The 11th hole at TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club was especially kind to Martin Ring this past week. (Martin Ring/Facebook)

By Rob Mahon

Senior Golf Championships

Prince Albert’s Ring finishes sixth at senior golf championships

Jul 29, 2022 | 4:00 PM

Local golf ace, Martin Ring, hadn’t been to TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club in Estevan since 2015.

When he went back for the Senior Men’s Golf Championship this week, he found the course as fun and as challenging as he remembered.

Ring placed sixth with a final score of 227 or 11 over par. He shot a 78 on the final day owing to a little trouble on the front nine of the course.

“I actually had a pretty good tournament,” said Ring. “I wasn’t totally disappointed. Obviously, you always want to finish better than what you end up doing, but overall I was quite satisfied with my play. It’s an interesting course, it’s not one I get to play very often.”

Many who play Woodlawn find the back nine to be the least forgiving part of the course, especially because of all the water hazards. For Ring, however, the back nine ended up being the better of the two.

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“It’s quite tight and it’s got lateral hazards or penalty areas usually on both sides of the fairway,” Ring said. “You can miss it left and be in trouble or you can miss it right and be in trouble, so you had to be very, very straight. That’s probably one of the key differences between Cooke and Estevan.”

The back nine also produced what proved to be Ring’s favourite hole of the event. The 11^th hole is a straight away but very narrow track with a deep creek on the right side and traps surrounding the green. In spite of that, Ring turned in his lowest scores of the event there.

“I think I birdied it all three days,” said Ring. “It’s a little bit shorter of a par four and I just seemed to be able to find the number. Just hitting a three-wood off the tee, I always seemed to have a nice, comfortable wedge or gap wedge in my hand for the second shot.”

Cooke Municipal is the home course for Ring and he’ll be right back on it without too much rest between events. Cooke is slated to host the Men’s Northern Tournament starting tomorrow and running through Sunday.

“It (Cooke) is probably the best condition that I’ve seen it in many, many years,” said Ring. “It’s absolutely fantastic.”

Ring added although he had a generally better back nine in Estevan, the 18^th hole was his toughest overall as he lost two balls, the only ones he lost all tournament.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP