{"id":298841,"date":"2025-07-28T15:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T15:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298841\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T15:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T15:53:11","slug":"9-year-old-first-nation-phenom-off-to-international-golf-match-in-northern-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298841\/","title":{"rendered":"9-year-old First Nation phenom off to international golf match in Northern Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connor Hanska, a nine-year-old golf prodigy from\u00a0Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation, is getting ready to tee off against the world’s best junior golfers in a tournament in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Hanska\u00a0will be among 250 of the top golfers from more than\u00a040 countries, who are competing at\u00a0the 2025 Champion of Champions World Championship tournament. It’s being held at\u00a0the\u00a0Lough Erne Resort Golf Course, in Enniskillen, roughly\u00a0172 kilometres northwest\u00a0of\u00a0Dublin, from July 29-31.<\/p>\n

The resort features two championship courses that Connor\u00a0will play during the tournament, including 18 holes designed by Sir Nick Faldo, six-time major golf champion. Golf superstar Rory McIlroy\u00a0also has ties to the course.<\/p>\n

Connor, who lives in western Manitoba but is\u00a0a member of Whitefish Lake First Nation in Alberta, qualified for the tournament through the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour, a nationwide organizing body for junior golf.<\/p>\n

\"ConnorConnor Hanska at the airport leaving for Northern Ireland with his mother Destiny Jackson and father Doug Hanska. (Stefan Richard\/CBC)<\/p>\n

A series of tournaments throughout the 2024 season gave Connor the opportunity to earn a ticket to the 2025 edition of the Champion of Champions tournament.<\/p>\n

“It’s really important because it’s one of the best tournaments in the world,” Connor told CBC Indigenous before leaving for Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Connor is the youngest of six siblings, and is coached by his older brother Bryce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He was helping me, seeing if my stance and everything was good,” Connor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He’s also learned about golf from his father, Doug <\/strong>Hanska, <\/strong>who\u00a0runs a TikTok account for him called “Hanska Golf,” where he posts videos of his son’s swing and progress at tournaments.<\/p>\n

\"ConnorConnor Hanska with a winning prize for a golf tournament. (Doug Hanska\/Facebook)<\/p>\n

Doug Hanska said he’s not surprised by\u00a0his son’s success.<\/p>\n

“He probably started [playing] as soon as he could swing a club and walk,” Doug Hanska said.<\/p>\n

And his friends agreed that Connor would likely have a future in the game. They said: “Holy man, you need to look up some stuff because you may have the next Tiger Woods on your hands.”<\/p>\n

Connor’s mom, Destiny Jackson, understands Connor has something special when it comes to his golf talents, but also recognizes that he has the mindset to become a champion.<\/p>\n

“I’m really impressed. Like, I really don’t know how he has the mindset and the practice. He practices every day. You have to have a whole different character to do something like that.”<\/p>\n

Others agree that Connor is a force to be reckoned with on the greens.\u00a0Sean Murray is the Director of Player Development with Golf Manitoba and he spoke with CBC Indigenous after viewing some of Connor’s play,<\/p>\n

“He looks awesome. Looks great off of the back swing position, a little bowed wrist, and comes down. Just winds through it and just rips it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s a gorgeous swing.”<\/p>\n

When asked about what he’d like to say to all his supporters and sponsors that have helped him along his journey to get to the Champion of Champions Tournament, Connor kept his message simple.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Thank you for watching and sharing,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Hanska, a nine-year-old golf prodigy from\u00a0Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation, is getting ready to tee off against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-298841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114931669828802452","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}