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“These are just things we know to be important for people at the top of the game and we’re just trying to build those habits now, not later,” said Matt Wilson, Director of Next Generation Performance at Golf Canada. “It’s hard to teach a 24-year-old habits.”

Canadian golfers are having success in unprecedented numbers on the world’s top golf tours.

April saw Corey Conners get his first win on the PGA Tour and Brooke Henderson capture her eighth title on the LPGA Tour, and it’s no surprise to see multiple Canadians on leaderboards most weeks. In order to keep it that way, the pipeline has to stay full, which is why Golf Canada has high hopes for the Bear Mountain program.

“It’s a competitive sport that’s being played around the world and I’m sure it’s not going to get any less popular now with Tiger’s win,” said Wilson. “I think there’s reason to be optimistic, but at the same time, we have to continue to evolve what we do and find ways that we can be even more effective and bring more players into the fold.”

The teens are picked up from school after four hours of class, and driven to the Bear Mountain lounge where they eat a lunch they’ve packed for themselves. Then it’s off to the gym for a light workout to get warmed up. After that, they each write out a specific practice plan for the day and run it by either Wilson or junior squad head coach Robert Ratcliffe. They usually work until 6 p.m. before heading home for dinner at their billets.

One of the program’s challenges, undoubtedly, is that these athletes are teenagers. And not just teenagers, but teenagers living away from home.