The Sand Trap

A story of a Saskatchewan farm girl who makes the Men's Golf Champion's Tour.

Melanie McDougal was raised on a farm in Saskatchewan by a single father who built a revenge golf course in memory of his wife who ran off with a travelling golf professional. She discovered early in life that she had special athletic abilities that helped her excel in every sport, but were most evident in her passion for golf. A passing meeting with Moe Norman at her father’s ‘Folly’ when she was 8 years old set her on a trajectory of golf performance that would rock the collegiate golf world in the U.S. Tragedy—a sexual assault— would force her to leave the game of golf and disappear from all who loved her for over 30 years, until she was discovered once again by someone who was also escaping life, but shared the same passion for the game.

Gord Salmey was nurtured in the country club set in Ottawa. In 2011, and recently abandoned by his wife of 35 years, he decided to retire from both his day job as a Vice President International for a small university and his covert and very sporadic job as a special agent for the Canadian Government. His retirement goal was to try and make golf’s Champion Tour. Unfortunately the nature of his government work didn’t make retiring an option and an attempt on his life required him to change his identity. His new identity included a job as a golf teaching professional in a Mexican resort town where he continued his preparation for Champion’s Tour Q School…and his work for the Government.

With the backdrop of a Mexican resort community, Melinda and Gord face their histories, their insecurities, their emotions, their aging, their future and elements of the Mexican drug trade intent on killing them both. With the help of Gord’s Canadian employers, they escape Mexico and Melanie reenters the world of competitive golf both had left behind years ago.