Taylor ties for 18th in South Africa; Henry Lee advances to final stage of Asian Tour Q-school; PGA Tour Americas reduces its Canadian content
A.J. Ewart wasn’t ready to do any celebrating. Yes, he is relieved to have survived the second stage of PGA TOUR Q-school, but the Coquitlam native knows there is work to be done this week at final stage.
“This is obviously a big opportunity, but just because you made it to final stage doesn’t really mean much,” Ewart said in a telephone interview after tying for fifth at a second-stage site in Tucson, Ariz.
“We still have a lot of work to do. It’s great that I have made it to final stage, but in no way is it some kind of big accomplishment. There’s still a lot of golf to play and opportunities to be had. I just have to go out there and play good golf and take advantage of this opportunity.”
That opportunity comes at this week’s final stage in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., where Ewart will join 167 others chasing the five PGA TOUR cards up for grabs. Earning one of those five cards is obviously the ultimate goal for everyone at final stage, but there’s lots more at stake. After the top five, the next top 40 finishers at final stage earn Korn Ferry Tour membership. The top 25 are exempt through the third reshuffle which occurs after the 14th event, with the remainder exempt through the second reshuffle, which occurs after the 10th event.
All other finishers earn conditional Korn Ferry Tour status and the higher you finish the better your chances of drawing into some events. Players finishing in the bottom half of the field are unlikely to get into many events. Ewart played his second stage at The Club at Starr Pass in Tucson and it played tough.
The winner finished at four-under par through 72 holes. Ewart closed with an impressive three-under 67 to finish at two-under. “I liked how my game kind of trended throughout the week,” Ewart said. “It got better. It wasn’t in a bad place to start, it was in a good place and just continued to build as the week went on, which is kind of what you look for on a week-to-week basis. And I handled my emotions well and stayed very patient, which is what is required out there.”
Ewart likes the fact that final stage goes this week. “It’s nice to have them back-to-back rather than getting ready for a week and then having a couple of weeks off and playing another week,” he said. Final stage will be held at the Valley course at TPC Sawgrass and Sawgrass Country Club. Both will play as par 70s.
Ewart has not played either course, but is comfortable playing in Florida, where he played his collegiate golf at Barry University. “I am excited to get back on Bermuda (grass),” he said. “I learned how to play on it during my time at school and it kind of helped me grow as a player,” he said. “I am comfortable on it and excited to get on it. You kind of have to be a little more creative on Bermuda grass and be a little smarter in analyzing lies and conditions. I think that kind of suits me and I am excited for it."
Merritt’s Roger Sloan, Stuart Macdonald of Vancouver, Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford and Surrey’s Adam Svensson are also in the field at final stage. Sloan advanced on the number at a second-stage site in Valdosta, Ga., while Macdonald was exempt into final stage as a result of his solid play on this year’s Korn Ferry Tour.
Hadwin drew into final stage after finishing 136th on the PGA TOUR’s FedEx Cup points list this season, while Svensson finished 162nd. Victoria’s Jeevan Sihota, who dominated this year’s Vancouver Golf Tour, missed advancing to final stage by one shot at a second-stage site in Alabama.
CLOSE CALL: The final stage of the LPGA Tour’s Q Series is concluding this week in Alabama, where Vancouver’s Leah John and Megan Osland of Kelowna both got off to good starts. Vancouver’s Anna Huang, a two-time winner in her rookie season on the Ladies European Tour, just missed earning a spot in the field. Huang needed to finish inside the top 10 on the LET points list to earn a Q-school spot, but ended the season 11th.
ON TO THE FINALS: Coquitlam’s Henry Lee has advanced to the final stage of the Asian Tour Q school. Lee tied for seventh at a first-stage Q-school site in Chonburi, Thailand to advance to the finals. The final stage will be played Dec. 17-21 in Hua Hin, Thailand. Earlier this fall, Lee qualified to play on the Korean PGA Tour.
TOP 20 FOR TAYLOR: Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor tied for 18th at the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City, South Africa. Taylor finished the event at five-under par, 12 shots behind winner Kristoffer Reitan of Norway. Taylor’s next event will be his title defence at next month’s Sony Open in Hawaii.
TEAM CANADA: British Columbians are well represented on Golf Canada’s 2026 amateur teams announced last week. Surrey’s Lauren Kim and Vanessa Zhang of Vancouver are both back on the national women’s squad. Cooper Humphreys of Vernon remains on the national men’s team.
Christina Lake’s Austin Krahn returns to the NextGen boys team, while Maxim McKenzie of Chilliwack joins the team for the first time. Clara Ding of White Rock, Clairey Lin of Langley and Ruihan Kendria Wang of Vancouver are all returning for their second year on the NextGen girls team. Golf Canada is expected to announce the members of its two professional squads later this month.
CANADIAN CUTS: The PGA Tour Americas circuit will be spending less time in Canada in 2026. Six Canadian events are included on the newly released 2026 schedule. That’s three fewer than the nine that were played here in 2025. The Victoria event at Uplands Golf Club, now called the Digital Commerce Group Open, is the lone British Columbia stop on the 2026 schedule. It will be played Sept. 10-13. The other Canadian events are being played in Mactaquac, N.B., Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton.
The Tour Championship, which was played at Morgan Creek Golf Course in Surrey this past September, will be played next October in the Dominican Republic. The PGA Tour Americas opens its season at the ECP Brazil Open next April and makes stops in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Ecuador, Mexico and Colombia before beginning its U.S.-Canada swing with a new event in Wichita, Kan., late next June.
IN MEMORIAM: Gordon Fairbairn, who served as head professional and director of golf at Pitt Meadows Golf Club for 35 years, died recently at the age of 88. Fairbairn joined Pitt Meadows as head pro in 1966 and received an honorary membership from the club when he retired in 2001. “Even until about a month ago, he would come out here every day,” said current head pro Wes Doka. “He just liked to come and visit. He would pop into the shop and chat golf for a couple of minutes and then he’d sit down and have a Corona Zero or something like that. He was always super-friendly. Even this past summer he was hitting balls at the range. He loved golf.”
WATKIN PASSES: Hall of Famer Doug Roxburgh passed along the news of the recent passing of Doug Watkin, the 1952 B.C. Junior Boys champion, at the age of 91. “I had gotten to know him over the last five years through a mutual friend at Marine Drive,” Roxburgh said. “We had an annual game with Doug Stewart, who won the B.C. Junior in 1966, ’67 and ’68 and I won it in 1969 and 1970. He was still sharp until very recently and had many great stories about playing against the likes of Bill Mawhinney, Doug Bajus, John Russell, Walt McElroy and others.”