It has been a whirlwind season for Matty Schmiess. The 16-year-old golfer recently completed his final season of high school golf and already has his eyes focused on bigger and better things.
The grade 12 golfer recently placed sixth at SHSAA Provincials with rounds of 76 and 77 and was proud to help the South West team place fourth in the district team standings.
Schmiess also golfed in the Canadian Junior Boys Championship at the Wascana Country Club in Regina on August 11-14. He tied for 28th out of 65 golfers at Junior Nationals at 11-over-par across four rounds. He opened with a 73 in his opening round and then had his best round with a 72 on day two. Schmiess made the cut and added rounds of 76 and 78 in rounds three and four.
“Yeah I played pretty good there. It was my second time going to Nationals, so I had a little experience going into it. I was pretty happy with how I played. I got to play with a few buddies too there. It was a great experience and I was happy with the outcome.”
He said his previous experience at Nationals helped him this time around.
“Yeah it calmed down a little bit of nerves, but I was still pretty nervous on those first tees. It helped a little bit.”
Just a few days later he won the Notah Begay III Junior Golf Canadian Western Championship on August 18-19 at Dakota Dunes Golf Links near Saskatoon.
He won the Boys 16-18 Division at 12-under over two rounds for a nine-shot victory.
“I played lights out. I shot 64 and 66, my best tournament score by far. I played really good there,” he explained.
His opening round featured five birdies and an eagle on the 18th hole. The second round also featured six birdies.
“It was just my putter. I couldn’t really miss with it. That’s obviously a big thing in golf is the short game, so that was the main reason,” he added.
Schmiess advanced to the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship in Louisiana from November 6-8 at Koasati Pines at Coushatta.
“There’s going to be some great players there, so the goals are to take away some things from them, meet some new people, and hopefully play well. We’ll see how it goes down there.”
The tournament will be nationally televised on The Golf Channel.
“Oh boy, I don’t even know yet. I’m going to try and block that out as much as a I can, but obviously there’s going to be that thought in my head, so we’ll see,” he said when asked about playing in front of the cameras.
Schmiess also tied for third in the Saskatchewan Maple League Junior Golf Tour Order of Merit Standings this season.
“It was a good season. MJT always puts on good events. I was able to get one win this year on the MJT. It felt like a pretty good season. I didn’t play as many MJTs as I had in the past, but they are always fun tournaments to go to.”
He started golfing at age two when his dad took him out to the range and began competing on the MJT Tour at the age of 9-10. He said his parents are the driving force behind his success, as well as his swing coach Jeff Gross.
Schmiess hopes to play golf collegiately next year, but is still weighing his options as he looks for the best fit on the course and in the classroom.
