Dante Gamble holds a flag from his hometown of Beardy's & Okemasis' Cree Nation and stands at the The Kanawaki Golf Club in Quebec, where the National Championships were held earlier this week. The 15-year-old golfer finished third out of 38 competitors. (Dante Gamble/submitted)

By Logan Lehmann

Podium finish

Youth golfer from Beardy’s finishes third in National Championships

Aug 3, 2024 | 8:00 AM

A golfer from the Beardy’s & Okemasis’ Cree Nation made his mark at the Notah Begay III Junior Golf Canadian Championship earlier this week.

Dante Gamble finished in a two-way tie for third at the tournament, which was held at The Kanawaki Golf Club just outside of Montreal.

Gamble said he was proud to represent his hometown on the National stage.

“It was an awesome experience, pretty unbelievable that I was there,” he said.

“I was sitting second after the first day and I couldn’t believe it at first. After I saw [the leaderboard], it started to sink in and going into the second day was awesome, obviously didn’t shoot too well but I still got third.”

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(Dante Gamble/submitted)

Following day one, the 15-year-old was among the top of the leaderboard, shooting a +1 (71) before the nerves got the best of him in day two. He managed a +6 (76) that included a stretch of four straight holes with a bogey, finishing the tournament at +7 (77).

Despite this, he said he still played better than he thought.

“It got pretty tight the last 10 holes, I got a little shaky.”

“It was a lot harder than other tournaments because it’s kids from across Canada instead of just Saskatchewan. It was pretty tough, but I still managed to play better than I expected.”

Since he started playing golf four years ago, he’s been competing competitively for two with this tournament being his first National Championship. He also represented Saskatchewan at the 2023 North American Indigenous Games in Halifax where he placed fifth.

Following his success, he hopes to land a college scholarship to continue his career and maybe even go pro.

Gamble is now getting set to compete at the Maple Leaf Junior Tour’s PLYR Series at Elk Ridge Resort from Aug. 10-11.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com