Sloan T31 at Rocket Mortgage; Parry, Kim win PGA of BC titles;
                                              Towill makes 1st PGA Tour Americas cut                                                

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

A solid freshman season at the University of Tennessee was followed by just a so-so sophomore campaign and Angela Arora felt like she needed a change. A fresh start.

So the soon-to-be 20-year-old from Surrey decided to enter the NCAA transfer portal and see what happened. The former B.C. Junior and Juvenile Girls champion feels like she hit a jackpot of sorts by accepting an offer to join the University of Arizona in Tucson.

“I am excited, I am very excited,” Arora said in an interview. “I just decided to go on the portal and honestly I was talking to a bunch of schools and Arizona stood out.”

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Shelly Stouffer’s Drive for Five will come at high altitude. Sun Peaks Golf Course near Kamloops is playing host to the B.C. Senior Women’s Championship, where Stouffer will attempt to win her fifth straight title.

The mountainside layout should provide the big-hitting Stouffer with even more length. Sun Peaks markets itself as British Columbia’s highest-elevation golf course. “Our signature hole is the par 4 16th, which is the highest tee deck elevation in all of B.C. at 1,333 metres,” says Lauren Fine, golf operations manager at Sun Peaks.

“It has beautiful views of the valley. It’s a downhill, slight dogleg left and some players can drive the green on that hole.”

Svensson top-20s at Travelers; Crisologo top British Columbian at PGA Tour Americas’ Canadian opener; Lauren Kim tees it up in British Women’s Amateur

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Ellie Szeryk began the final round of the GolfBC Group B.C. Women’s Open with a seven-shot lead and didn’t quite know how to handle it. “I have never had a lead like that before,” Szeryk said.

“In college, I would have a one-shot lead and I would have Ingrid Lindblad, the world No. 1, right behind me. So it was a little nerve-wracking today just dealing with some emotions. It was a really big learning experience for me.” And one the 22-year-old handled with relative ease.

Nanaimo’s Manpreet Lalh And Jason Yu Of Vancouver Earn Spots In U.S. Junior Amateur

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Luna Lu fired her career-low competitive round and that meant everyone else was playing for second place at a U.S. Junior Girls qualifier at Riverway Golf Course in Burnaby.

Lu, a former B.C. Junior Girls champion, shot a bogey-free six-under 66 to win the qualifier by five shots and earn a spot in the U.S. Junior Girls Championship, which goes July 15-20 at El Caballero Golf Club in Tarzana, Calif.

Recently British Columbia Golf Writer Brad Ziemer, already a Golf Canada Distinguished Service Award recipient, received another accolade with an award from the Golf Journalists Association of Canada for his feature story last year on stroke survivor Brad Thomas who took part in the inaugural All Abilities Championship of BC. We are reposting the story here to recognize the accomplishments of both Brads, well done gentlemen - ed.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

It was Jan. 22, 2014 and Brad Thomas was at home, chatting on the telephone, when he suddenly felt a strange sensation.

“It just came out of nowhere,” Thomas says. “I had a really weird feeling, like pins and needles, that went right up my body. Then 15 seconds later, I was unconscious on the floor.”

Thomas’s life changed forever that day, a month before his 60th birthday. The massive stroke he suffered should have killed him, doctors have told him.

Witness the future of Women's Golf. The best amateur women's golfers in the province took part in the BC Women's Amateur recently.

The weather was perfect, and the course conditions were great. Multiple course records were broken. (Ha Young Chang with a new women's course record of 65! And also golf prodigy Jenny Guo with a back nine record of 30!)

Golf history in the making. What a treat for the area. This is the Kootenay life at it's finest.

Follow for more content:www.youtube.com/@Kootenaycommunityrealtor

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

His first qualifying school was everything Justin Towill thought it might be, a nerve-wracking, emotional roller-coaster that left him physically and mentally drained.

It was the longest four days of Towill’s golfing life and it wasn’t quite over when the Kelowna native holed his final putt at Crown Isle Golf Resort in Courtenay. Towill now had to watch the leaderboard and wait.

The 23-year-old had finished the 72-hole test at seven-under par and stood solo 10th. The top nine players earned exempt status for the North American swing of the PGA Tour Americas circuit.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

BALFOUR — If there were any doubts about who was going to win the B.C. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, Aram Choi erased them early in the final round at Balfour Golf Course. Choi birdied two of her first three holes and it was pretty much game over.

She went on to shoot a tidy, two-under 70 and her 54-hole total of two-under was good for a convincing eight-shot win over defending champion Shelly Stouffer of Nanoose Bay.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

BALFOUR - Amy Lee is no stranger to winning British Columbia Golf championships. The 16-year-old already had B.C. Bantam, Juvenile and Junior titles on her resumé and came to Balfour for the 119th playing of the B.C. Women’s Amateur hoping to add a fourth provincial championship.

Mission accomplished. Lee closed with a two-under 70 on Balfour Golf Course and her 54-hole total of 11-under par was good for a three-shot win.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

BALFOUR - Jenny Guo has all 14 clubs in her golf bag at this week’s B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship, which is a bit of a change. At a recent Maple Leaf Junior Tour event at The Hills at Portal Golf Course in Surrey, the 12-year-old West Vancouver resident played the first round with only seven clubs — three wedges, her 8-, 6- and 5-irons and a 5-wood. She shot an 84.

The second day, Guo used nine clubs — she added her putter and driver — and shot 71 and won her age group. Her coach Noah Lee, who is in Balfour to caddy for Guo at the Women’s Amateur, came up with the idea to help relieve some stress.

“She started having a little bit of anxiety about playing in high-level tournaments,” Lee said. “So I wanted her to just try to go out and have fun and at the same time give her some problem-solving skills because when you have fewer clubs to work with you have to figure out something else.”

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

BALFOUR — There’s a poster on the wall outside the entrance to the pro shop at Balfour Golf Course thanking the corporate sponsors who stepped forward to support the B.C. Women’s Amateur and Mid-Amateur Championships.

It’s a rather long list as more than 20 businesses have pitched in to make contributions to the event, which began on Tuesday. That corporate support, along with an army of about 50 keen volunteers from the golf club and Balfour area have truly made this a community-driven tournament.

And that makes Jackie Little smile. Little, of course, is a bonafide B.C. golfing legend. Her numerous provincial and national titles have earned her a spot in the British Columbia and Pacific Northwest Golf Association Halls of Fame.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Adam Hadwin’s third-place finish at the Memorial Tournament booked him a spot in next month’s Open Championship at Royal Troon and also put Hadwin in great position to join fellow Abbotsford native Nick Taylor at the Summer Olympics in Paris.

Canada’s two-man Olympic golf team will be determined by the Official World Golf Ranking after this week’s U.S. Open Championship in Pinehurst, N.C.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

In what is a B.C. first, two all-girl teams have won British Columbia High School Golf Championships.

The girls from Vancouver’s Crofton House School captured the Double-A Championship played at Pheasant Glen Golf Course in Qualicum. Up the road in Nanoose Bay, the York House School all-girls team from Vancouver was winning the Single A provincial title at Fairwinds Golf Course.

This is the first year that Crofton House, which is an all-girls private school, has had a golf program. Nothing like starting out on top.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

A She Plays Golf festival designed to get women and girls feeling more comfortable about getting out on the golf course is being held in Metro Vancouver the week of June 17.

The festival features four Women’s Try Golf clinics and two Junior Girls Tee It Up sessions that are open to women and girls who have little or no golf experience. The festival made its debut last summer in Calgary and is now being rolled out in the Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto markets.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Austin Krahn was about 10 years old when his parents bought the local par 3 course in Christina Lake. It was a dream come true for a kid who had already caught the golf bug.

“You think, oh, man, how nice would it be to live on a golf course and all that and then they go buy a par 3 course,” Krahn said. “For me, if I’ve got 15 minutes of free time I can just get out there and hit some chips, hit some putts. You’re always practising and it keeps you in a groove.”

All that practice and playing on the family’s Cascade Par 3 Course the past few years is paying dividends for Krahn, who has developed into one of British Columbia’s top junior golfers. He’s also now a two-time winner of the B.C. Indigenous Championship.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

She began the final round four shots back and as Kylie Jack contemplated the challenge ahead of her, she thought of words her mom had drilled into as a junior golfer.

“I had 18 holes and 18 chances,” Jack said. “You never know. My mom always told me anything can happen in golf.”

Turns out, her mom was right, anything can happen and sometimes it happens in a most dramatic fashion.

Austin Krahn & Christina Proteau Are The Leaders In The 2nd Indigenous Championship BC

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The second B.C. Indigenous Championship is being played this week at University Golf Club in Vancouver and Christina Proteau will tell you it feels a lot different than last year’s inaugural event.

Proteau was absolutely immersed in last year’s tourney at NK’Mip Canyon Desert Golf Course in Oliver. She was the tournament chair, helped organize the event, recruited players and handled numerous media requests.

“This year, I have not done anything,” Proteau said. “It was nice in a sense not to have to do a bunch of radio interviews this morning and do a CBC video in the middle of my round like last year. But at the same time it is really nice to see that even without all the fanfare of the inaugural event, we still have a solid field and a lot of participants here this week.”

Leah John Is Set For Her Pro Debut On The Epson Tour  

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

With a kinesiology degree in her back pocket and loads of great memories of her time at the University of Nevada, Vancouver’s Leah John begins a new chapter of her golfing life this week as she makes her first start as a professional.

“I am really excited,” says the two-time B.C. Women’s Amateur champion. “It’s kind of like the feeling you have before going to the best concert of your life.”

(Vancouver, BC, May 21, 2024) – Registration is open for She Plays Golf Festival, a citywide celebration of golf for women and girls taking place across the Greater Vancouver Area alongside the GOLFBC Group BC Women’s Open from June 17 – June 22, 2024.

The weeklong festival features inclusive programming for women and girls who are recreational golfers or exploring the sport for the first time. Host partners include First Tee BC, and Province of British Columbia, supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

No matter how well things go at this week’s RBC Canadian Open, Kevin Stinson knows playing the event at Hamilton Golf & Country Club will not be the highlight of his year.

That happened on April 15, when Stinson’s wife, Allison, delivered their first child, a son named William. “He is perfect,” his proud dad said before heading east for what will be his second Canadian Open.