Nick Taylor fights his swing in Memphis, but clinches Tour Championship spot; Marler second at Canadian Women’s Mid-Am; Krahn impressive in Canadian Junior warm-up
(August 11, 2025) - Young pros just never know where their golfing journeys will take them. Last week, Ilirain Zalli was playing a Vancouver Golf Tour charity pro-am in Fort St. John. This week, the former B.C. Junior Boys champion will be making his DP World Tour debut in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. “Well, I guess they are similar latitudes,” Zalli said with a chuckle.
That’s about where the similarity ends. Zalli earned $1,500 for his fourth-place finish in Fort St. John. This week’s purse in the Danish Golf Championship is $2.75 million US. It’s a great opportunity for Zalli, a 23-year-old Vancouver resident who plays out of Richmond Country Club.
“I found out officially today (Sunday), but in the last few days I had a good feeling about it,” Zalli said in an interview before he departed for Denmark.
Zalli drew into the event as a result of his finish at last fall’s DP World Tour qualifying school. Zalli made it to the final stage in Spain and missed getting full DP World Tour status by one shot.
He did earn conditional status and received full status on the HotelPlanner Tour, formerly known as the Challenge Tour. “Obviously this is the biggest event I have played in so far in my career, but I am going to try my best not to panic,” he said of the Denmark event.
“I am playing a lot better now than I was earlier in the year. I think I just have to try and enjoy it. I am not sure how many of these starts I am going to get and so this is a moment of experience, I think, for me. I should play like I have nothing to lose.”
Zalli played a handful of HotelPlanner Tour events earlier this year in South Africa and Asia. Things did not go as well as he had hoped. He made just one cut and came home when he couldn’t justify the expense of playing that tour given its relatively small purses. “At some point I just decided I wasn’t going to play the Challenge Tour anymore,” he said. “I knew if I got some DP starts I would go and try those.
“At the beginning of the season I thought I would have had more opportunities on the DP Tour. I was surprised I wasn’t getting any starts. At some point I just kind of gave up on the idea of getting any starts and just kind of moved on. But any time a chance like this comes up, I feel like I have to take it and see what I can do.”
Zalli, who won the 2023 Vancouver Open and was the VGT’s player of the year in 2024, has been playing much better this summer on the VGT. He’s also decided to change course in his pro career.
“I am still proud of the way I played at Q school over there, but maybe this isn’t the route for me,” he said of playing overseas. “I’ll take the DP starts, but I think going forward in the long run I am going to try and focus on North America.”
Zalli, who is searching for sponsors, plans to enter the Korn Ferry Tour qualifying school this fall. Zalli’s father, Gentian, has accompanied his son to Denmark and will work as his caddy.
MEMPHIS BLUES: Nick Taylor can take one positive from what he called an “uncomfortable” week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. The Abbotsford native did enough in Memphis to virtually lock up his spot into the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta. Following his tie for 44th finish in Memphis, Taylor dropped four spots to sit 22nd on the FedEx Cup points list heading into this week’s second playoff event, the BMW Championship in Owings Mills, Md.
The golf analytics company Data Golf reports Taylor as having a 99.9 per cent chance of remaining in the top 30 and making it to Atlanta. So his chances of missing the Tour Championship are basically slim and none. Still, Taylor wasn’t pleased with his performance in Memphis, where he finished at two-under par, 14 shots behind winner Justin Rose.
“The last two days I felt very uncomfortable most of the time, ball-striking wise,” Taylor told TSN after his final round. “I hung in there and made some crazy up and downs, so I am proud of that, but I have got some work to do the next few days to feel more comfortable with my ball-striking. “I had moments of feeling pretty good, but some of the misses were too big. I am proud of the fact I hung in there and made some sort of week of it, but I was not super sharp.”
The top 50 players on the points list advanced to this week’s BMW Championship, which is being played at Caves Valley Golf Club. “I haven’t played Caves Valley before, that’s where (Patrick) Cantlay and Bryson (Dechambeau) had that showdown,” said Taylor, who earned $64,000 in Memphis. “It’s kind of a big golf course and I take confidence in that I have played well at a lot of big golf courses this year when I haven’t necessarily done that in the past. It’s not something that will intimidate me.” Cantlay won that 2021 battle with Dechambeau on the sixth playoff hole to win the BMW Championship.
SO CLOSE: Vancouver’s Nonie Marler led British Columbia to the inter-provincial team title and came oh-so-close to winning the individual title at last week’s Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur title in Lachute, Que. Marler and Ontario’s Judith Kyrinis both finished the 54-hole championship at one-over par and went to a sudden-death playoff. That playoff ended on the third extra hole after Marler, who plays out of Marine Drive Golf Club, hit her tee shot out of bounds.
It was Kyrinis’s fourth Canadian Mid-Am title. Kyrinis and Marler also finished one-two in the Mid-Master championship for players 40 and older. Jordan Matheson of Burnaby (T5) and Surrey’s Aram Choi (T6) finished inside the top 10 of the Mid-Am competition. B.C.’s team of Marler, Choi and Veronica Ivy of Victoria won the inter-provincial team title by eight shots over Ontario.
WEEKEND IN WINDSOR: Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart tied for 62nd at the PGA Tour Americas’ BioSteel Championship in Windsor, Ont. Ewart completed the event at six-under par, 19 shots behind winner Michael Brennan of Leesburg, Va. Ewart dropped two spots on the Fortinet Cup points list and now sits 21st. Richmond’s Chris Crisologo and Jared du Toit of Kimberley both missed the cut in Windsor. The PGA Tour Americas is off this week and resumes Aug. 21-24 at the Manitoba Open at Breezy Bend Country Club in Winnipeg.
SEASON FINALE: Merritt’s Roger Sloan tied for 28th at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Pinnacle Bank Championship in Omaha, Neb. Sloan’s seven-under total left him 12 shots behind winner Christo Lamprecht of South Africa. Sloan moved up eight spots and now stands 119th on the KFT points list. Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald missed the cut by one shot and dropped three spots to 45th on the points list. The Korn Ferry Tour concludes its regular season at this week’s Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho. The first of four playoff events goes Sept. 11-14 in Franklin, Tenn.
NORTHERN EXPOSURE: Vernon’s Bryce Barker beat Victoria’s Jeevan Sihota on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the Vancouver Golf Tour’s WL Construction Charity Pro-Am at Lakepoint Golf Course in Fort St. John. Barker and Sihota both finished the 36-hole event at eight-under par. Barker earned $5,000 for the win, while Sihota made $3,500. Kelowna’s Justin Towill was one shot back in third place and earned $2,500.
JUNIOR NATIONALS: Christina Lake’s Austin Krahn warmed up for this week’s Canadian Junior Boys Championship with a dominating performance at the Maple Leaf Junior Tour’s Odlum Brown Classic at Hazelmere Golf Club in Surrey. Krahn, the reigning B.C. Junior, Amateur and Indigenous champion, shot rounds of 68, 67 and 67 to win his age division by 22 shots.
This week’s Canadian Junior Boys Championship is being played at Gowan Brae Golf & Country Club in Bathurst, N.B.. Krahn, Maxim McKenzie of Chilliwack and Oakley Mayner of Kelowna will represent B.C. in the inter-provincial team competition. The Canadian Junior Girls Championship also goes this week at Sainte-Marie Golf Club in Sainte Marie, Que. B.C.’s girls team consists of Zhehui Yu of Burnaby, Emma Kral of Victoria and Cadence Ko of Richmond.
B.C. CONTENT: Cooper Humphries of Kelowna, Josh Ince of Surrey and Wyatt Brook of Kamloops are among seven Canadians in the 312-man field for this week’s 125th playing of the U.S. Amateur Championship at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. The top 64 and ties after two rounds advance to match play.
TOP-10S: Chilliwack’s Dustin Boydell and Craig Dowling of Vancouver both finished inside the top 10 at the Canadian All Abilities Championship played at The Dunes in Kamloops. Boydell finished sixth at 11-over par, while Dowling tied for eighth at 16-over. Josh Williams of Tavistock, Ont., won by two shots with a 54-hole score of six-under par. B.C. All Abilities champion Walter van der Rijst of Victoria placed 11th at 20-over.
HELP WANTED: The Odlum Brown Vancouver Open is looking for volunteers to fill a number of positions. The Vancouver Open is the flagship event of the Vancouver Golf Tour and will be played Aug. 22-24 at the City of Vancouver’s three municipal courses, McCleery, Langara and Fraserview. Volunteers are also needed for the tournament’s pro-am on Wednesday, Aug. 20. Volunteers are required for the following roles: Spotters; timers; driving range attendants; player and volunteer transportation; course set-up and take-down; photography and social media support. Volunteers receive a boxed lunch and bottled water during their shift. Application forms can be found at vancouveropen.ca/volunteer-form.
CHIP SHOTS: Surrey’s Lauren Kim, Erin Lee of Langley and Shelly Stouffer of Nanoose Bay all failed to advance to match play at last week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in southern Oregon. Taylor Kehoe of Strathroy, Ont., was the top Canadian and was eliminated in the quarter-finals. . .Victoria’s Gary Pike made it to the quarter-finals of the PNGA Men’s Master-40 Championship at Salish Cliffs Golf Club in Shelton, Wash.