CHARLOTTETOWN — Bruce Mouat has caught them all. Mouat and his Scottish squad scored a decisive 10-3 victory over Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., in the HearingLife Tour Challenge men’s final Sunday to cross off the last Grand Slam of Curling title from the list.
Coincidentally, Mouat had to defeat the only other men’s skip who had accomplished the feat.
It’s the seventh Grand Slam title overall for the team of Mouat, third Grant Hardie, second Bobby Lammie and lead Hammy McMillan Jr., who have been hot out of the gate this season.
“Thinking back to my early days in this sport, dreaming about trying to win one of these was something that seemed impossible,” Mouat said. “To finally get seven and to win every single one of them is a surreal moment. It’s something very special to all of us, all four of us.”
Mouat has been hot out of the gate this season winning two titles on tour in August and leapfrogging Italy’s Team Joël Retornaz for No. 1 in the world rankings. The team carried that form into the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the year finishing with an unblemished 6-0 record.
“We had a great start to our season. We played really well,” Mouat said. “We won 14 games straight to win two events and then we had a very good trip in Canada. We made a quarterfinal and a final (in Oakville and Cornwall, Ont.)
“We knew that we were playing well and coming into this we were full of confidence. It’s always nice to start off the competition with two really good wins and we had a pretty good fight against Niklas (Edin), who we play a lot. Just really happy to get the win and solidify our spot in the history books.”
Mouat, who shot a game-high 96 per cent, was sharp right from the start against Gushue, opening with the hammer and converting to score a deuce on an open hit in the first end.
Gushue chipped and rolled into the four-foot circle in the third, but it wasn’t enough to count for shot rock as Mouat stole one to pad his lead 3-0.
The 15-time Grand Slam champion Gushue recovered in the fourth and tapped for two, however, Mouat matched with a hit to count a couple in the fifth to re-establish the three-point advantage.
Gushue was forced to hit for a single in the sixth and Mouat poured on the pressure in the seventh. Mouat was already sitting shot rock and pulled off a double takeout for a five-count to put the game out of reach.
“It’s important in championship finals to bring your ‘A’ game and I think that’s what we did,” said Mouat, whose team shot 90 per cent as a unit. “We played one of the best games we had all week and it kind of showed in the result. It’s really nice to know that we’re in great company. Brad’s the only other skip I believe that’s won it. We’re now in the same history books as him. He’s an amazing curler, it’s nice to be recognized similar to him.”
Now comes the hard part of defending that place at the top of the rankings.
“The No. 1 world spot, I think we had it for maybe two weeks back in 2021, so to now actually solidify it and put some distance between us and some of the other teams, it’s really nice,” Mouat said. “Hopefully, we can continue the whole season at No. 1 but that’s obviously a tough task, so we’re going to have to keep concentrating, come back out and try to win the next one.”
Meanwhile, Saskatoon’s Team Rylan Kleiter drew for the winning point in the extra end to edge Norway’s Team Magnus Ramsfjell 6-5 to earn the Tier 2 men’s title.
Kleiter, third Joshua Mattern, second Matthew Hall and lead Trevor Johnson receive an invitation to the WFG Masters in January.
UP NEXT
Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan faces Team Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., in the women’s final.
Halifax’s Team Christina Black takes on Team Sayaka Yoshimura of Japan on the Tier 2 side.
Watch live on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet+ at 3:30 p.m. AT / 2:30 p.m. ET.
