Dieppe golfer has lowest handicap in 56-player field

C11

by dwayne tingley
times & transcript staff

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The New Brunswick Golf Association lists Marc-André Belanger's handicap as 7.5, but the 14-year-old Dieppe native believes the correct number is actually 6.

Either way, Belanger is ready to challenge for the Lounsbury/Cavendish Farms New Brunswick midget/bantam golf championship.

The 36-hole tournament, which has attracted a field of 56 players, begins Monday morning at the Magnetic Hill Golf and Country Club in Moncton.

"I'm going to play the best I can and we'll see what happens," Belanger, who plays out of the Fox Creek Golf Club, said last night.

"I'd like to win it -- that would be a pretty awesome feeling," said Belanger, who enters Grade 9 at Mathieu-Martin High School in the fall.

Belanger, who has the lowest handicap in Monday's field, recently won the midget title at the East Coast junior golf championship in Bouctouche and he previously won the bantam title at the Lounsbury/Cavendish Farms event at Magnetic Hill.

"I like the course and I have played pretty well there in the past," he said. "It's not a very long course, but you have to be accurate.

"I have a pretty good long game and my long irons are good. I'd like to be better with my short game and my putting. I still have to improve a lot."

Par at the 5.500-yard layout is 70 and Belanger, who has been playing golf for eight years, figures a couple of rounds in the low to mid-70s should be good enough to win the tournament.

"I'll just have to concentrate and do my best," said Belanger, who also plays hockey.

Belanger and Sebastien Peterson of Fredericton's Kingswood Park will be first off the tee Monday at 7:30 a.m. The final group of the day is scheduled to hit off the first tee at 10:12 a.m.