 184 strokes.

The junior division crown was awarded to Owen Burzminski meanwhile, shooting scores of 73 and 76 over the weekend to beat his brother Josh by 35 shots.