When 13-year-old Brooke Brezovski tees up a golf ball, everything about her approach looks professional.
From the age of four she embraced the game and is ready to settle in for her second season on the McLennan Ross Junior Golf Tour.
Four amateurs on the tour met with media Tuesday at Wolf Creek Golf Resort in Ponoka ahead season’s first event in Drayton Valley on Saturday. Brezovski said this winter she made the decision to stop playing hockey and train for golf year round and her passion for the sport, even at such a young age is clear.
“I was just way more passionate about golf. I feel like I could do way more with golf than I could with hockey. I like golf a lot,” she said.
Playing out of Sturgeon Valley Golf Club, Brezovski said the tour has helped her overcome the fear of tournaments she had in her first few appearances. Now, she said that individual battle you fight on the golf course is what keeps her coming back.
“I like the individual part of golf,” Brezovski added. “I like how it’s all you. When you make a mistake, you can learn from it yourself. If you do well, you feel like you really earned it yourself.”
The tour will include Central Alberta stops in Innisfail (July 4), Olds (July 12), Lacombe (Aug. 2) and twice in Ponoka (Aug. 8 and Aug. 28). The Tour Championship is August 28 at Wolf Creek Golf Resort.
Lacombe native Chase Broderson was also on hand Tuesday and said since he joined the tour a few years ago, he’s grown a lot as a golfer.
“When you go the tournaments you’re nervous because it’s all the older kids and you’re just a young guy out there playing. Just trying to play as well as you can,” he said. “Now you’re playing out there to win the tournament. It’s a lot different perspective.”
Broderson is in a unique situation, as his father Kevin is head pro at Lacombe Golf and Country Club. The teen said he spends the majority of his time in the summer between playing and working at the course.
Whether it’s a fatherly push in the golf direction or not, Chase said he strives to get better and seeing the top players on the tour like Ethan deGraaf and Kaiden Nicholson succeed has provided plenty of motivation.
“When you see the top players playing you just think that could be you one day. Try and push towards that. Jared Nicolls used to play on this tour, so I’m trying to follow in his foot steps. Do what he did,” Broderson said.
“When you’re playing with better guys it elevates you game, you play up to their level.”
One particular part of the McLennan Ross Tour that has helped him develop is the dedication to the rules like Executive Director of the tour Dunc Mills asks of the players.
“When you start young you learn all the rules then when you go to the bigger tours you don’t have to worry about the rules,”Broderson added.
“Dunc (Mills) definitely helps out a lot, I went through a lot of rules with him during my time on the tour.”
Saturday will mark the 22nd season of the McLennan Ross Golf Tour.