B.C. Golf Notes: Doug Roxburgh Toasted At Dinner Marking His 50 Straight B.C. Amateur Championship Appearances
It's 50 And Counting For Doug Roxburgh As He's Saluted For Competing In His 50th Consecutive BC Amateur At Pheasant Glen GC Last Week. Doug Is Seen Here Speaking With Dawn Chubai From City TV's 'Breakfast Television' At The Dinner Celebration Held In His Honour At Marine Drive Golf Club - Image Credit Bryan Outram/British Columbia Golf
by Brad Ziemer
Langley’s Adam Cornelson Earns Spot In RBC Canadian Open
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
Number 50 didn’t end quite the way he would have liked, but that didn’t seem to matter Sunday night when a dinner was held at Marine Drive Golf Club to honour Doug Roxburgh’s golden anniversary milestone.
Roxburgh, a 13-time winner of the event, joked that he would have liked to have taken one less stroke at last week’s 114th B.C. Amateur Championship at Pheasant Glen Golf Resort in Qualicum Beach. He missed the 36-hole cut for only the third time in 50 appearances. All three cuts were missed by a single shot.
Roxburgh received a scrapbook from British Columbia Golf executive director Kris Jonasson containing letters of congratulations from all over the golfing world. There was one from the captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, another from the president of the United States Golf Association and many others from past and present players. “This is something I will cherish for a long time,” Roxburgh said after Jonasson presented him with the scrapbook.
Roxburgh reminisced about his golfing life and told the dinner that some memories came flooding back as he watched Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson battle in Sunday’s epic final round of the Open Championship at Royal Troon in Scotland.
“The first British Amateur I played in was in 1978 at Troon Golf Club, which was made Royal Troon the night before the tournament started,” Roxburgh said. “I had quite a memorable match in the first round and it was fun watching (the Open) today. I was four down with five holes to play having got off to a bad start and I parred the 14th, parred the 15th, birdied the 16th, birdied the 17th and birdied the 18th to win the last five holes to win my match.”
Roxburgh received laughter when he added: “We certainly weren’t at the tees players were at today.”
Roxburgh has not said if a 51st B.C. Amateur is in his future, but he will be playing in this week’s B.C. Senior Men’s Championship at Shuswap Lake Estates. He will also tee it up in the British Senior Amateur Championship Aug. 3-5 at Formby Golf Club in England.
FROM Q SCHOOL TO OPEN: It is a long way from the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada qualifying school to the RBC Canadian Open, but Langley’s Adam Cornelson has made the journey. He still can’t quite believe it. “I’m kind of speechless,” Cornelson said Sunday night after clinching a spot in the Canadian Open field at Glen Abbey Golf Club this week. “To think of where I was two or three months ago and now I’m playing the Canadian Open. It’s a little crazy.”
Cornelson will make his PGA TOUR debut this week after earning one of the three Mackenzie Tour exemptions into the event. The top three players on the money list after this past weekend’s Staal Foundation Open in Thunder Bay, Ont., were awarded spots in the Canadian Open.
Cornelson, who won the Mackenzie Tour’s stop in Victoria early last month, entered the Thunder Bay tourney second on the money list but dropped to third after tying for 34th spot on Sunday. He was passed by American Taylor Moore, who won on Sunday.
Back in early May, Cornelson had to survive qualifying school at Crown Isle Golf Club in Courtenay to earn his playing privileges. To say he is a little excited about teeing it up at Glen Abbey is something of an understatement. He’s been playing in Mackenzie Tour events with purses of $175,000 Cdn.
A purse of $5.9-million US will be up for grabs this week at the Canadian Open. “I want to enjoy the week and take in the experience,” Cornelson said. “But I’m also going to focus on what got me here and play my game.”
Cornelson has bounced back nicely after a miserable 2015 season that led to that trip to Q school. “I felt my game and confidence returning in February,” he said. “But to say I would play in the Canadian Open this year, I don’t know I would believe you.”
TOP 10 AGAIN: Surrey’s Adam Svensson is playing the best golf of his rookie season on the Web.com Tour. Svensson was six-under through his first seven holes in Sunday’s final round of the Lincoln Land Charity Championship in Springfield, Ill.
He ended up shooting a seven-under 64 for a four-round total of 18-under par and finished tied for 10th place, four strokes behind winner Matin Flores of Fort Worth, Tex.. It was Svensson’s second straight top-10 finish of the year. He earned $13,750 Sunday to move up to 53rd from 65th on the money list.
B.C. CONTENT: There will be plenty of British Columbia content at this week’s Pacific Northwest Golf Association men’s and women’s amateur championships. The women’s tourney starts Tuesday at the Prospector Course at the Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Wash.
Coquitlam’s Jisoo Keel, who won the B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship earlier this month at Beach Grove Golf Club in Tsawwassen, is in the field. Other British Columbians in the field include Gloria Usu Choi of Langley, Emery Bardock of Armstrong, Maddie Kapchinksky of Kelowna, Michelle Kim of Surrey, Rachelle Nielsen of Summerland, Kylie Jack of Westbank, Naomi Ko of Victoria and Natalie Chu of Vancouver.
The PNGA Women’s Mid-amateur Championship is being held concurrently, with Alison Murdoch of Victoria and Karen Kloske of Lake Cowichan in the field. The PNGA Men’s Amateur Championship begins Monday at the Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Wash.
Zach Anderson of Nanaimo, who finished third at last week’s B.C. Amateur Championship at Pheasant Glen Golf Resort in Qualicum Beach, is in the field. Other British Columbians who will tee it up include Kaleb Gorbahn of Smithers, Steven Diack of Port Coquitlam, Lawren Rowe of Victoria, Logan Yanick of Courtenay and Alex Park of Vancouver.
NEW COACH: Kimberley’s Jared du Toit will have a new coach when he returns to Arizona State University for his senior year this fall. Tim Mickelson, Phil Mickelson’s younger brother, resigned last week to pursue other business interests. Those interests may include managing the career of Jon Rahm, the Spaniard who recently turned pro after completing his senior year at Arizona State.
Du Toit, a member of Golf Canada’s national team and the 2015 B.C. Amateur champion,, has a spot in this week’s RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont.
RIGHT AT HOME: Curtis Baldwin used home course advantage to win the Vancouver Golf Tour’s Chilliwack Open at Chilliwack Golf Club. Baldwin fired rounds of 69 and 66 for a two-round total of nine-under par to beat Matt Makinson of Eaglequest Coyote Creek by one shot. Baldwin earned $2,000 for the win.
CHIP SHOTS: Nolan Thoroughgood, the 15-year-old from Victoria who won last week’s B.C. Amateur Championship, will be among the competitors at this week’s B.C. Summer Games golf competition. The event runs Friday and Saturday at Ledgeview Golf Club in Abbotsford. . .Next year’s 115th B.C. Amateur Championship will be played at Morgan Creek Golf Course in Surrey.