Q & A: Meet the 17-year-old golfing champ from Delaware Nation

Top Indigenous golfers from across Ontario gathered to compete at the Indigenous Ontario Golf Championships this week. 

More than 100 golfers from dozens of First Nations gathered at the MontHill Golf & Country Club by Six Nations of the Grand River for the competition's third year from August 12 to 14. 

Among them is 17-year-old Savana Smith of Delaware Nation, who placed third in the women's competition. 

Cheryl Mitchell of Walpole Island placed first, and Lorraine Elijah of Oneida Nation of the Thames placed fourth. 

Smith spoke with CBC's Matt Allen on Afternoon Drive about her love for the game and where she got her start in golfing. 

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

LISTEN: Indigenous golfer Savana Smith shares her passion for the sport

Matt Allen: Congratulations on the win. What does it mean for you?

SS: It's just something that I've always looked forward to. It's my favourite tournament that I go into every year, and it's the third annual one. It's just really important to me, especially that we get to have it be all Indigenous players.

MA: How did you get into the sport? 

SS: I just started in COVID. My dad used to golf a lot. I'd go golfing maybe once a week. But when COVID happened, I couldn't play baseball anymore, so I just needed something to do. That's when I started to pick it up because that's the only thing I could do really.

MA: Having played baseball, did you find it easy to to develop a golf swing?

SS: When I first started out, since I've been playing baseball my whole life, I've had a pretty bad swing. I would say it was just straight baseball. But I feel like having that swing and playing hockey also made me just want to hit the ball. And I feel like that's with a lot of other kids that I've talked to that they just want to like hit it and rip it and just see how far you can hit it.

I would say probably the year after I started, my dad taught me everything I know. So it's been really just trial and error. I would say maybe a year after is probably when I got a pretty good swing.