Ziemer's B.C. Golf Notes: Hadwin, Sloan & Taylor Off To Playoffs; Vancouver’s Victoria Liu Second At Canadian Juniors; Strong Showing By Roxburgh In Scotland
Three B.C. Boys Will Tee It Up In The FedEx Cup Playoffs Beginning This Week. L-R: Adam Hadwin, Roger Sloan & Nick Taylor - File Photos
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
A record five Canadians, including three British Columbians, have qualified for the PGA TOUR’s FedEx Cup playoffs. Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor, both of Abbotsford, and Merritt’s Roger Sloan will join Ontario natives Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes in this week’s first of three playoff events, The Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J.
Hadwin enters the playoffs at No. 46 on the FedEx Cup points list and is in good position to be among the top 70 players who will advance to next week’s second playoff event, the BMW Championship at Medinah Country Club near Chicago. Taylor and Sloan will need big finishes in Jersey City to advance. Sloan enters the playoffs at No. 91, while Taylor is 117th.
Surrey’s Adam Svensson missed qualifying for the playoffs and will compete in the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals later this month in an attempt to regain his PGA TOUR status.
Svensson finished his rookie season on the PGA TOUR at No. 167 on the FedEx Cup points list. He needed a huge finish at last week’s Wyndham Championship to climb inside the top 125 and for a time it looked like he might get it. Svensson fired a nine-under 61 in Friday’s second round to move near the lead, but could not get anything going on the weekend and finished in a tie for 31st.
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT: Vancouver’s Victoria Liu shared second place with defending champion Celeste Dao of Quebec at last week’s Canadian Junior Girls Championship in Lethbridge, Alta. Liu and Dao finished the 72-hole event at eight-under par, five shots behind winner Emily Zhu of Richmond Hill, Ont. Euna Han of Coquitlam and Tiffany Kong of Vancouver tied for seventh place at two-under par. Zhu also captured the Juvenile championship for players 16 and under. Liu finished second and Han was fourth.
ROXBURGH 13TH: Vancouver’s Doug Roxburgh tied for 13th at the R&A Senior Amateur last week at North Berwick Golf Course in Scotland. Roxburgh, who just won his fifth B.C. Senior Men’s title, finished the 54-hole event at four-under par. That was five shots behind winner Craig Davis, who beat fellow American Gene Elliott in a playoff.
DROUGHT ENDS: Langley’s Adam Cornelson can no longer call himself the last Canadian winner on the PGA Tour Canada-Mackenzie Tour circuit. Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont., snapped the more than three-year victory drought by Canadians when he captured the 1932byBateman Open in Edmonton on Sunday. The big-hitting Pendrith is the first Canadian to win since Cornelson won the Mackenzie Tour’s Victoria stop in June of 2016.
Langley’s James Allenby was the top B.C. finisher in Edmonton. Allenby tied for 31st at five-under par, 12 shots behind Pendrith’s winning total of 17-under. Kimberley’s Jared du Toit tied for 42nd at three-under par. The Mackenzie Tour visits Calgary this week for the ATB Financial Classic.
TEAM B.C.: Jackson Rothwell of Victoria, Isaac Lee of Pitt Meadows and North Vancouver’s Roy Kang will represent British Columbia in the Willingdon Cup inter-provincial team competition at this week’s 115th playing of the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship in Hammonds Plains, N.S. The 72-hole competition began Monday at Glen Arbour Golf Course and the Links at Brunello.
The 240-player field will be cut to the low 70 and ties following Tuesday’s second round. Other British Columbians of note in the field include 2018 B.C. Amateur champion Chris Crisologo of Richmond and national junior team member Jeevan Sihota of Victoria.
WORLD CHAMP: Alex Zhang of Vancouver won the 10-year-old boys age division at the U.S. Kids World Golf Championship in Pinehurst, N.C. Zhang posted scores of 72, 69 and 64 for a 54-hole total of 11-under 205. That was good for a three-shot victory. Anna Huang of Vancouver finished third in the 10-year-old girls division.
IN SEARCH OF SIX: Victoria’s Jim Rutledge will be looking for win No. 6 at this week’s PGA Seniors Championship of Canada, which is being played at Carleton Golf and Yacht Club near Ottawa. Other British Columbians in the field include Phil Jonas of Surrey, Rob Houlding of Surrey, Dean Kuntz of Coquitlam and Jeff Buder of Vancouver. The 54-hole event begins Wednesday.
AMATEUR HOUR: Surrey’s Lauren Kim and Nonie Marler of Vancouver are among 156 competitors in this week’s 119th playing of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. The 13-year-old Kim is the second youngest player in the field. The top 64 players following Tuesday’s second round of stroke play will advance to match play. A champion will be crowned on Saturday.