A member at Blomidon Golf and Country Club, Bonnell will have his mettle tested when he competes at the 2017 Future Links Atlantic Golf Championship next week at the Clare Golf and Country Club in Church Point, N.S..
There’s a lot riding on the 54-hole event with Bonnell hoping to secure one of two spots available for the Newfoundland and Labrador male golf team representing the province at the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg.
Bonnell placed second at the provincial junior golf championship earlier this month to punch his ticket to his third national junior golf championship, but now he wants to experience the Canada Games because it’s something he always wanted to do.
Bonnell has been active on the golf course this year, but that wasn’t the case one year ago when he played in only one of a handful of events that would have allowed him to gain valuable points in the Canada Games Order of Merit Standings used to determine who claims a spot on the three-member male team.
He just lost interest in the game last summer and that made him decide it was just as well to take a summer off. He had gone through a rough hockey season over the winter so he just didn’t have the same zest that he had when he put the sport high on his priority list.
“When I got halfway through the season I started to miss it, but it was kind of too late because I missed three big tournaments,” he said.
He’s somewhat ticked off he put himself in a position where he has to come up with a stellar performance at Clare to earn a trip to the Games. He really wants to experience the Canada Games like some of his friends have done and he’s just going to give it his best shot and hope for the best.
He will play in his third national golf tournament later this summer so it’s not like he’s a stranger to pressure situations, but there’s not a lot of room for error with a handful of guys ahead of him in the points standings so he will have to be on his game.
He can only focus on the task at hand and not worry about what other golfers are doing.
“Just being focused on every shot and not letting the pressure get to you,” he said.
