Checking in with Team Canada

Staying ahead of the competition

Corey Conners and Garrett Rank (Golf Canada)

Making Golf Canada’s National Amateur Team is a lofty goal. It’s not an easy one to accomplish, either.

Measured success in competitive sport is extremely difficult – that sometimes gets lost in the excitement. There is immense pressure to perform, grow and develop at a rate that is greater than or at the very least up to par with your peers.

Once on the team, training intensity adapts to stay ahead of the field of competition. Players work on golf mechanics, strength and mental preparation to name a few. You can see them hard at work in the video below.

For the dedicated few who establish success, maintaining it is an entirely different story. If the picture isn’t painted clearly enough yet – competitive athletes need support. They can’t make it on their own.

How can they get there? Start small, at a regional level for example. Provincial Associations provide the opportunity of fully equipped regional and provincial teams. Ideally, the regional teams will funnel players onto the provincial team, followed by the National Development Squad and eventually the National Amateur Team.

Again, that is much easier to write than it is to accomplish – especially in golf where success is so heavily measured on leaderboard results.

Team Ontario, for instance, took to the facilities at the Lodge at Ventana Canyon in Tuscon, Ariz., from Feb. 12-17 for their first official training camp of 2014. Get to know the team in the video below.

All athletes are tracked by Provincial Associations and Golf Canada through the Sporting DNA database. Performance results and statistics are shared and referred to often to identify talent and potential candidates to make the Provincial and National teams.

More information on each High Performance program can be obtained by contacting the appropriate Provincial Association directly.


Want to help support Team Canada? Learn more here.