WINNIPEG – Dylan Samberg has had quite a summer.
He and his now wife, Destiny, were married on July 26. Shortly after that, the newlyweds flew to Greece for their honeymoon – a place both had near the top of their list of places to travel to.
Next up for Samberg? Becoming the fourth member of the Winnipeg Jets to play in the CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open, part of the PGA Tour Americas schedule of events, on a sponsor’s exemption.
“I have my best friend from back home, Ryan Sandelin, on the bag for me,” said Samberg at Tuesday’s press conference. “I finally got a golf membership this year, so I had time to play some more golf - which was good. I joined a league and everything, so just trying to prepare as much as possible for this.”
As much as Samberg’s focus for the week is on fun and enjoying every moment, he still plans to be competitive about his score.
Perhaps not necessarily against the pros, who play week in and week out to try and advance their careers to the PGA Tour, but against his Jets teammates.
Mark Scheifele’s two-day score of 162 remains the one to beat.
“We’ll be spending a lot of time in the locker room together. If I don’t beat him, I’m sure I’ll hear about it all year,” Samberg grinned. “It’ll be important to beat his score.”
Scheifele played in the tournament in 2018 and 2022 (he set the team’s scoring record in the latter) while Kyle Connor participated in 2019. The most recent was forward Morgan Barron, who teed it up in last summer’s event.
It was Barron who Samberg turned to for advice.
“I was just curious to see what the tournament was all about,” Samberg said. “He said he talked to a lot of the players and even the caddies to pick their brain and see what a different pro sports perspective is. He says it was great to help him with the tournament.”
The 25-year-old product of Hermantown, MN will try and use all that advice, as well as his short game – which he says is a strength of his – to try and tame the 7,311 yard Southwood Golf and Country Club.
Samberg has played the course “about 10-12 times” but says it looked a lot different driving in this week.
“Driving in here was pretty cool with all the grandstands and everything, I’m excited to see the atmosphere and see what that brings,” he said.
There is a pro-am event on Wednesday before the tournament officially starts on Thursday morning. All the proceeds from the tournament go to the True North Youth Foundation.
With two days to go before Samberg hits his first tee shot, he’s not too concerned about nerves.
“It was more just excitement about this week than nerves or anything,” he said. “I was excited to get up here and see what these tournaments are all about. I haven’t been to too many golf tournaments in my life. I’m just excited to talk to a lot of the pros and see what it’s like from a different pro sport perspective. It should be a fun week.”
