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![\"Brandon\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4376016_web1_BJ-07162025NottAutocorpMensAmateurChampionship04.jpg\")
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Brandon\u2019s Evan Nachtigall, shown sinking the winning putt at the 2025 Golf Manitoba men\u2019s amateur, is looking to defend his title starting Monday at St. Boniface Golf Club. (Winnipeg Free Press files)<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a lot of that at the match play final and a bit of that at the Elmy (Elmhurst Invitational) after I shot 1 over.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brandonite is back to defend his Golf Manitoba men\u2019s amateur title, starting on Monday at Winnipeg\u2019s St. Boniface Golf Club.<\/p>\n
He claimed the crown at Southwood Golf and Country Club last year, finishing the three-round tournament at 8-under par.<\/p>\n
Since then, he competed in the PGA Tour Americas at the Manitoba Open on a sponsor\u2019s exemption, finishing near the bottom of the leaderboard.<\/p>\n
He won the Golf Manitoba men\u2019s four-ball along with teammate Drew Jones, shooting a team total of 12-under 59 while shooting 63, the competitive course record.<\/p>\n
Nachtigall was the No. 2 seed at the 2026 match play qualifier and reached the final but fell 7 and 6 to David Spurr.<\/p>\n
He had a slow start at the Elmhurst Invitational, going 4 over on the first four holes and battling back to finish the week 1 under, two back of champion Tyson Ehnes.<\/p>\n
Showings that once earned him plenty of praise suddenly seemed like failures in the eyes of others who have seen how low the long-hitting lefty can go.<\/p>\n
\u201cGolf\u2019s a crazy game, everyone loses except one every week,\u201d Nachtigall said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the amateur, so many guys hit it good, so many guys can win any given week, but to win, you have to get a couple of breaks here and there and roll in the putts.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven playing last year at the (Manitoba) Open, those guys don\u2019t hit it any different than I do when I\u2019m on \u2026 it\u2019s just a putting contest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nachtigall got into tournament golf after high school in 2019, and first contended at the men\u2019s amateur just two years later at Neepawa Golf and Country Club.<\/p>\n
He worked as hard as any golfer in the province over the next few winters, hitting balls in his garage, then at the simulator at Wheat City Golf Course, and most recently at Evo Golf as a part-owner of the indoor facility for the past three years.<\/p>\n
He played most of his golf at Shilo Country Club before moving to Winnipeg in the spring and joining Elmhurst Golf and Country Club.<\/p>\n
Nachtigall feels that it has been a big help for a few reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being able to have an actual practice facility with real range balls and a range I can use every day has been awesome,\u201d Nachtigall said. \u201cThe practice facilities are much better than I\u2019m used to. I would never hit golf balls at the range at Shilo before, I\u2019d just call the rounds I\u2019d play \u2018practice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The Donald Ross-designed course northeast of Winnipeg makes players pay for mistakes more than most, with thick rough, firm, fast greens and challenging green-side bunkers everywhere.<\/p>\n
He said it has made him think more about where to aim on tee shots to have better angles into greens, and be more aware of where the best places to miss are.<\/p>\n
Nachtigall played St. Boniface earlier this year and realized some similarities, even though the 6,348-yard layout is nearly 500 yards shorter than his new home track.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re missing fairways \u2014 the rumour has it that place can get very firm \u2014 it\u2019s going to be tough going into greens out of the rough,\u201d Nachtigall said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to be putting from 30, 40 feet for birdie all day. \u201cIf you want to make a run, you\u2019ve got to hit it in the fairway.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three-day event features a cut after 36 holes, with half of the field making it to Wednesday\u2019s final round.<\/p>\n
Brandon\u2019s Drew Jones, who finished tied for second at the men\u2019s amateur last year, is another tournament favourite teeing off early on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
Other Westman competitors include Neepawa\u2019s Hayden Delaloye, Oak Island\u2019s Cameron Duncan, and Brandon\u2019s Brayden Hamm, Brad Pardy, Will Kinsman, Zostrianos Giordani-Gross and Spence Mott, the latter two of whom captured the last two provincial junior titles.<\/p>\n
\u00bb tfriesen@brandonsun.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Evan Nachtigall hasn\u2019t changed his approach to tournaments after winning the title he has chased his entire competitive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-794429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}