HIGH ACHIEVERS: Dancer-turned-golfer Avery Nordman posts unprecedented 2024 season

By Martin Cleary

If Avery Nordman were to put a title on her 2024 golf season, it might go something like this: An Overwhelming Experience.

It’s all good, positive and timely as the Canadian Golf and Country Club member prepares to graduate A.Y. Jackson Secondary School and enter the junior and university portions of her golf career.

Nordman, 17, can reflect on an unprecedented season of golf achievements, whether it’s best-ever scores, winning a variety of provincial medals, qualifying for the Canadian and U.S. junior championships, being named Ottawa’s golfer of the year or earning a scholarship to an NCAA Division 1 university.

Not bad for a young woman who only devoted herself to golf a little more than a year ago, after making competitive dancing her primary focus for about 13 years.

As much as she loved practising her ballet, jazz and contemporary dance routines with her group of wonderful friends, she knew she couldn’t continue that pace while also growing as a golfer.

Something had to go. She selected golf, but dance is still an occasional recreational activity.

“I believe stepping away from dance allowed me to focus on my golf,” Nordman said in a phone interview this week. “It gave me a lot more time to devote to golf … more time to train all year. It has been a lot of hard work, physically, mentally and the golf training. It has helped me to blossom.

“I’m not sure there was a specific turning point, but throughout the year I could see myself growing. If I put in the effort and work, I will see results. That makes it even more enjoyable.”

The 2024 season definitely has been her year to bloom and record quality results.

One of her major highlights was tying for first place at the United States Golf Association girls’ junior championship qualifying event in Hamilton, New York.

She recorded a three-under par 69, which was her lowest tournament score, to share top spot on the leaderboard and advance to the American national championship last July at the El Caballero County Club in Tarzana, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. That round was highlighted by a hole in one on the 152-yard 14th hole, using a seven iron.

At the qualifier, Nordman learned “I can play at a high level.”

During the USGA national championship, she shot rounds of 78 and 73 for a nine-over-par 151, which was four strokes above the cut to qualify for the match-play format.

“Going to Los Angeles made it special. I didn’t play super great and I missed the cut,” Nordman recalled. “But it was an incredible experience, unlike any other tournament. We were treated well and made to feel like celebrities.

“During the first round, I felt I didn’t belong there. But when I went one-under for the back nine (second round), it made me feel ‘I guess I can play.’ I learned to believe in myself and that I’m good enough.’”

A week later, Nordman competed at the Canadian girls’ junior championship in the younger juvenile division and was 28th after rounds of 79-82-81-75 for a 29-over-par 317. She called the Marine Drive Golf Club in Vancouver “incredibly tough” and it appeared to be as only the champion, Shauna Liu of Maple, ON., finished below par with a two-under 286.

Nordman found great success at two major provincial golf championships, which played a role in her being selected to Team Ontario for 2025.

She posted her first significant tournament win, when she captured the Golf Ontario girls’ juvenile U17 championship in dramatic fashion. After shooting rounds of 77 and 76, she was six strokes behind the leader after the first eight holes of the third and final round at the Hollinger Golf Club in Timmins.

Nordman came alive for the final 10 holes, playing five-under par and winning the provincial title by four strokes, after firing a one-under 71.

At the Golf Ontario girls’ junior (U19) match play championship at the Grey Silo Golf Club in Waterloo, the top-ranked Nordman won her first three matches to reach the final, where she lost to Kaylan Green of the Scarboro Golf and Country Club 1 up on the 21st hole. Nordman was 3 up after six holes and 1 up with one hole remaining.

In a pair of Golf Canada NextGen tournaments, she was a solo third during the Quebec stop at 78-70-72 for her best-ever three-round total of 220, and 19th in the Ontario event at 77-74-79-230.

Nordman also was invited to the Golf Ontario Provincial Super Camp and Tour Championship, where she tied for seventh and finished second overall on the season-long Junior Golf Pathway series.

Her 2024 golf resume also included these notable results: National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association championship, first, girls open, one-over 73; OFSAA championship, third, two-over 73-71-144; Ottawa Valley Golf Association junior championship, junior and juvenile winner, 82-72-154; and the Ontario Summer Games, team gold medal and tied for sixth individually at 86-80-69-235.

All her results led to Nordman being selected the golfer of the year for the 2024 Ottawa Sports Awards Dinner, which was staged earlier this month.

“It was incredible to see who else has been named the Ottawa golfer of the year. This is something important … and it’s an honour to be named golfer of the year,” said Nordman, who was introduced to golf at age seven during a Canadian Golf and Country Club summer camp with pro Dale Trafford, who remains her personal coach.

Nordman’s golf results package and her academic average in the high 80s also helped her earn a scholarship to Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. The university was founded in 1839 and is the third-oldest public post-secondary school in the state. Longwood is an NCAA Division 1 university in the Big South Conference.

“It’s the program I wanted and the size I wanted,” said Nordman, who plans to study kinesiology, with an average of 18 students in a class. “The golf team is good and on a good trajectory.”