Dean Stewart has been across the Atlantic Ocean for several months, playing his hockey season with Vityaz Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League.
Stewart's first season in the KHL wrapped up with 52 games and 15 points to his credit, and he recently signed a contract extension to keep him in Moscow for another two seasons.
Among the major differences between playing in Canada and Russia, he notes, are the amount of help players get when it comes to adjusting to the new setting.
"The Jets and moose have hockey ops guys, they pretty much send you a text with your flight details. When you get to the airport, everything is sorted out for you. And then they'll help you with a place to live or whatever. And so they make it pretty easy for you," he continues. "In Russia, we book our own flights, all that stuff. And then when we get to Moscow, we have a hotel for a couple of nights from the team, and then you're on your own, finding a place and everything. So, it's just difficult, even using the apps to find places. Everything's in Russian, and you're trying to translate things. It was definitely interesting. But it worked out."
Now that the season is over, Stewart has returned to Manitoba to train and get in his summer break, which he adds, includes a popular summer sport, taking to the golf course as often as possible.
"I worked at the course for five or six years, from high school to start a university. Obviously, my like summer schedule is pretty lenient. And so I get my working out and skating done usually by like noon and so. Most days, I like to get out and play if I can."
Stewart achieved a feat few have ever accomplished, scoring an ace on a par-4 hole.
"It was just the perfect scenario. We're straight downwind on hole 15. I was playing my cousin and hit a good drive. I don't know if you're familiar with hole 15 at Portage, but it's a dogleg left, and there are trees, so you can't really actually see the green. Anyways, hit a good drive. And my cousin and I were thinking, OK, it could probably be on the green."
Stewart clarifies that he definitely didn't expect to see the ball in the cup.
So, we drove up to the green, and I didn't see my ball, so we checked behind the green, and it wasn't there. We thought maybe it had rolled long and into the bush behind there. So, I checked the front bunker in front of the green, wasn't in there. So then I was walking back to the back of the green to look for my ball, and I was walking by the hole. I just peeked over, and it was in there. So, yeah, I couldn't believe it."
Stewart became the first ace of the season, and PortageOnline has reached out to the golf course to confirm if this is a first in the course's history.