Ziemer's B.C. Golf Notes: Victoria’s Jeevan Sihota makes pro debut as new PGA Tour Canada season begins at Uplands; Lauren Kim off to U.S. Women’s Open; Patrick Weeks wins Marine Drive Amateur; Shelly Stouffer goes for three-peat at B.C. Senior Women’s
Victoria's Jeevan Sihota Will Make His Pro Debut This Week At Uplands GC - Golf Canada Photo
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
After a two-year hiatus, PGA Tour Canada is back and tees off its new season this week in Victoria at Uplands Golf Club. The $200,000 Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist is the first stop of an 11-event schedule that will touch down in seven different provinces as well as the state of Minnesota.
British Columbia has two events this season. The GolfBC Championship at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club in Kelowna goes Sept. 1-4.
The Victoria event features a strong British Columbia contingent, including 18-year-old Jeevan Sihota of Victoria. The former junior standout from Victoria will make his pro debut at Uplands after earning conditional Tour status at a qualifying school at Crown Isle Golf Resort in Courtenay earlier this spring.
Sihota, a former member of Golf Canada’s national junior team, has prodigious length and his ball speed has been clocked in excess of 200 miles per hour. He impressed last fall when he played in three Mackenzie Tour events. He tied for sixth at the ATB Financial Classic in Calgary, finished in the top 25 at the GolfBC Championship in Kelowna and then tied for second at the Reliance Properties DC Bank Open in Victoria.
“I hope he plays like he did last year” says Keith Dagg, a founding director of the Victoria tournament. “That would be awesome. He finished second here last year and lost by a stroke as an amateur when he was 17 years old. We are really excited about the fact he’s turning pro here this week.”
Besides Sihota, other British Columbians in the field include James Allenby of Langley, Zach Anderson of Nanaimo, Chris Crisologo of Richmond, Callum Davison of Duncan, Jared du Toit of Kimberley, Cory Renfrew of Vancouver, Lawren Rowe of Squamish, Jim Rutledge of Victoria, Max Sear of Victoria, Travis Busch of Nanoose Bay and Riley Wheeldon of Comox.
Wheeldon is fully exempt on the PGA Tour Canada circuit after winning the Crown Isle Q-school. Rutledge, a former PGA TOUR and PGA Champions Tour member, is serving as honorary chair of this week’s tournament. Dagg is one of four individuals who founded the tournament back in 1981. Through the years, he and others have had to work hard to keep it afloat.
“It’s such a good thing for Victoria and British Columbia, but it’s expensive,” Dagg says. “The budget is like $600,000. When I started it was $50,000. It’s tough raising enough money to keep it going every year. But we’re looking forward to having a great week and hopefully the weather will warm up.”
FIVE STRAIGHT: Team British Columbia made it five straight wins at the North Pacific Junior Ladies Team matches played this past weekend at The Home Course in Dupont, Wash. Modelled after the Curtis Cup matches for amateur women, the North Pacific matches are played annually and feature teams from B.C., Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
All competition is match play with the front nine worth one point, the back nine one point and the overall 18 another point. The B.C. team of Angela Arora of Surrey, Yeji Kwon of Port Coquitlam, Luna Lu of Burnaby, Martina Yu of Coquitlam, Tina Jiang of Richmond and Katherine Hao of Burnaby.
B.C. finished the competition with 8.5 points. Oregon was second with 7 points. Kate Weir, head professional at Rivershore Golf Links in Kamloops, served as head coach of the B.C. team with Michelle McCann, an Associate Professional at Uplands Golf Club in Victoria, as her assistant.
TEXAS TOUGH: Surrey’s Adam Svensson and Nick Taylor of Abbotsford were among many PGA Tour pros who had trouble dealing with the stiff winds that blew through Colonial Country Club in Sunday’s final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth Tex. Svensson, who started the day inside the top 20, closed with a six-over 76 and ended up tying for 40th at two-over par.
Taylor shot a final-round 74 and tied for 48th at three-over. Svensson made $30,660 and climbed one spot on the FedEx Cup points list to 125th. Taylor made $22,092 and moved up two spots to No. 110 on the points list. The PGA Tour heads to Dublin, Ohio this week for the Memorial Tournament. Svensson and Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin are both in the field.
OPEN SEASON: Surrey’s Lauren Kim has a big week ahead of her. Kim, a Grade 11 student at Earl Marriott Secondary, joins Ontario’s Brooke Henderson and Quebec’s Maude Aimée-LeBlanc as the only Canadians in the field at this week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. Kim warmed up for that event with a tie for 12th at the American Junior Golf Association’s Under Armour Albane Valenzuela Girls Invitational at Longbow Golf Course in Mesa, Ariz. Kim, a member of Golf Canada’s national junior team, finished the 54-hole event at one-over par.
WEEKS WINS AGAIN: Shaughnessy’s Patrick Weeks continues to play some great golf. The Vancouver realtor followed up his recent win at the B.C. Mid-Amateur Championship with a convincing win at the Marine Drive Amateur. Weeks shot rounds of 68 and 66 and beat Richmond’s Mike Aizawa by four shots as the Marine Drive Amateur returned after a two-year hiatus forced by COVID-19.
SEEKING PERFECTION: The UBC women’s team did not get much time to savour their win at the NAIA Championships in Oklahoma City. The T-Birds had a flight the next morning to Quebec, where they will play in this week’s Canadian College/University Championships in Bromont.The UBC women hope to keep their perfect season intact. They are 11-0 in tournament play this season. “I think it is pretty important,” head coach Chris Macdonald said of trying to end the season undefeated.
“They just have so much respect for each other, they want to finish this off. I know they’d really like to win this week and we all know it won’t be easy. The Canadian championships has a different set of rules, it’s four (players), count three (scores) and you can play more mature players and you don’t know who is going to show up for each team. But I know they are really excited to play.” UBC, University of Victoria and the University of the Fraser Valley are all competing in the men’s and women’s divisions in Quebec.
BACK IN BUSINESS: Talking Rock Golf Course in Chase reopened for play on Friday, May 27 following a fire that destroyed much of the resort’s Quaaout Lodge. The lodge and restaurant remain closed, but the golf course is now back in business.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME: Two-time defending champion Shelly Stouffer will have home-course advantage at this week’s B.C. Senior Women’s Championships at Fairwinds Golf Course in Nanoose Bay. Stouffer is a longtime Nanoose Bay resident and is sponsored by Fairwinds. The 54-hole tournament goes May 30-June 1.