Ziemer's B.C. Golf Notes: Hyde Mountain Welcomes Mid-Amateur Championship; Big Payday For Spooner; B.C. Teens Off To U.S. Junior Championships
2017 Mid-Am Champs Craig Doell (L) And Josee Deslauriers Are In Sicamous At Hyde Mountain GC This Week To Defend Their Titles - Images: Hyde Mtn./BC Golf/PNGA
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
Last year’s champions will be in the field to defend their titles this week when Hyde Mountain Golf Course in Sicamous plays host to the B.C. Women’s and Men’s Mid-Amateur and Mid-Masters Championship.
Last year at Kokanee Springs Golf Resort in Crawford Bay, Victoria’s Craig Doell won both the Men’s Mid-Amateur and Mid-Masters titles. Doell beat Cameron Powell of Fernie in a playoff to win the Mid-Am category, which is for players 25 and over. Doell edged Nanaimo’s Sandy Harper by one shot to win the Mid-Masters crown, which is for players 40 and older.
Abbotsford’s Dan Swanson, recently reinstated as an amateur, should be a player to watch this week. On the women’s side, Parksville’s Josee Deslauriers won both of the Mid-Amateur and Mid-Masters titles last year at Kokanee Springs by four shots over Jackie Little of Procter. Little won her sixth B.C. Senior Women’s title last week at Crown Isle Golf Resort in Courtenay and is in the field this week at Hyde Mountain.
The 54-hole competition goes Tuesday through Thursday.
BIG PAYDAY: West Vancouver’s Kevin Spooner earned himself a $10,000 payday Sunday. Spooner, a Capilano Golf & Country Club member and past winner on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada circuit, won the Vancouver Golf’s Tour’s First Class Waste Fraser Valley Open by three shots.
Spooner opened with an eight-under 64 at Chilliwack Golf Club on Saturday and closed with a three-under 69 at Sandpiper Golf Course in Sunday’s final round to finish the 36-hole event at 11-under par. That was three shots better than Edmonton’s Steven Lecuyer, who is now playing out of Bear Mountain in Victoria.
Nate Ollis of Victoria was third at seven-under par, while Evan Holmes of Vancouver finished fourth at six-under.
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT: Coco Pei of Surrey and Victoria Liu of Vancouver have qualified to play in this summer’s U.S. Junior Girls Championship. Pei and Liu earned two of the four spots available at a qualifier at Fircrest Golf Club in Tacoma. Pei shot a one-over 74, while Liu carded a 75.
The U.S. Junior Girls will be played July 16-21 at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif.
BALTUSROL BOUND: Vancouver’s Ilirian Zalli, the 2016 B.C. Bantam Boys champion, has qualified for the U.S. Junior Boys Amateur championship. Zalli shot a one-under 71 at Gold Mountain Golf Club’s Olympic course in Bremerton, Wash., and then survived a four-man playoff for the final two qualifying spots. The U.S. Junior Boys Amateur goes July 15-21 at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.
PETER THE GREAT: Peter Thomson, the Australian golfing legend who died on June 20 at the age of 88, is best known for his five Open Championship victories. But Thomson won scores of other tournaments around the world and one of them was in Metro Vancouver. In 1985, Thomson won the du Maurier Champions at Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam, where he shot rounds of 64, 70 and 69 for a 13-under total of 203 to beat American Ben Smith by one stroke. Thomson’s first-place cheque was $24,850.90.
PAST CHAMPS: Nine members of the PGA of B.C. will tee it up at this week’s PGA Championship of Canada at Credit Valley Golf & Country Club in Mississauga, Ont. The B.C. contingent includes past champions Bryn Parry of North Vancouver (2013) and Victoria’s Jim Rutledge (1984). The 72-hole event begins Tuesday.
STRONG FINISH: Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin closed with a four-under 66 Sunday and finished tied for 42nd at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Ct. Hadwin remains 54th on the PGA TOUR’s FedEx Cup points list. Fellow Abbotsford native Nick Taylor missed the cut and fell three spots to 121st on the Fed Ex Cup points list.
Hadwin and Taylor are both in the field at this week’s Quicken Loans National at the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Potomac, Md.
BIRDIES FLY: The inaugural Lethbridge Paradise Canyon Open on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada circuit turned into a birdie-fest. Riley Wheeldon of Comox shot 14-under and finished tied for 29th. It took six-under to make the 36-hole cut.
T.T. Crouch of Mt. Vernon, Oh., beat Chris Williams of Moscow, Id., and Zach Wright of Baton Rouge, La., on the second-hole of a sudden death playoff to win the $36,000 top prize in the $200,000 event. The trio had finished at 23-under par. Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont., was the low Canadian. He finished at 16-under par.
The Mackenzie Tour now takes a break before resuming July 5-8 for the Windsor Championship.
CHIP SHOT: Merritt’s Roger Sloan tied for 32nd place at the Web.com Tour’s Wichita Open in Kansas. Surrey’s Adam Svensson finished tied for 58th place, while Seann Harlingten of West Vancouver tied for 76th place.