Nikashantess Penashue was feeling the pressure as he set out for his final day on the green at Terra Nova Golf Course. He was 16 competing against 20 and 30 year-olds and he says that part was tough.
He said he wasn’t nervous during the first two days of the tournament because he didn’t really think there was much of a chance he’d win, but on the last day he knew he was in the running.
He made his way around the course shooting what he called medium but not perfect shots.
“I was hitting down the middle but everybody seemed to be hitting into the woods,” he said.
Nearing the last few holes of the course someone told him he had the lead by four points. It was then that he said he knew he had it.
“I started to get excited, especially coming into the last hole because there were a lot of people there watching.”
With his cousin Atshapi caddying for him, Nikashantess finished the game to become the youngest person to ever win the men’s amateur provincial championship- a tournament aimed at men 40 and under. Normally Nikashantess would be competing in junior, which is for under 18′s, and he’s played in junior tournaments before.
Surprisingly, this year he didn’t make the junior team and it was his second year trying for the amateur championship.
“I didn’t expect to win,” he said.
“My goal was to place in the top 10.”
Nikashantess is not the only member of his family to excel at golf. His mom was on her way to compete for the ladies national golf championship in Winnipeg when he called her to tell her he’d won.
“Mom was in the Toronto airport crying over the phone,” he said.
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Nikashantess has been playing golf since he was ten years old. He said his stepfather got both he and his mother interested in the game. He’s used to playing the greens in HV-GB and he said the competition in St. John’s is much tougher.
At Bally Haly golf course in St. John’s, Nikashantess played 8-hour days of golf, preparing for the tournament. He’d only played the Terra Nova course four times before the match. He said the most challenging part wasn’t the course but the fact that he was playing against men, and really good golfers at that.
“I don’t think they expected me to win it,” he said.
When he did win he said the men were all very nice and supportive and everyone congratulated him.
The next stop for Nikashantess is the North American Indigenous Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he’ll also be competing for a golf title. Then it’s off to the National amateur championships in Alberta where he’ll be representing Newfoundland and Labrador before he makes his way back to Sheshatshiu at the end of August.
Nikashantess said he doubts he’ll play golf professionally but he said he’d like to see how far he could take it.
