Ziemer's B.C. Golf Notes: Macdonald and his dad win in Peru; SFU women, men head to NCAA regionals; Ewart earns first pro win; Summerland Golf Club set to host NextGen Pacific Championship
BC's Stuart Macdonald And His Caddie, Father Rob, With The Diners Club Peru Open Trophy - Image Courtesy PGA TOUR Americas
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
When it was over, after Stuart Macdonald had tapped in a short putt to win the Diners Club Peru Open, he accepted congratulations from his two playing partners and then hugged his caddie. And wouldn’t let go.
Macdonald’s caddie was his dad, Robert, who after battling a serious illness, had travelled from Vancouver to South America to carry his son’s bag.
Stu Macdonald will never forget that emotional father-son embrace that followed a win that could change his professional golfing life.
“It means a lot,” Macdonald said. “He has probably caddied for me in maybe 20 PGA Tour-sanctioned events and we’ve never won together. This is kind of our first win together. Obviously, to have him on the bag is so special. He was pretty sick a few months ago and we weren’t honestly really sure if he was going to be able to make it, and he did.
"He’s a fighter and he fought through his sickness. Just to have him here this week caddying for me, yeah, it’s unbelievable. It means the world.”
The win was also worth $40,500 US to Macdonald, who now stands third on the PGA Tour Americas points list. The top two finishers on the tour’s Latin American swing earn conditional status on next year’s Korn Ferry Tour. Two South American events remain — this week’s KIA Open in Quito, Ecuador and an event May 16-19 in Bogota, Colombia.
But the real carrot Macdonald is now in a great position to chase is a top-10 finish on the season-ending PGA Tour Americas points list. Those players earn exempt status on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour. “Obviously, I’m going to get the 500 (Fortinet Cup) points so I’m going to move up that list,” Macdonald said. “There’s a lot to play for every week and this is a big step forward.”
In addition to having his dad on his bag, it was Macdonald’s first win as a father. He and wife Carly welcomed their son, Graham, late last summer. “First win as a dad. . .and then it’s special having him (his dad) on the bag this week,” Macdonald said. “It’s just an incredible week.”
Macdonald began the final round in Lima with a one-shot lead and had stretched that cushion to four strokes early on the back nine. But a couple of late bogeys by Macdonald and an eagle by American Samuel Anderson on the 16th hole narrowed his lead to a single stroke.
“It’s a super tough finishing stretch and anything can happen, obviously we saw that today,” Macdonald said. “There were some people in the crowd saying ‘El campeon, campeon,’ and I’m like, no, we’ve got a lot of golf to play.” Macdonald ended up beating Anderson by two shots with a 72-hole score of 17-under par.
Lima, the Peruvian capital, seems to suit Macdonald’s golf game. He won the Lima Golf Club International Amateur Championship in 2017. “It kind of reminds me of Vancouver a little bit, just being on the water, being on the coast. I just love being next to the ocean, it’s gorgeous.. The food’s amazing, the people are amazing.”
Lawren Rowe of Squamish and Victoria’s Jeevan Sihota both tied for 44th at one-under par.
ON TO REGIONALS: After clinching the individual title and helping Simon Fraser University’s women’s team win the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship last week in Idaho, Dana Smith and her teammates celebrated by jumping into Lake Coeur d’Alene. It has become a tradition — something like Poppie’s Pond at the former LPGA Tour event at Mission Hills in the California desert, only a tad more chilly. You win the GNAC, you jump into the lake. “It was cold, but it was still very fun,” was how Smith, a freshman from Campbell River, described it. The SFU women have much to celebrate. Their win clinched a spot in the upcoming NCAA Division II regionals and they will head to that event, May 6-8 in Stockton, Calif., feeling good about their chances of playing their way into the national championship tournament.
“Coming off our win at GNAC and a tie for first at our previous event at Sonoma, we definitely have good momentum going into regionals,” Smith said. “We have a lot of confidence and we have worked really hard to get to this point, so we are hoping for a good result at regionals.” Smith set a GNAC championship scoring record with her 36-hole score of two-under par. She acknowledged battling some nerves on the final hole. “In the moment, it was definitely a little bit nerve-wracking walking down that last hole and seeing everyone lined up by the green,” Smith said. “It was definitely a very special moment to take the individual win and also get the team win.”
Image Credit: Thomas Lal, GNAC Media Relations Assistant
Smith won by two shots and SFU took the team title by 14 shots over Western Washington University. SFU coach Matt Steinbach is excited about the way the women’s team has progressed this season. “It’s amazing how far they’ve come,” Steinbach said. “We were so close to breaking through in the fall semester and just kind of fell short a few times. I think it motivated them to work even harder in the off-season because they saw that they were close. “And when you look at our last three events from a team perspective, we came second, tied for first and then first, and in that stretch we had three different players with individual wins. It is pretty unheard of in college golf, so it is kind of all coming together at the right time. It’s certainly exciting as we head to regionals.” (Click HERE to see final results)
The SFU men are also heading to regionals. The Red Leafs finished a close second to Western Washington at the GNAC championships, but earned an invitation to regionals. Their regional tourney goes May 9-11 in Las Cruces, N.M. SFU was led in Coeur d’Alene by senior Michael Crisologo, who celebrated his 23rd birthday by winning his first collegiate event in his final regular-season event. Crisologo finished the 54-hole event at 13-under par. That was five shots better than runner-up Grayson Giboney of Northwest Nazarene. “Michael just broke through at a moment where we needed him to do that,” Steinbach said. “He had been close a few times, but just hadn’t put together a three-round event. It was spectacular stuff what he did.”
CLOSE CALL: Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin ran out of birdies. The Abbotsford natives entered the final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event just three shots out of the lead. They looked to be in great position to win an event they finished second at last year. But the two Ledgeview Golf Club products could only manage a one-under 71 in Sunday’s alternate-shot format and finished 10th at 21-under par. That was four shots behind the team of Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, who beat Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey in a sudden-death playoff. Hadwin and Taylor each made $122,375.
REGIONAL SELECTION: Vancouver’s Victoria Liu has been selected to play in NCAA Division I regionals as an individual. Liu, who is completing her junior year at Princeton University in New Jersey, recently won her second Ivy League Championship. She will compete in the Las Vegas regionals, which go May 6-8.
NEXTGEN OPENER: Many of Western Canada’s top juniors will tee it up at next week’s NextGen Pacific Championship at Summerland Golf & Country Club. Vancouver’s Jerry Li will be back to defend the junior boys title he won last year at Sunshine Coast Golf & Country Club. A new junior girls champion will be crowned as last year’s winner, Amy Seung Hyun Lee of Langley, is not in the Summerland field. The 54-hole event runs May 2-4 and is the first of six NextGen championships to be held across the country this year.
MAIDEN VICTORY: Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart went wire-to-wire for his first win as a professional at the Vancouver Golf Tour’s Sandpiper Open in Harrison Mills. Ewart fired rounds of 66, 65 and 69 to finish at 16-under par and four shots clear of runner-up Tristan Mandur of Duncan. Vancouver’s Ilirian Zalli was third at 10-under. Ewart earned $4,000 for the win.
PREP MATCH PLAY: The St. George’s School golf team is using a different format as it prepares to try and win its third straight B.C. High School Triple-A Golf Championship. St. George’s golf coach Paul Proznick has organized an eight-team match play tournament that will be played May 6 and 7 at Squamish Valley Golf Club. Eight teams — members of the Independent Schools Association of B.C. — are competing in what is an annual spring tournament. “This year there’s a different twist,” Proznick said.
“It will be a match-play event and I think that will be exciting for high school golfers because normally they only play stroke-play events.” Proznick credits Squamish Valley with helping make it happen. “This is a unique event,” he said. “I have been involved with our golf program since 2008 and I have never heard of a high school match-play tournament.” The B.C. high school championships are scheduled for June 3-5. The Triple A championships are being played at Arbutus Ridge Golf Course in Cobble Hill, the Double A tourney is being contested at Pheasant Glen Golf Club in Qualicum and the Single A championships are being held at Fairwinds Golf Resort in Nanoose Bay.