by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf - The present and future of Canadian golf converged on Wednesday afternoon at Point Grey Golf & Country Club.

by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf

It Remains To Be Seen Whether There Will Be Any Canadian Flags Flying At Chambers Bay For The 2015 U.S. Open

Currently, there are no Canadians scheduled to be amongst the 156 players who will tee it up at Chambers Bay starting June 18.

But come June 8, in what is termed the Longest Day in Golf, at least 22 Canadians will try to overcome their final obstacle, a 36-hole qualifier being played at 10 sites all across America, to get one of the final spots in the U.S. Open.

Nick Sherwood Smiles As He Receives His Ticket From Susan White Of British Columbia Golf To Play In The PC Financial Open At Point Grey After Monday Qualifying At Swaneset Bay Resort - image credit alfie lau

by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf

For Albany, OR’s Nick Sherwood, it was the longest afternoon of his golf career.

After shooting a morning round of (-3) 69 at Swaneset Bay’s Resort Course during the Monday qualifier for the PC Financial Open, Sherwood had to wait hours to see how the rest of the other 129 players who had forked out $250 to play for one of 10 spots into the first PGA TOUR Canada stop at Point Grey would do.

Just before 7 p.m., Sherwood got the word he was looking for from British Columbia Golf’s Susan White, who was happy to give Sherwood one of 10 pieces of paper telling him his next steps, which included what awaited him at Point Grey.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Scott Wheeler/PGATOUR.COM) — Ryan Williams, PGA TOUR Canada’s highest Canadian finisher on the 2014 Order of Merit, is poised to take on his local course as the 2015 season kicks off with the PC Financial Open.

Williams, who plays out of Point Grey Golf and Country Club, host to this year’s season-opening tournament, finished sixth on the Order of Merit in 2014, completing the season with a win at the Freedom 55 Financial Championship.

Maple Ridge, B.C.'s Justin Shin Holds The Trophy After His Victory In The Wuhan Open In China

WUHAN, China — Justin Shin,from Maple Ridge, B.C. shot a 3-under 69 in the final round of the United Investment Real Estate Wuhan Open to win his first professional title, finishing at 12-under and three shots ahead of fellow Canadian, North Vancouver’s Eugene Wong.

Team Canada Young Pro Squad member Adam Svensson of Surrey, BC picked up his 3rd Swingthought.com Tour win in as many tries this past weekend  at the Milton Martin Honda Classic in Gainesville, Ga.

Svensson shot rounds of 66, 66, 67 and 67 to finish at 22-under par on the Chattahoochee Golf Club course to win by five shots, pocketing $20,000 US.

Beautiful Crown Isle Resort Will Be The Site Of The Final PGA TOUR Canada Qualifying Tourney For 2015

COURTENAY, British Columbia (Brian Decker/Golf Canada) — PGA TOUR Canada qualifying resumes this week with the final of three Qualifying Tournaments taking place at the Crown Isle Resort and Golf Community in Courtenay, B.C. for the second straight year.

Once again, PGA TOUR Canada players will aim to take the next step on the path to the PGA TOUR in 2015.

by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf

For anybody else, winning the PGA Tour Canada stop in Ottawa, The Forces & Families Open, finishing 13th on the Order of Merit and coming second in the Canada Cup would be a good golf year, but for Summerland’s Greg Machtaler, it was only the tip of the iceberg.

“My back was in rough shape and I really only played half the season with a close-to-healthy back,” said the 31-year-old who now calls Kelowna home. “One of the reasons why I’m looking so forward to 2015 is I’m feeling good, my back is getting close to 100 per cent and I know that if I play like I did at the end of last year, I’ll have a good chance of finishing top-5 here and getting my Web.com card for next year.”

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Tyler Costigan/Golf Canada) — Canada’s Adam Svensson notched his second NGA Tour victory, carding a 20-under through four rounds at Killearn Country Club for the one-stroke win.

AUGUSTA, Georgia (Tyler Costigan/Golf Canada) — The Canadian story at Augusta National last Friday was the rebound of National Amateur Squad member Corey Conners.

The Listowel, Ont., native returned to his usual form for Friday’s  2nd round at Augusta, firing a 3-under par 69 despite a double-bogey on the par-4 10th. The 23-year-old Canadian was the only amateur to break par at Augusta National.

LAKE WALES, Florida — Sue Kim of Langley, B.C., made a 25-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole to seize the lead and never looked back as she carded a 2-under 70 on Sunday to win the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic at 5-under 211.

Kim earned her second career Symetra Tour victory and moved to the top spot on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.

by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf

What a winter it has been for Cory Renfrew.

The 28-year-old Victoria native who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona during the winter has made memories – and several big paycheques – while pursuing his golf dreams down south.

image credit SportBox PR

by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf

Surrey’s Adam Svensson has left Barry University, turned professional and signed on with SportBox Entertainment Group, which also represents Canadian PGA Tour stalwarts Graham DeLaet, David Hearn, Roger Sloan and Mike Weir.

Merritt's Roger Sloan (L) Gained Valuable Experience At Pebble Beach

February 15, 2015

by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf

By the time the final putt dropped on another brilliant day in Northern California and Brandt Snedeker won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for the second time in three years, the best British Columbia golfers had already hightailed it out of the Monterey Peninsula.

Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor will be getting ready to play practice rounds at Riviera for the Northern Trust Open this week while Roger Sloan is back in Houston to work on his game in anticipation of his next PGA TOUR stop, hopefully in Florida.

Victoria’s Cory Renfrew will be trying to Monday qualify for Riviera with a 12:55 p.m. tee time alongside Billy Mayfair and aspiring PGA TOUR pros Ryan Williams and Adam Cornelson will be planning their Web.com schedules for the spring.

After three weeks covering this golden generation of British Columbia golf professionals, this much is clear: It’s a roller coaster ride of emotions for these young men as they pursue their golf dreams.

February 8, 2015

by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf

It doesn’t take a math major to figure out three winners out of 131 hopeful golfers leaves a lot more losers than winners.

Those were the odds 33-year-old Ryan Williams faced by trying to Monday qualify for the 2015 Waste Management Open at the party-crazed TPC Scottsdale during Super Bowl Week.

Cory Renfrew (L) With Coach Matt Palsenbarg (image credit Alfie Lau)

January 28th, 2015

by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf

When we last saw Matt Palsenbarg, Golf LAB at Northview Golf & Country Club co-owner, he had spent two action-packed days teaching some of the best British Columbia juniors high-performance golf techniques.

He started this week on Monday, giving a presentation on those high-performance techniques to PGA of BC professionals at the Vancouver Golf Club.

He had just enough time to get home to spend some time scootering with his daughter when he found out that another of his charges, Victoria’s Cory Renfrew, had Monday qualified for the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

January 26, 2015

by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf

It was just after 6 p.m. at the McCormick Ranch Golf Club in Scottsdale and almost too dark to see anything, but Victoria’s Cory Renfrew smiled so widely that it almost lit up the course.

Renfrew, listed officially as a Scottsdale resident – he does live here with roommate Eric Hawerchuk, as they chase their golf dreams – is the pride of Victoria and shot a (-6) round of 66 on the Pine Course at McCormick Ranch to claim one of the three spots into the Waste Management Open, Phoenix’s biggest party masquerading as a golf tournament.

by Alfie Lau

Five years after he burst onto the national golf scene, Nick Taylor was still worrying about one thing: laundry.

Taylor won the 2014 Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi on Sunday.

His first PGA TOUR victory comes with a $720,000 first-place cheque, a two-year exemption on the PGA TOUR and exemptions into the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits next August and the Players Championship at Sawgrass next May.

(But not The Masters in April, because there was a competing WGC event in China last week).

Courtesy Fraser Mulholland, VGT Commissioner

Taylor Ends 5-Year Drought For Canadians Winning On PGA TOUR

The enormity of his win on the PGA TOUR may not have sunk in yet for 26-year old Abbotsford Pro Nick Taylor, but it won’t take long, believe me.

With his win, the 10-time winner on the Vancouver Golf Tour was the first Canadian-born winner on the PGA TOUR since 2007 when Mike Weir won at the Frys.com Open.

Yes, Canada has had quite a drought.

Sept 21, 2014

Terry Lenyk/Golf Canada

Chalk up one more Canadian to watch for on PGA Tour leaderboards during the 2014-15 season.

With Abbotsford, B.C.'s Adam Hadwin and Merrit, B.C.'s Roger Sloan having already secured their PGA Tour playing privileges after cracking the top 25 on the Web.com Tour's regular season money list, the stage was set for one of the most clutch final rounds in Canadian golf history.