PITT MEADOWS — Shotgun starts inevitably mean slow play, but that’s better than no play, which seemed a distinct possibility Wednesday morning for the second round of the B.C. Senior Men’s Championship at Pitt Meadows Golf Club.
Play was postponed when heavy overnight rain doused the course. When the rain finally subsided late in the morning, a decision was made to schedule a 1 p.m. shotgun start for the 154-man field.
Two groups on every tee, foursomes and some fivesomes. You know what that means — six-hour rounds. But no one was complaining. The alternative was cancelling the round and playing the event as a 36-hole championship.
“A shotgun seemed to be our best option,” said tournament director William McKenzie. “If that wasn’t going to happen, we’d have to cancel round two and have a 36-hole tournament. The grounds crew did a great job.
They squeegeed every green. The players were very understanding. Everyone understood these were unforeseen circumstances that were out of our control and we did out best to adapt and make sure they could play golf.”
When the very long day was over, Richmond’s Chris Jung held the lead at three-under par. That came as something of a surprise to the 58-year-old Jung, who is playing in his first B.C. Senior Men’s.
“I’m surprised, you don’t think you are going to do that well,” he said. “You knew it was going to be a long round. You just try to keep focused. It was kind of tough trying to keep your nerves down.”
Jung shot a one-under 71 in the second round and has a one-shot lead on Todd Wiseman of Port Moody and Tom Kenny of Coquitlam.
“I think I actually played way better today,” Jung said. “I had a bunch of up-and-down par saves yesterday. Today I had a bunch more two-putt pars.”
Jung held off entering the B.C. Senior, which is open to golfers aged 55 and up, until he thought his game was ready.
“In the last year or so my game has picked up,” said Jung, who plays out of Quilchena Golf & Country Club in Richmond. “I have gained yardage, got fit for clubs and worked with some trainers. My body feels good and my game has been really good, so I said let’s play some events.”
Burnaby's John Gallacher Leads The Super-Seniors - Image Credit Una Chou
Wiseman, a former CFL defensive back, shot his second straight one-under 71 and was appreciative of the fact the field got to play golf on Wednesday. “I have to give recognition to the crew here for keeping the course playable,” Wiseman said.
“This morning it was unplayable. The course played well and obviously it played a little longer, but you knew it was going to be six or more hours to play the round. We had a good group of guys who really played well and we talked golf, we talked life. It will be nice to get home tonight and get a rest.”
Burnaby’s John Gallacher is alone in fourth place at one-under and leads the Super Senior division for golfers aged 65 and older. The 74-year-old, a two-time B.C. Senior Men’s champion, is delighted to be in the hunt for both titles.
“We got to play today, which was the key thing,” Gallacher said. “It was six hours and 10 minutes. I made a couple of mistakes that I shouldn’t have. I three-putted twice.”
Gallacher’s shot of the day came on the par 4 11th hole when his six-iron from 160 yards rolled to within six inches. “The other guys were hitting sand wedges, I had a six-iron,” Gallacher said with a smile. Kelowna’s Norm Bradley is two shots back of Gallacher in the Super Senior Division.
The top three finishers this week 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.
Click HERE for complete second round scoring at the B.C. Senior Men's Championship.