PITT MEADOWS — As an eight-year veteran of the Canadian Football League, Todd Wiseman has had his share of big sporting moments.
This one clearly felt a little different. Wiseman struggled to find the words to express just how meaningful it was to win the B.C. Senior Men’s Championship at Pitt Meadows Golf Club.
“I am usually pretty good with words,” Wiseman said. “I’m afraid to almost say anything because it might get emotional. It is super-gratifying. I had so much support from people here, I feel like I am part of something bigger with the senior men’s golf community and this is just fantastic.”
Fantastic also describes the back-nine battle waged by Wiseman and Tom Kenny of Coquitlam before Wiseman prevailed by a single shot. “It was like a boxing match back and forth between me and Tom and Chris (Jung),” said Wiseman, a longtime Kamloops resident who recently moved to Port Moody.
“I knew there were guys behind us who can get it done and I didn’t look at the leaderboard until maybe three holes to go. I just kept my head down. That was all I could do.”
Wiseman, a defensive back who was drafted by the B.C. Lions in 1987, finished the 54-hole event at two-under par. He closed with an even-par 72 that had some ups and downs.
He made a sloppy bogey on the par 3 16th hole (the leaders went off the 10th hole in the final round) and he and Kenny headed to the 17th hole tied for the lead.
He took a one-shot lead when he parred the 17th, while Kenny failed to get it up and down for par after leaving his approach short. Wiseman pretty much sealed the deal when he stuck his approach shot on the 18th to about eight feet above the hole.
Kenny put his approach in a greenside bunker. “I was 140 to the flag which was right in the middle of the green,” Wiseman said. “It was a perfect eight-iron just into a little breeze. it was a foot and a half from going in and stopped about eight feet past. What a fantastic feeling.”
Knowing he needed a birdie on 18, Kenny took an aggressive line with his approach from 94 yards. “I was trying to hit it high and tight and got a little too cute with it,” Kenny said. “Todd made a lot of putts, I played with him all three days and he made a lot of footage. That was the difference day in and day out. He played well and deserved to win.”
Tom Kenny - Image Credit Una Chou/BC Golf
In addition to his time with the Lions, Wiseman also played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts. Golf is obviously a more solitary sport where you don’t have teammates to rely on. But Wiseman said there are similarities. Just like a player has to re-set after every down in football, a golfer must do the same between every shot on the course.
“I was fortunate to get drafted by the Lions in ’87 and in ’88 we made it to the Grey Cup in Ottawa and lost 22-21,” he said. “Heartbreak, but right down to the end, and you take from those moments in life. It’s funny when things come full circle. Today, I’m one-up here playing the final hole and I have to execute.”
Wiseman, who recently turned 60, had one very important phone call to his dad, Clarence Wiseman, that he planned to make right after the trophy presentation ceremony. “My dad is 85 and I can’t wait to call him,” he said.
“He’s a member at Salmon Arm Golf Club and still plays 100 rounds a year. That’s where it started. All the thanks to him and my mom for putting me on that journey and this is just a wonderful day.”
As happy as he was to win the event, Wiseman was equally excited to be part of the three-man team that will represent British Columbia in the inter-provincial team competition at the Canadian Senior Men’s Championship, which is being played Sept. 9-12 at KenWo Golf Club in New Minhas, N.S.
“Obviously, all of us are in this pursuit of golf at our age,” Wiseman said. “We all swing our swings and get it around and we see each other at different events, but I think being part of a team will have a different focus. It’s something I have missed later in life. I don’t want to say there will be a golf locker-room, but maybe we can have some pre-game talks and discuss our strategies. That’s all part of it, hearing from different voices instead of always talking to yourself.”
Wiseman and Kenny will be joined on that team by third-place finisher Chris Jung of Richmond. Jung had the lead heading into the final round and closed with a three-over 75 to finish two shots back at even-par.
This was the 58-year-old Jung’s first B.C. Senior and he got emotional when talking about what it will mean to play for B.C. at the Canadian championship next month.
“It means a lot,” said Jung, a member at Quilchena Golf & Country Club. “I didn’t think I’d be in this position and it just shows I can play with a lot of these guys.”
Kelowna’s Norm Bradley, a former B.C. Senior champion, won the Super Senior Championship for players aged 65 and older. Bradley finished the tournament at three-over par, two shots ahead of Frank MacKenzie of Victoria.
“I was anxious at the beginning of the day and made a couple of bogeys,” Bradley said. “But then I hit two great shots and made two birdies back to back and settled down and then played solid golf the rest of the way.”
A two-man better-ball competition was also contested at Pitt Meadows. The team of Wiseman and Trevor Van Hoof of Maple Ridge won with a score of 16-under par. That was two shots better than the runner-up team of Dave Terry of Langley and Kenny.
Click HERE for complete final scoring.
CHIP SHOTS: A 36-hole zone competition was won by the Zone 4 team of Neil McLeod of Burnaby, Tom Kenny of Coquitlam and Andrew Pinette of Surrey. Their team total of five-under par was 10 shots better than the second-place Zone 3 team of Trevor Van Hoof of Maple Ridge, Walter Kraakman of Deroche and Lanny Sawchuk of Surrey. . .Pitt Meadows Golf Club, which was in excellent condition, played tough. It did not yield a round in the 60s during the event. . .2023 Senior Men’s champion Andrew Pinette of Surrey, Neil MacLeod of Burnaby and Pitt Meadows member Gord Zilkowsky of Maple Ridge tied for fourth at one-over par.