- Garrett Rank won the Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship on Friday at Brantford Golf & Country Club
- The NHL referee rolled in a 6-foot par putt on the 72nd hole to win by one shot
- Read below for what Rank said about winning a fourth title 10 years after his last one
Garrett Rank worked his first Stanley Cup Final this year. On Friday he won a national golf championship.
The 38-year-old referee from Waterloo, Ontario captured his fourth Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship on Friday at Brantford Golf & Country Club, closing with a 3-under 69 to finish at 18-under 270. Evan Nachtigall of Brandon, Manitoba came in one shot behind.
It came down to the final green. Rank and Nachtigall stood on the 18th tee tied at 18-under, and Rank missed the putting surface long with his approach.
Rank walked through the finish afterward:
“As soon as I saw my ball was on the back of the green, I knew it was a good time for lag putt to try and two putt, and luckily enough I was able to make the six footer at the end to win,” Rank told Golf Canada.
Nachtigall bogeyed the last for a 72 and finished at 17-under. Golf Canada announced the champion in hockey terms:
Rank got there with rounds of 64-68-69-69, two eagles and 22 birdies across four days. Here is how the leaderboard closed:
His first three Mid-Am titles came in a row from 2014 through 2016. Rank was asked what a fourth one means after a decade away from the trophy.
“It’s a huge honour, winning a golf tournament is never easy, to do it four times is pretty special, I think it’s been 10 years since I last did it so to do it close to home in a place like Brantford is something that I will remember for the rest of my life.”
None of this came out of nowhere. Rank beat testicular cancer at 22, joined the NHL officiating staff full time in 2016, and teed it up at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. He said that resume mattered down the stretch on Friday.
“I’ve played in some big events before, I played a couple PGA TOUR events, I played in the U.S. Open and have won the national championship before so I definitely think that was an advantage in knowing that I have the pedigree to kind of lean on those experiences.”
Hockey and golf keep bumping into each other this summer. Jaccob Slavin spent his day with the Stanley Cup on a golf course earlier this month.
The win hands Rank an exemption into the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Sand Valley Resort in Nekoosa, Wisconsin from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1, plus spots in the 2027 Canadian Amateur and Canadian Mid-Amateur.
NHL training camps open right around that Wisconsin week, so Rank is about to trade the putter for the whistle in a hurry.
