Charly Pinel, young golf enthusiast

SPORTS. Only 13 years old (he will be 14 on August 30), Charly Pinel de Beaumont will take part, from August 9 to 12, in the Canadian Junior Boys Golf Championship which will take place at the Vallée du Richelieu Golf Club in Sainte-Julie. , in the Montreal area.

The young Bellechassois qualified for this important tournament by taking the 23^e place in the cumulative standings, during the Provincial Junior Championship which was held from July 11 to 15 at the Belvédère Golf Club in Val-d’Or, in Abitibi.

During this high-caliber competition, the one who wore the colors of the Junior Golf Academy of the Royal Quebec Club presented rounds of 74-79-75-80, which gave him this 23^e place at the junior level, which includes 18 years and under, but also the 9^e place at the juvenile level (16 years and under).

Note that he also took part, during the last weekend, in the provincial Bantam championship presented in Drummondville and which brought together players of his age group (13-14 years).

Golf instead of hockey

Charly, whose family is originally from Saint-Damien, but has lived in Beaumont for nearly six years, has been a follower of the sport since the age of 4, having been introduced to it by his grandfather, Paul. Pinel, with whom he hit his first balls on the greens of the Bellechasse Golf Club.

“It was my grandfather who made me want to play golf. I had the bite from the start. I love this sport, I love hitting balls, it came naturally, ”he says.

In parallel with golf, Charly had started playing hockey, but he gave up this sport to concentrate on golf when he joined the sports-studies program at Saint-Joseph school in Lévis (Lauzon sector), in 4^e year.

His father Christian specifies that Charly followed his brothers who were also in sports-study programs in hockey and football. His decision to drop hockey was the right one, he said. “For Charly like his brothers, it was school in the morning, golf in the afternoon and hockey practices in the evening, that was a lot for a child of that age at that time”, specifies- he does.

After three years at Saint-Joseph school, Charly entered the sports-studies program at Pointe-Lévy high school, where he had just finished his secondary 2. When he was in elementary school, golf practices took place. took place at the Lévis Golf Club. Now that he’s in high school, he and his classmates train under the supervision of Kevin Bergeron and Élizabeth Asselin. Training takes place at Laval University in winter and at Club Royal Quebec the rest of the time.

If Charly’s home port is the Royal Quebec, where he plays once or twice a week, the young man is also a member of the Saint-Michel Golf Club where he spends a good part of his summer, in addition to work there part time.

Dreaming about the PGA

Young man serious and assiduous in what he does, Charly does not lack ambitions. He would like, in the future, to evolve for an American university, while cherishing the dream, like any young golfer, of playing in the PGA, one day. « It’s okay to have dreams, » said his father, saying that he works hard, that he practices regularly and that he has good grades in class, which is essential to be in the sports-study program.

« Charly, like his brothers, give us great experiences in connection with sport-studies and the competitions in which they take part », he adds, citing, in particular, his participation in a past edition of the tournament. US Kids where he had taken the 2^e rank, one stroke from the winner.

Charly points out that her idol on the PGA Tour is American golfer Jordan Speith. His best experience, he adds, is having been able to attend a PGA tournament, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which allowed him to see several pros at work. Nothing to put a brake on his dreams, on the contrary!