L-R: Stuart Macdonald, AJ Ewart & Jared du Toit - Macdonald/du Toit Courtesy Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

He won his most recent qualifying school by 10 shots, but that doesn’t mean Jared du Toit is looking forward to his next one.

Q-school is not something you savour as a pro golfer. It’s all about survival, moving on to the next stage and finding a place to play. All that is on the line is your career. Try draining a five-foot putt for par with those kinds of thoughts racing through your head.

“I don’t care who you are, if you are a PGA TOUR winner or you’re a guy coming out of college, whatever, Q-school is just hard,” du Toit, a Kimberley native, said over the phone from Arizona.

Shaughnessy G&CC Hosted The 2023 CPKC Women's Open - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf

The CPKC Women’s Open has won the LPGA Tour’s highest tournament honour for the second consecutive year.

The event, hosted Aug. 22-27 at Vancouver’s Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club, was named the back-to-back winner of tour’s tournament of the Year at the LPGA’s annual year-end tournament awards Wednesday night.

“We really have a secret sauce,” tournament director Ryan Paul told The Canadian Press at the CME Group Tour Championship, the final event of the LPGA Tour season. “It’s really an incredible golf tournament. You’ve got the best players in the world a rope-line away from you, but outside the ropes there are so many great things that you can see and do.”

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Uplands Golf Course In Victoria, BC - Image Courtesy Uplands GC

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Keith Dagg has been a key organizer of Victoria’s annual pro golf tourney for more than 40 years and he will tell you it hasn’t always been easy to secure enough corporate sponsorship to keep the tournament running.

“I started this in 1981 and we’re still going,” Dagg says with a hint of pride in his voice. The tournament that has been a labour of love for Dagg will kick off the Canadian portion of the new PGA Tour Americas circuit early next summer.

Uplands GC In Victoria, BC Will Host The Lone PGA TOUR Americas Event In British Columbia

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PGA TOUR Communications

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – The PGA TOUR announced the 2024 PGA TOUR Americas schedule, which features 16 tournaments spanning eight countries, beginning in March and concluding in September with the Fortinet Cup Championship.

PGA TOUR Americas, which was introduced in April 2023, is the merger of PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR Canada into a singular Tour.

Click HERE to see complete article and schedule. 

View From The 1st Tee At Vancouver's Langara Golf Club - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Even on these soggy November days, there is plenty of roll on the fairways at Langara Golf Course. And now, thanks to a unanimous vote last week by the Vancouver Park Board, there is also plenty of optimism about the course’s future.

For not the first time, there have been calls recently from academics and assorted others to have at least part of Langara used for affordable housing. The park board’s answer was an emphatic no and commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky indicated his ABC party colleagues on Vancouver city council feel the same way.

Once Dubbed 'Disco Dick' For Wearing A Sony Walkman While Playing On The PGA TOUR, Richard Zokol Was Inducted Into The BC Sports Hall of Fame As Part Of The Class of 2024 - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Perseverance has always been one of Richard Zokol’s biggest assets. Zokol made his childhood dreams of becoming a professional golfer come true through a lot of hard work and self-belief.

He was inspired as a junior golfer at Marine Drive Golf Club by the likes of Stan Leonard, Johnny Johnston, Alvie Thompson and a young Doug Roxburgh. “The club had a spirit of champions and it just seemed so appealing to me,” Zokol says. “I wanted to follow in that path and fill those shoes.”

Zokol found himself doing lots of reflecting on his golf journey when he got the news that became official last week. He is being inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame.

BC's A.J. Ewart Is On To The Next Round Of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School - Image Courtesy Brad Ziemer

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

A.J. Ewart played well again in Florida, which should not come as a surprise. The 24-year-old Coquitlam native, who enjoyed considerable success as a collegiate player at Barry University in south Florida, sailed through the first stage of Korn Ferry Tour qualifying school last week at a site in Lake Worth, Fla.

Ewart fired rounds of 69, 66, 65 and 69 to finish tied for fifth at 16-under par. The top 20 and ties advanced to the second stage of Q-school. Ewart’s third-round 65 included a hole-in-one on the 177-yard par 3 third hole at The Falls Club.

Leah John Has Win No. 3 On Her College Resume At The University Of Nevada - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

For Lauren Kim, it was collegiate win No. 1 in what was just her third event. For Leah John, it was win No. 3 and it came just a week after win No. 2.

The two British Columbians, at very different points in their collegiate golf journeys, recorded their wins on the same day last week (Wednesday, Oct. 11). They both thought that was great.
“Canada is crushing it,” said John, who is in her final year at the University of Nevada.

“I immediately thought, 'we’re amazing,'” added Kim, a freshman at the University of Texas. “Two Canadians win on the same day. And Team Canada won at the World Junior Girls, too. That was pretty cool.”

Merritt, BC's Roger Sloan Has Punched His Ticket Back To The PGA TOUR -Image Credit Bernard Brault/Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Eight feet was all that stood between Roger Sloan and a return to the PGA TOUR. Make that putt on the 72nd hole of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship and the Merritt product was back in the big leagues. Miss it and, well, Sloan didn’t want to think about that.

It was gut-wrenching to watch on TV, so one can only imagine how Sloan felt as he was standing over the putt. He had missed some putts late in his round, so he wasn’t exactly oozing with confidence as he stood over the ball. Somehow, he managed to put all that aside and calmly stroked the ball into the middle of the cup.

BC's Jared du Toit Felt He Was Denied A Fair Shot At DP World Tour Q-School - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

All Jared du Toit wanted was a fair fight and the Kimberley native didn’t feel like he got it at a DP World Tour first-stage qualifying school site in northern Italy.

Du Toit, along with fellow British Columbians Kaleb Gorbahn of Smithers and Stephen Thomas of Vancouver, were on the outside looking in when the 72-hole event was abruptly shortened to 36 holes due to heavy rain.

“I am probably the most angry I have been after a tournament,” du Toit said over the phone from Italy. “At least if you get to play a full event you know you have given it your all and you kind of had a fair shake at it.

Lucas O'Dell Led The UFV Cascades To A Win In Their Season Opener At Okanagan GC’s Bear Course

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

One of the first things Connor O’Dell did when he was appointed the new golf coach at the University of the Fraser Valley was convince his cousin, Lucas O’Dell, to return home and play for the Cascades.

That decision paid early dividends when Lucas won the individual title and helped the Cascades capture the team event at the season-opening Battle of the Bear tourney in Kelowna.

Lucas, a Maple Ridge native, transferred to UFV after spending his freshman year at The Master’s University, a NAIA school in Santa Clara, Calif. He fired rounds of 67 and 68 at Okanagan Golf Club’s Bear course to win the individual competition by six shots over teammates Jackson Jacob and Eli Greene.

The Cascades won the men’s team title by 28 shots over the University of Victoria.

Delta, BC Resident Yi Cao - Image Credit PGA Tour Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Delta resident Yi Cao earned his Korn Ferry Tour status the hard way. All Cao did was finish first and second in the final two events of the PGA Tour Canada season to grab the fifth and final graduating spot on the Fortinet Cup points list.

Cao closed the season-ending Fortinet Cup Championship at Country Hills Golf Club in Calgary with a five-under 66 that moved him into solo second place at 17-under par. He holed a chip for eagle on the par 5 17th hole to move into second place.

Cao had entered the tournament ninth on the points list and his big finish in Calgary, which came on his 32nd birthday, was enough to move him into fifth on the points list. The top five players all earned some status on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour and all get a pass through to the final stage of this fall’s PGA TOUR qualifying school, where the top five finishers will earn their PGA TOUR cards.

Vancouver BC's Stuart Macdonald - Image Credit Bernard Brault/Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald will be on the bubble when the PGA Tour Canada circuit completes its season at this week’s Fortinet Cup Championship in Calgary.

Macdonald missed the cut at last week’s final full-field event, the CRMC Championship, in Brainerd, Minn. In doing so, he dropped from fourth to fifth on the Fortinent Cup points race.

The top five on the list after this week’s event at Country Hills Golf Club in Calgary will earn status on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour. Macdonald must hold his position or improve it in order to earn one of those five coveted cards.

BC's Jonnie Motomochi Caddied For Yu Liu In The CPKC Women's Open - Image Credit Brad Ziemer/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Back in 2003, Delta’s Jonnie Motomochi made headlines when at age 12 he became the youngest player to compete in the Canadian Amateur Championship, which was held that year at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.

Motomochi was back at Shaughnessy last week, but this time he wasn’t playing. Motomochi caddied for China’s Yu Liu at the CPKC Women’s Open. “A kid that I coach, his dad knows her dad, they used to practise at the same course in Beijing,” said Motomochi, who coaches at Morgan Creek Golf Club in Surrey.

“Her caddie got Covid so they gave me a call Monday night. “It was a great experience. She’s a really good player, so it’s been fun. I didn’t say much, I didn’t do much.”

CPKC Women's Open Champion Megan Khang With The Trophy From Her First LPGA Victory - Brad Ziemer/BC Golf Photo

By Brad Ziemer. British Columbia Golf

Through it all, through all the close calls and the 33 top-10s, Megan Khang never stopped believing. She knew there would be a magical moment like the one that unfolded early Sunday evening on Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club’s 18th hole.

Finally, Khang is a winner on the LPGA Tour. She did it in the most dramatic fashion, birdieing the 72nd hole to force a playoff with South Korea’s Jin Young Ko and then winning it on the first extra hole.

Brooke Henderson's Game Was Slightly Off In Round 3 As Evidenced By Sister & Caddy Brittany Pointing Right On This Tee Shot - BC Golf Photo

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Megan Khang has done everything but win on the LPGA Tour. She has a great opportunity to finally cross that off her to-do list in Sunday’s final round of the CPKC Women’s Open at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.

The 25-year-old Khang birdied four of her last five holes in Saturday’s third round to take a three-shot lead into Sunday. The Massachusetts native sits at 11-under through 54 holes on a Shaughnessy course that has proven to be a superb test.

“Honestly, I am relieved the day is over,” Khang said after her round. “It was kind of like you look at the leaderboard and you know who is behind you and you try to ignore it as much as you can, but it’s kind of scary.”

BC's Lauren Kim Can Still Look Back On A Pretty Successful Summer Despite Missing The Cut In The CPKC Women's Open - Image Credit Brad Ziemer/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Lauren Kim is not going to let some struggles at Shaughnessy spoil what has been a super summer for the Surrey teen.

Like all of the other amateurs — and many of the pros — competing at the CPKC Women’s Open, Kim didn’t perform as well as she had hoped in the LPGA Tour event.

“Honestly, I don’t really know what happened,” the 18-year-old said after finishing 10-over through two rounds and missing the cut. “It was more just technical (swing) stuff than mental stuff. It just didn’t happen this week. I was a little disappointed, but finished off pretty strong, so I am okay with that.”

Canada's Brooke Henderson Had A Nice Bounce Back Round Of 68 In Round 2 Of The CPKC Women's Open - Image Credit Brad Ziemer/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

It was difficult to know who was more relieved, Brooke Henderson or the organizers of the CPKC Women’s Open.

Suffice to say everyone was delighted when Henderson, the face of this tournament, rebounded with a bogey-free four-under 68 in Friday’s second round and comfortably made the cut.

Henderson drives ticket sales at this event and her early departure would have left a huge void at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.

Former BC Junior Girls Champion Luna Lu - BC Golf Photo

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

They battled their nerves along with an exceptionally tough golf course. Teeing it up a LPGA Tour event was a new experience for five of the six British Columbians playing in the CPKC Women’s Open at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.

“I think on a scale of one to 10 on the first tee I was like an eight or a nine,” was how Burnaby’s Luna Lu described her nerves early in Thursday’s opening round. “And then after about nine holes I was like maybe 5 or 6.”

The 16-year-old former B.C. Junior Girls champion carded a five-over 77, joining a large percentage of the field who were over par for the day.

The CPKC Women's Open 1st Round Leader Is Yuka Saso - Image Credit Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Just like it did back in 2005 and 2011 for the PGA TOUR, Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club is presenting a stern test for some of the best female golfers on the planet.

There were lots more bogeys than birdies in the first round of the CPKC Canadian Women’s Open. Only 18 of the 156 players in the field of the LPGA Tour event managed to break par.

Everyone is chasing 2021 U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso, who rattled off four straight birdies on her back nine and shot a six-under 66, a new tournament course record at Shaughnessy.