OLDS - Brae Rogalczyk walked off the final green of his 18-hole day on June 26 at the Olds Golf Club with partner Jake Brooks looking a little weary from the heat but still offering a smile.
It had been a good day for the 15-year-old Innisfailian.
Rogalczyk shot a 73, just one over par in the juvenile boys competition at the Olds’ stop of this year’s Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour (MJT).
He was in second place in the two-day tourney; just two strokes back of St. Albert’s Russell Quinn who shot 71.
“I'd say I played pretty good. I capitalized on many opportunities and I was hitting the ball well today. It was a good day,” said Rogalczyk, who has been a member of the tour and the Olds Golf Club for the past five years. “I just love the course. It's a great layout. Greens are tough. They roll fast.”
As for his golfing partner, it was a battle out on the links.
“It was tough. I wasn't getting as good as good as I could have,” said Brooks, a former Innisfailian and now Red Deer County resident who shot an 83 on June 26. “I wasn't really putting well but I battled through it. My game isn’t really where I want it to be, but I battled through.”
But golf is a sport with sudden changing fortunes and every competitor, whether its 2023 Canadian Open winner Nick Taylor or young Brae Rogalczyk, must learn to face and overcome each one of them.
Rogalczyk shot a heartbreaking 80 in the second round of the Olds tourney on June 27; an 11th place finish.
“It wasn’t my best day at all. I had a couple bad swings and got too aggressive and it cost me the tournament,” said Rogalczyk. “It was tough to be in contention and come out with not a good score.
“But I feel I am going to learn from this. I feel it will give me strength for my next tournament,” added the young golfer. “I have that fire in me to do better.”
It wasn’t a great day either for first round leader Quinn, who shot 75 in the second round to finish in a tie for third; three shots behind winner Brady Durkin of Sylvan Lake.
Brooks had a better round of golf on June 27 with 79; finishing the tourney in 20th place.
Win or lose, Rogalczyk’s latest result is being viewed as just another step towards what could be future stardom.
Following the heartbreak in Olds he’s determined to quickly move forward. He was scheduled to play at the three-day major MJT tourney at Calgary’s McKenzie Meadows Golf Club July 3 to 5.
Since 2019, Rogalczyk has been climbing the result ladder at the MJT. At the age of 11 in 2019 he won the boys 11-12 category. He followed that up in 2020 with a first-place finish in the peewee boys section.
And last year Rogalczyk took home the win in the bantam boys division.
This summer he is playing in up to 15 tournaments across Alberta, British Columbia and even in the United States.
Luke Rundell, MJT’s Alberta tournament director, said the Olds stop was the fifth of 12 across the province this year for young, talented and developing golf stars.
“It's a developmental tour. We provide competition for the kids, but we also get them ready for college golf and golf after as well. Our catchphrase is developing champions in life and in golf,” said Rundell, noting the MJT is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year as a national non-profit junior tour, run exclusively by PGA of Canada professionals.
As for the upcoming young stars, Rundell said the competition and enthusiasm levels were high throughout the tour, noting the Olds’ stop attracted 79 young male and female players competing in six age categories from 12 and under peewees to 19-year-old juniors.
“These kids are so good. They keep pushing each other to get better and better and the scores keep getting lower and lower,” said Rundell. “We just love promoting the game of golf and growing the game of golf in Canada, and it's always good to see all these kids come out and play.”
For Rogalczyk, golf is more than just a play activity. His goal is to turn professional, or at the “highest level possible.”
He also knows that the road to get there will require him to be tin tip-top shape mentally and physically.
“The thing mentally is that it is a step from my level to the next level and on tour. It's definitely just forgetting if you have a bad shot or a bad hole; just being able to erase that memory and just moving forward,” said Rogalczyk. “And then physically it's just a lot of practice, a lot of early mornings and late nights, and just working on your swing and just knowing what you need to do to get to the next level.”
To get to the next levels Rogalczyk also has solid family support. His father Len is his coach, and he was at the Olds’ tourney with wife Tanya; always supporting and always ready to offer advice.
“The biggest thing is his mindset and his attitude have gotten to where it needs to be; to stay in control on the golf course,” said Len. “As a family, we work on mindsets, and we do a lot of writing out things that we want; manifesting things.
“I think Brae is now at the age where it's starting to implement into his game, which is really good,” he said. “I think he can go as far as he wants to go. It’s that simple.”
