Krahn strikes gold in St. John’s; Taylor ties for 19th at Tour Championship; Brycen Ko wins PGA of BC Championship
Five shots down with four holes remaining, Jeevan Sihota had pretty much given up hope of winning the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open.
“Literally, I was playing for second,” the 21-year-old Victoria resident conceded. However, the craziest finish in the history of the Vancouver Golf Tour’s flagship event changed everything, as Sihota earned his eighth win in 13 VGT starts this year.
Sihota took advantage of a couple of stumbles by leader Bryce Barker of Vernon and then had to survive one of his own on the 18th hole to claim the $12,000 first-place cheque.
The drama began on Fraserview Golf Course’s par 4 15th hole, where Barker’s tee shot bounced out of the trees and into the right rough. From there, he had to lay up and the Vernon Golf Club member then pitched his third shot onto the green.
After Barker missed his 20-footer for par, Sihota rolled in a short birdie putt. What looked like a two-shot swing became three when Barker then missed a three-footer for bogey.
That five-shot lead was now two and became one when Sihota birdied the par 3 16th. Both players made a par on No. 17, setting the stage for some real drama on the par 5 18th hole.
Sihota striped his drive right down the middle and the left-handed Barker followed by slicing his tee shot out of bounds. After putting his provisional into play, Barker hit his fourth shot just over the back edge of the green.
Sihota had 217 yards left for his second shot and had an iffy lie. “I was actually in a divot in the fairway on the last hole,” he said. “I felt like I had to go for it and I just caught it a little heavy.”
His second shot, a five-iron, ended up in the environmental area fronting Fraserview’s 18th green. “It sucked in the moment, but I knew I was still in it,” Sihota said. “I was just trying to get in a playoff at that point.”
He had 99 yards to the pin from the drop area and Sihota stuck his wedge two feet left of the pin. Now the pressure was back on Barker, who had to get up and down from about 20 feet to likely force a playoff.
His ball had settled in the rough just beyond the fringe and he chose to try and putt it. He caught it heavy and the ball barely trickled onto the green, leaving him with a 15-footer for bogey. Barker missed it and made a double. Sihota then tapped in his two-footer for par and the most unlikely of wins.
“You just never want to see anyone do that,” Sihota said of Barker’s struggles. “It’s hard, I have had some collapses myself in the past. I was lucky, plain and simple. Yeah, I made a couple of birdies coming in, but I probably shouldn’t have won this one. But we’ll take it.”
Siohota closed with a four-under 68 and his 54-hole total of 18-under tied the tournament record. “I have had a really good year and I am playing the best golf of my life,” Sihota said. “I was pretty tired today. I have played a lot of golf over the last four weeks. I wasn’t hitting it the best, but we got it around.”
Barker, who opened the tourney with a course record 61 at McCleery Golf Course, earned $6,000 for second place. Coquitlam’s Henry Lee was third at 16-under and made $4,000.
Vancouver’s Jessica Ng won the Women’s Championship with a four-under total. Ng, a member of the UBC golf team, closed with a five-under 67. Vancouver’s Victoria Liu was the low women’s professional at three-under.
See complete final scoring from the Vancouver Open HERE.
SOLID GOLD: The summer of 2025 figures to be one Christina Lake’s Austin Krahn likely never forgets. Krahn, the winner of this summer’s B.C. Amateur, Junior Boys and Indigenous championships, won the gold medal in the individual golf competition at the Canada Summer Games in St. John’s Nfld., and also helped British Columbia win the male and mixed team competitions. Krahn closed the event with a seven-under 65 and his 72-hole total of four-under par beat the field by 15 shots.
“It means so much more because I’m not playing for myself, I’m playing for my team as well,” Krahn said. “I’m winning for British Columbia as a team and I’m bringing up the medal count for all of British Columbia.” Vancouver’s Jenny Kwon earned bronze in the individual female competition. Richmond’s Elaine Liu and Alex Zhang of Richmond were the other members of B.C.’s golf teams.
UP AND DOWN FINISH: Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor tied for 19th at the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Taylor started and finished a roller-coaster back nine Sunday at East Lake Golf Club with a birdie, but also had a double-bogey and two bogeys. He closed with an even-par 70 to finish at eight-under par, 10 shots behind winner Tommy Fleetwood of England. Taylor made $452,500. Fellow Canadian Corey Conners had the low round of the day, an eight-under 62 that moved him into a tie for fourth. Conners earned a career-best payday of $2,616,666.
HEADING SOUTH: Richmond’s Chris Crisologo and A.J. Ewart of Coquitlam both tied for 28th at the rain-shortened PGA Tour Americas’ Manitoba Open at Breezy Bend Country Club in Winnipeg. The event was cut to 36 holes after heavy rain made the course unplayable the first two days. Crisologo and Ewart finished at five-under par, six shots behind winner Theo Humphrey of Dallas. The PGA Tour Americas circuit heads south for its lone U.S. event this week, the CRMC Championship in Brainerd, Minn. Ewart and Crisologo are both in the field.
CLOSE CALL: White Rock’s Clara Ding came within one shot of making the cut at the CPKC Women’s Open in Mississauga, Ont. The 14-year-old shot a two-under 69 in the second round to finish 36 holes at two-over par. The three other British Columbians in the field, Surrey’s Lauren Kim (three-over), Vancouver’s Anna Huang (four-over) and Ruihan Kendria Wang of Vancouver (five-over), also missed the cut.
HOME GAME: Nanoose Bay’s Shelly Stouffer missed the cut by a single shot at last week’s U.S. Senior Women’s Championship in San Diego. Stouffer has a home game of sorts this week as the Canadian Senior Women’s Championship is being held at Nanaimo Golf Club. Stouffer will be attempting to win her third Canadian Seniors title.
CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIP: The Canadian U15 Championships go this week at Pitt Meadows Golf Club. Victoria’s Owen Beaulac and Richmond’s Emily Shi, who won the B.C. U15 Championships last month at Burnaby Mountain Golf Course, are in the Pitt Meadows field. Luke Bernakevitch, winner of last week’s B.C. U17 Championship at Arbutus Ridge Golf Club, is also scheduled to compete.
PLAYOFF WINNER: Former B.C. Junior Boys champion Brycen Ko won last week’s PGA of BC Championship at Gorge Vale Golf Club in Victoria. Ko, who plays out of Musqueam Golf & Learning Academy in Vancouver, beat Point Grey head pro Dave Zibrik on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the 36-hole event. Both players had finished the tournament at eight-under par. Ko earned $7,500 for the win.
“This is by far my biggest win,” Ko said. “Coming into this event I wasn’t thinking about winning per se, I was just trying to have some fun. This event is huge and I’m really happy to be the champion.” Steve Lucuyer of Seymour Creek Golf Centre in North Vancouver was third at seven-under. Jonnie Motomochi of Morgan Creek Golf Course in Surrey and Robin Conlan of Cordova Bay Golf Course in Victoria tied for fourth at six-under.
CHIP SHOTS: Delta’s Mary Parsons tied for 59th at the Epson Tour’s Dream First Bank Charity Classic in Garden City, Kan. Vancouver’s Leah John and Yeji Kwon of Port Coquitlam both missed the cut. . .Victoria’s Kevin Carrigan tied for first at a U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship qualifier at The Home Course in Dupont, Wash., to earn a spot in the Sept. 13-18 event at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.