Etienne Papineau patiently posed for photographs after winning the 2018 Glencoe Invitational.

When the shutterbugs stopped, he had a simple request.

Papineau handed his iPhone to a tournament organizer. The 21-year-old golfer from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., needed a trophy shot for his own collection.

“I’ll probably send it to my family, my friends back home, my coaches … ” Papineau said with a smile. “I have a very supportive environment back home. So it’s great for myself, but it’s great for them, too, because they’ve always been supportive to me.

“It’s great to have this win for them.”

The 7,505-yard Forest Course at Glencoe Golf & Country Club is arguably Calgary’s toughest test, and with Mother Nature presenting another set of challenges over the past few days, there were a grand total of 10 sub-par rounds during the latest instalment of the Glencoe Invitational.

Papineau was the only golfer to post two red numbers at the three-day amateur shootout.

A graduate of Golf Canada’s national development program and currently midway through his collegiate career with the NCAA’s West Virginia University Mountaineers, Papineau closed with a 2-under 70 in Saturday’s last lap, punctuated by a birdie on No. 18.

He signed for an overall tally of 1-over 217. When the final putts had dropped, the closest competitor was four strokes in his rearview mirror.

Vancouver’s Scott Kerr owned a one-shot lead after two spins of the Forest Course, but that disappeared when the 21-year-old stumbled to a triple-bogey on Saturday’s opening hole.

Jeevan Sihota, a 14-year-old phenom from Victoria, B.C., climbed to the top of the scoring charts, but his back-nine card included a pair of 6s — one a double-bogey, the other a triple on No. 17 that turned a potential nail-biter into a sure-thing celebration for Papineau.

Ponoka’s Jared Nicolls finished as runner-up at 5-over 221. Kerr and Sihota split third spot with Calvin Ross of Fredericton, N.B., each at 6-over 222.

Papineau’s biggest blip Saturday was a double-bogey on the third hole. The eventual champ rebounded with five birdies to more than erase the damage.

“You really have to play smart here, and that’s what I did today,” Papineau said, while the drizzle started again shortly after the trophy presentation. “This is my fourth time playing the Glencoe (Invitational), and I’ve got better every year. And before coming here, my game was really good. I’d played some great tournaments over the past month, so I was really confident.

“This is a big one for me … It was a great week, a great learning experience … and it’s just going to help me.”

Thanks to this steady performance, Papineau joins impressive company — the list of past champions at the Glencoe Invitational is headlined by PGA Tour full-timers Graham DeLaet and Mackenzie Hughes and rising-star Jared du Toit.

“It’s something special,” Papineau said. “I’m always going to be proud of it, and nobody else can take it away from me.”

On the heels of his triumph at the Alberta Match Play Championship, Glencoe’s own Brendan MacDougall was the leading local, closing with a 1-under 71 to climb into seventh.

Original Article