Six Former Champions In The Field For B.C. Senior Men’s Championship At Williams Lake Golf & Tennis Club
Doug Roxburgh Will Be Going For Senior Title Number 6 In Williams Lake - BC Golf Photo
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
Defending champion Sandy Harper of Nanaimo will be joined by five other past champions at the B.C. Senior Men’s Championship, which is being played July 25-27 at Williams Lake Golf & Tennis Club.
Norm Bradley of Kelowna (2020), John Gallacher of Burnaby (2007, 2015), Harry Ferguson of Invermere (2016), Michael Kennedy of North Vancouver (2021) and five-time champion Doug Roxburgh of Vancouver (2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019) are part of the 156-player field.
Many of them will be seeing Williams Lake Golf & Tennis Club for the first time, but Dennis Williams and Rob Yaworksi are more than a little familiar with the par-71 layout. Williams is a member of the grounds crew at the course and Yaworski is the club’s general manager. Both are playing in the event.
“It’s going to be a busy week for me,” Yaworski said with a laugh.
Williams Lake is not a particularly long course, measuring 6,272 yards from the tips. The course, which opened in 1946, sits in the shadows of the Chilcotin Hills and features a gently rolling landscape with views of the city, the lake and surrounding countryside.
“That’s where some of the challenge is going to come because there are not a lot of flat lies out here,” Yaworski said of the course’s hilly terrain. “There’s a lot of up and down.”
The greens will also offer a challenge to players. Many of them have considerable slope, so putts will have lots of break and imprecise approach shots are liable to run off the edges of the greens.
“The greens are in very good shape but they are slopey, so obviously if you are above the hole they are very quick coming back,” Williams said.
“If you get on the wrong side of the hole here, it’s quite challenging. Some of the shots into some of the greens are quite elevated. There’s a lot of runoff on several greens.”
Water comes into play on two holes, the par 5 fourth and the par 4 seventh. That fourth hole, at just over 500 yards, is rated as the most difficult on the course. While not completely tree-lined, there is plenty of trouble to get into if tee shots stray off target. “The course appears to be wide open, but if you get off in certain spots on some holes, the smart play is to chip back to the fairway and carry on,” Williams said.
The course wintered well and is in great shape. “I am sure the leaders will be under par, for sure,” Williams said. “The greens are quite receptive right now, so that will help. They are thick and lush, although they are probably not quite as fast as some of the Lower Mainland or Okanagan players might see.”
Yaworksi has had no trouble securing volunteers to help run the tournament. “The membership is very excited about the tournament,” he said. “We have lots of volunteers and lots of people who are saying they are going to come and watch.”
Harper, a two-time B.C. Seniors champion, returns to defend a title he won last summer at Uplands Golf Club in Victoria by two shots over Bradley and Stewart Scott of Kelowna. That win was an especially emotional one for Harper as it came a couple of years after suffering a stroke. Harper first won the event in 2012 at his home club, Nanaimo Golf Club.
Roxburgh, the 13-time B.C. Amateur champion, skipped the recent B.C. Amateur at Morningstar Golf Course in Parksville. He tied for 26th at last year’s B.C. Seniors at Uplands.
Click HERE for the tournament's home page and scoring.
CHIP SHOTS: The B.C. Senior Men’s is open to players aged 55 and older. A Super-Senior Championship will also be contested in Williams Lake for players aged 65 and older. Harper won both titles last year.