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Golfing star and Winkler's own Eric Klassen has had a great year on the course and he's looking to continue his hard work off of it as he works to become the Winkler golf pro.
Before going into this year and the future, Klassen reflected on his start in the sport. "I was fortunate to have a couple of friends that were pretty good golfers themselves, and they decided to drag me along one time. Through that experience, I kind of got hooked. I'm a competitive guy and they were beating me by ten, twenty strokes and I got fed up with it, so I started to work hard on my game. Fortunately for me, they were good players and they helped me along and develop my game at a younger age."
Golf is a game where you're not just going up against other people, you're battling yourself, something that Klassen says took a while to understand. "It was a bit of a learning curve, especially coming from a team sport background. It was not just going up against others, but you're playing yourself. It took me a couple of years to learn to navigate those ups and downs, just trying to stay level headed on the course. Once I started to see a little bit of success, it just drove me to try and be even better."
On top of developing mentally, Klassen recalls what it's been like working on his swing and building up physically. "When I started, I had a very messy swing," he says with a chuckle. "Lots of errors, bad takeaways, stuff like that. Lots of repitition on the range, chipping and putting, playing little games with those friends. Over time, growing up and coming into my body, I started to hit the ball further, which helps. Short game is still a bit of a sore spot, in all honesty, but it's something I'm going to keep working on, as well."
There's not a lot of time to be too hard on yourself in golf, it's about bouncing back and it's something Klassen continues to work on. "Oh, I've wrecked a fair amount of scorecards by getting into my own head and not handling the ups and downs well. This year specifically, I've focused responding on bouncing back after a bad swing, responding with a high of quality as swing as possible after a mistake, just trying not to compound my errors. That helps not blow up so many scorecards."
Having the opportunity to play at some events with Golf Manitoba, Klassen says it's been great to play against that level of talent on some really wonderful courses. "It's been special. I haven't played any Golf Manitoba events prior to this latest one, so for me, being my first one, getting to see the shear scale and how hard the team of Golf Manitoba works to set up it and how hard the team at Winkler Golf Course worked to get the course looking so good, it was awesome. The sports growing like crazy, they had one of the biggest fields ever at that tournament. The sport keeps growing and I can see it at the Winkler course here myself."
Being as competitive as he is, Klassen says going up against other top golfers only pushes him to up his game. "It was so fun to watch and I was fortunate to play with a couple of high caliber players and even seeing some of the scores not just in my division but in the seniors or ladies, it's clear there's incredible talent around here. First hand, it was special to watch."
For Klassen, he's now focusing on working hard off the course to achieve a dream. "For now, I'm going to stick around and play at my own club events in town. My goal at the qualifier was to accomplish my PAT or my Playing Ability Test, so I'm going to be moving forward with an application come August to become an apprentice-pro here in Winkler. But mainly for events, I'm targeting club events and then the Pembina Valley Classic, as well."
Klassen recently celebrated his 25th birthday and jokes that he's always happy to get some golf stuff for his birthday, no matter what his age. "Well I spoiled myself a few months ago with a new club or two," he says with a laugh. "Other than that, I got some golf pants, which are a pricey piece of the setup. I like to be golf-focused when asking or receiving gifts."