Korte and Middaugh Capture Gold at Canadian Senior Curling Championships

Saskatchewan’s Bruce Korte and Ontario’s Sherry Middaugh emerged as champions at the 2025 Canadian Senior Curling Championships held Saturday at the Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club, earning their teams the right to represent Canada at the world championships in Switzerland next spring.

Saskatchewan Men Reclaim the Title

For Korte and his Saskatoon-based squad—third Darrell McKee, second Kory Kohuch, lead Rory Golanowski, and alternate Arlen Hall—the victory marked a triumphant return to the top of the podium. The Nutana Curling Club team defeated Ontario’s Mike Harris 8-4 in the final, capping an outstanding tournament performance with 11 wins against just one loss.

The championship represents Korte’s second senior title, his first coming in 2019 when the subsequent world championship was cancelled due to the pandemic. The team also finished as runners-up in 2023, making this year’s gold particularly meaningful.

“It’s a long haul,” an emotional Korte reflected after the win. “It’s great to have a chance to go to worlds, because we never got the gold last time we won.”

The decisive moment came in the fourth end when Ontario attempted a challenging back-house shot with Saskatchewan holding six counters. The stone failed to curl sufficiently and struck a centre guard instead, allowing Saskatchewan to steal three points and establish control of the match. Team Korte sealed the victory by removing Ontario’s final stone in the eighth end.

Ontario Women Complete Undefeated Campaign

Middaugh’s Ontario rink from Barrie finished the tournament with a perfect 12-0 record, defeating Saskatchewan’s Amber Holland 7-5 in the championship game. The team includes third Karri-Lee Grant, second Melissa Foster, lead Jane Hooper Perroud, and coach Wayne Middaugh.

After earning silver at the 2019 national senior championship, Middaugh described feeling “relieved” to finally capture gold while maintaining an unblemished record through the week.

“We just felt like we were playing well—not perfect in every way—but we supported each other,” Middaugh explained. “If someone made a half shot, we picked each other up.”

Ontario seized early momentum with four points in the second end. Saskatchewan battled back with two in the third and a steal in the fourth to level the score at the break. After trading singles, Ontario scored two in the seventh end and controlled the eighth to secure the title.

Most of the Ontario team will represent Canada internationally for the first time, though Hooper Perroud previously won world gold in 1996. The squad is coached by Wayne Middaugh, a three-time world men’s champion and husband of skip Sherry.

Road to Switzerland

Both championship teams will compete at the 2026 World Senior Curling Championships in Geneva, Switzerland, from April 25 to May 2. The Canadian men will pursue a seventh consecutive world title, while the women aim to improve on last year’s silver medal performance. Both Canadian programs have accumulated 15 world gold medals each in senior competition.

In the bronze medal matches, New Brunswick’s James Grattan defeated British Columbia’s Neil Dangerfield 7-4 on the men’s side, while British Columbia’s Shiella Cowan topped Nova Scotia’s Andrea Saulnier 6-2 in the women’s competition.

With this victory, Saskatchewan now holds 10 Canadian senior men’s titles, tied for third all-time among provincial associations. Ontario’s women stand alone with 12 gold medals after previously sharing the lead with Saskatchewan.