Adam Prudhomme
Napanee Beaver
So good was Josh Whalen’s 2017, the Napanee golfer had trouble picking the pinnacle moment.
Golf Canada recognized his success on the links by naming him its male amateur player of the year through its National Orders of Merit program. It credited his third-place finish at the Canadian Am and six NCAA top-20 finishes with the Kent State Golden Flashes as a huge driving force behind the award.
A great year was made even better in late October when he was named to the 2018 Team Canada National Amateur Squad.
“There were a few highlights,” recalled the 22-year-old, who spent the end of December in Phoenix while training with the Canadian National Team. “At Kent we won I think three times in the spring, which was a lot of fun. I ended up winning my first college event in the spring as well. Obviously third at the Canadian Am has got to be right there in contention as the highlight as well. I can’t quite pinpoint one exactly but there are a couple of them.”
That’s not even to mention setting the Napanee Golf and Country Club course record, which he did back in September with a 62, eclipsing Sam Snead’s mark of 63, which stood for 58 years.
“I had set out some goals for myself (last January) and it felt good to accomplish them,” said Whalen.
He credits a lot of his success to being on a competitive team at Kent State and wanting to finish his university career on a high note.
“It was mostly confidence and I was around some good players at Kent,” said Whalen. “We all had a good year and we’re all pretty competitive so that helped as well.”
Now that the calendar has flipped to 2018 he has no plans rest on the laurels of his best year to date. After a short break from his Phoenix trip he was on a plane yesterday and bound for Australia where he’ll continue to train with a pair of teammates from the National team. Later this month he’ll be headed to Georgia to golf under the southern sun while his home course of the Napanee Golf and Country Club is blanketed under snow. He says he is yet to finalize his schedule for 2018 but plans to build of the success of the previous year as he continues to establish himself as one of the Canada’s rising stars.