Local golfers win on the links

Kahnawa’kehró:non Josh Mayo and Frank Phillips came home from Cornwall Country Club with some hardware, as they were the respective winners of the Amateur and Senior divisions of the Golf Quebec Indigenous Championship.

For Mayo, the win came on the heels of a second-place finish over the weekend at the Masters North tournament in Malone, New York.

Being the runner up in Malone was disappointing for Mayo, but he used that as motivation for the Indigenous Championship.

“I regrouped after that, I played well, even if I went in not knowing the course,” said Mayo.

He shot one under par 71.

He did not really realize where he was in the standings until the ninth hole, when his cousin and fellow competitor, Mackenzie Kirby, told him he was tied for the lead.

He continued to be neck-and-neck with eventual runner-up Terrell Thomas on the back nine, finding themselves tied before the 18th hole, a par three.

Mayo tried to play the hole as quickly as possible.

“I shot it three feet from the hole, and after that I just went and did the putt, I didn’t want to set up for too long because I knew it would make me miss if I took too long,” said Mayo.

He sank the putt for birdie, and after Thomas failed to do better than a par, Mayo clinched the win and the trophy.

“I wanted to make par, and I did. I was not going in expecting to win, but I was happy that the outcome went that way,” said Mayo.

“I was hitting good shots at the right time.”

He found the course to be challenging in interesting ways compared to courses in and near Kahnawake: the greens were much smaller in Cornwall, and missing the fairway was a lot more punishing.

“Cornwall Country Club is a nice little gem of a golf course,” said Mayo, who will be competing in another tournament there in September, the Cornwall Open.

For his part, Phillips was looking to get the win in the Senior division after finishing second last year to his brother Todd.

Throughout the front nine, Phillips knew how he and his golfing partner, Frank Roundpoint, were doing, but only realized after nine holes that the pair were first and second overall, with Phillips holding the advantage.

He kept that advantage going into the 18th hole.

“I saw I had a nine-shot lead and knew that as long as I didn’t have a disaster hole, I would win,” said Phillips.

He did quite the opposite, ending up with an 11-shot lead and a final score of +7 over par, 79 shots total.

Phillips credits keeping the momentum going on each hole for his successful day.

“Play had gotten slow for us after five holes, as we caught up to the foursome of members ahead of us and the waiting was causing me to cool off. I knew that if I could keep my earlier play going, I would do okay,” said Phillips.

That’s exactly what he did.

“I ended up playing the back nine better than the front, 41 and then 38,” said Phillips.

“I was able to stay patient on the back nine and my short game came through when I needed it if I made a bad shot.”

The tournament almost did not take place this year, due to a lack of players. Indeed, only 13 total golfers, eight in the Amateur division and five in the Senior division, took part on the men’s side.

“It was earlier in the year than last summer, lots of hometown players don’t want to travel, and it wasn’t well publicized in Akwesasne,” said Phillips.

Although none of the golfers from Kahnawake won their division on the women’s side,

what did help get the tournament to happen was that of the 15 women golfers, a dozen were from Kahnawake.

“It was really great, it’s more fun to see women compete hard when you are with the guys all the time,” said Mayo. “They saved the tournament.”

The full results are on Golf Quebec’s website.

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