Manitoba’s Diamond golfing for two

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This article was published 31/08/2022 (1124 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s Hannah Diamond is playing this week’s Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur at nearly eight months pregnant.

Carrying a baby hasn’t slowed Diamond’s game down this summer. If anything, the 27-year-old thinks it’s helped.

“A lot of people say you play your best golf when you’re pregnant. I’d say that’s somewhat been the case, but everything’s (mostly) stayed the same,” Diamond told the Free Press moments before teeing off at Breezy Bend Country Club for Round 2.

“But I won our club championship at St. Charles a couple weeks ago so that was fun to win that pregnant.’”

The pregnancy forced Diamond, who’s due to have her baby boy in October, to tweak her swing a tad at the beginning of the summer but she’s at a point now where it all feels normal.

“I have to be really aware of getting my stomach out first when I’m swinging… I find my drives are a little straighter which is nice just because I’m a bit more controlled when I’m swinging,” said Diamond.

“Putting has been the most different thing though because I have to have my arms out a little farther than normal. But it hasn’t been a bad thing so far.”

Diamond led the first round with five birdies and fired a seven-over par 79 to put her in a tie with fellow Manitoban Veronica van der Meer out of Kingswood Golf & Country Club for 16th place. But Diamond took a step back on Wednesday, sinking only one birdie and carding an 86 to drop 14 spots to 34th place. Van der Meer fared a bit better, shooting an 82 to fall to 26th. Winnipeg’s Nicole McGlenen is one shot behind van der Meer while 17th place Charmaine Mackid, a Breezy member, is taking advantage of her home-course advantage with a 14-over-par total of 156 to make her the top-ranked Manitoban after two days.

Diamond will need a massive push in today’s final round if she’s going to replicate her finish from last year’s event in Quebec where she finished in eighth place. Van der Meer, 25, is competing in her first Canadian Mid-Amateur. Getting to do so at home makes it even more special.

“Honestly, it’s great. It’s really nice being able to go home and relax after your round,” van der Meer said.

“And just having the home environment with familiar faces around as there’s more Manitobans participating in the tournament than there normally would be. It’s more comforting.”

Unfortunately for Diamond, van der Meer, and Mackid, they didn’t get the result they were hoping for in the two-day inter-provincial competition. The three made up Team Manitoba this week and finished Day 1 in second place in the battle of the provinces at plus-14. Another plus-14 score on Wednesday wasn’t enough to stay on the podium as Ontario finished at plus-18 for silver and Quebec edged out Manitoba by three strokes for third. Team B.C. won in dominating fashion as they finished ahead of Ontario by 14 shots.

“It’s pretty disappointing. I was pretty confident that if anything, we were gonna do better than Quebec. But you know, stuff happens,” said van der Meer.

“We all tried our best to do what we could with today. Fourth place is still pretty good.”

The Canadian Senior’s Championship is also being held at Breezy Bend this week. Southwood’s Rhonda Orr, Manitoba’s senior champion nine out of the past 10 years, heads into the final day in a tie for 14th place after shooting an eight-over 80 on Wednesday.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31