Stinson Takes Route 66 To PGA Of BC Championship
Abbotsford Teaching Pro Kevin Stinson Won By Three Shots At Taking Rock Golf Resort - Image Courtesy PGA of BC
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
Kevin Stinson has stopped chasing his PGA TOUR dream, but he certainly has not stopped playing good golf. The 32-year-old Abbotsford resident, who now teaches the game at Cheam Mountain Golf Course in Chilliwack, continued what has been a solid summer by winning the PGA of BC Championship at the Talking Rock Golf Resort in Chase on Tuesday.
Stinson had to come from behind to do it. He began the day two shots behind first-round leader Jonnie Motomochi of Morgan Creek Golf Course in Surrey, but reeled him in with a brilliant six-under 66.
Stinson finished the 36-hole event at nine-under par, three shots clear of Motomochi, who shot a one-under 71 on Tuesday. “This is my biggest win and biggest pay cheque,” said Stinson, who earned $6,200 for the victory. “It was a good strong field and Jonnie played great. These guys are club pros, but club pros can play. They had a lot of good players in the field. The course set-up was awesome. They nailed it.”
Stinson had not seen Talking Rock until he played a practice round on Sunday. He decided to play aggressively, despite Talking Rock’s tree-lined fairways that punish wayward drives. “I drove it awesome,” Stinson said. “I hit a lot of drivers. A lot of guys were laying back a little bit. I just kind of took a page from what Brooks Koepka has done the last few weeks and just kind of ripped it. It paid off. I was a lot closer to the green than a lot of guys were. I just had wedges in to a lot of the greens where some guys were hitting mid-irons.”
After making his only bogey of the day on the second hole, Stinson bounced back nicely with an eagle on the par 5 third hole. “I was kind of lucky,” he said of his eagle putt. “It was going pretty good and caught the centre and dropped. You need some breaks like that sometimes.” He won the tournament on the back nine, where he made five birdies. “I had wedges in and got them close enough where I had some really good looks and made a few of them,” Stinson said.
Stinson is clearly enjoying the new balance in his life. He gave up on his PGA dream and began teaching at Cheam Mountain, which is being run by a couple of close friends, Jared Rempel and Chad McAdie. But he still plays lots of local tournament golf and has done well the past couple of years playing on the Vancouver Golf Tour. “It is great,” Stinson said.
“When you are not dependent on golf for your income it kind of frees you up a little bit, which is awesome. You are not living golf tournament to golf tournament to see if you can eat and stuff like that. To have something (teaching) that is pretty stable where you can go in and put in some hours and make a pay cheque is nice. Jared and Chad at Cheam have been so good at letting me make a schedule where I can still play a lot.”
Mark Bicknell of Victoria Golf Club finished third at three-under par. Oliver Tubb of University Golf Course closed with a five-under 67 to finish fourth at two-under par. Bryn Parry of Point Grey Golf Club was fifth at even-par.
CLICK HERE to view final results.
CHIP SHOTS: Next up for Stinson is the VGT’s Vancouver Open, which goes Aug. 30-Sept. 1 at the three City of Vancouver courses, Fraserview, Langara and McCleery. The win also earns Stinson a spot in the 2019 PGA of Canada Championship.