The Bright Future For British Columbia Golf In 2015
December 20, 2014
by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf
The history books may show 2014 as the year British Columbia golfers thrust themselves onto the world stage, but to understand how this happened, you have to go 150 miles south, to the campus of the University of Washington Huskies golf teams.
Men’s coach Matt Thurmond and women’s coach Mary Lou Mulflur have successfully mined a sterling crop of British Columbia golfers who have bright futures in front of them.
Who couldn’t be happy for Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor, a proud UW alum who won the Sanderson Farms Championship on Nov. 9, the first PGA TOUR victory for a Canadian golfer since Stephen Ames won the Children’s Miracle Network Classic 5 years ago?
Taylor went out of his way to thank Thurmond and his current coach, Rob Houlding of Surrey, for all the help and support going back a decade. Taylor managed to step out of the large footsteps of another Abbotsford UW golf legend, James Lepp, the 2005 NCAA Champion and has set a course for future Canadian golf success.
Taylor’s win means he is fully exempt on the PGA TOUR for the next two-and-a-half seasons and not only can he pick and choose which events he wants to play, he now has a comfortable nest egg to start up his life outside of golf.
Taylor and wife Andie married earlier in 2014 and spent the last month of the year on a delayed honeymoon before the PGA TOUR resumes in Hawaii with the Tournament of Champions event that Taylor qualified for with his win in Mississippi.
Not to be forgotten is Langley’s Darren Wallace, who is still trying to launch his pro career on PGA Tour Canada and West Vancouver’s Kevin Spooner, who also learned his craft at the picturesque Seattle school.
Perhaps it was seeing the success of these Canadians that two Lower Mainland golfers followed their lead and are learning under Thurmond on the current UW golf team.
Kevin Kwon, the 2013 Canadian Junior Boys Champion and Jordan Lu, the 2014 British Columbia Amateur Champion, are learning their craft under Thurmond and decades later, we may be able to trace the growth of Canadian golf to the UW tree that Thurmond has nurtured.
Coqutilam's SooBin Kim Is LPGA Bound After Making It Through Q-School
But it’s not just the men of UW who are making a huge mark, as women’s golf coach Mary Lou Mulflur has also come up north to find great golfers. Her captain, SooBin Kim, has just earned full status on the LPGA Tour after successfully navigating Q-School and her high school and college teammate, Jennifer Yang, has helped UW become one of the powerhouses of American college golf.
It would hardly be surprising if Mulflur hasn’t been keeping her eyes on three British Columbia girls who have just been named to the Golf Canada Development Squad. Richmond’s Alisha Lau, Surrey’s Michelle Kim and Victoria’s Naomi Ko are not only promising golfers, but solid students who would enhance any college program they decide to attend.
Moving away from the South Coast of British Columbia, you can also see a bright future for Barry University’s Adam Svensson, who’s also been named to Golf Canada’s National Team and has won eight NCAA Division II titles and the Jack Nicklaus Award for being the top NCAA Division II player of the year.
Svensson also happens to be coached by Houlding, meaning the six degrees of separation for golf excellence in the province doesn’t go more than two degrees. It’s not just the young British Columbia golfers who are making waves, as mid amateurs Kevin Carrigan and Christina Proteau are balancing productive careers with outstanding golf games.
Proteau also played the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur while pregnant, proving that her multi-tasking abilities – she’s “only” a criminal prosecutor for her day job – are almost beyond parallel.
Carrigan, financial advisor by day, still finds time to be club champion at Royal Colwood and has performed exceptionally well at provincial, national and international mid-amateur competitions.
It’s amazing that we haven’t even mentioned two golfers who were part of an unprecedented trio of British Columbia golfers who graduated from the Web.com Tour and are playing full-time on the PGA TOUR.
Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin had a top-10 finish at Las Vegas in October and has his eyes focused on matching his Ledgeview colleague’s win. Merritt’s Roger Sloan also has his eyes on the prize and after securing sponsorship from Victoria’s Bear Mountain Resort, can concentrate on making cuts, cashing cheques and keeping his PGA TOUR card.
The future is so bright on the professional side that it’s hard to know whether it’s going to be Cory Renfrew, Eugene Wong, Riley Wheeldon, Ryan Williams or Greg Machtaler who’s going to be the next British Columbia golfer to make the jump to the next level. (Williams and Machtaler won events on PGA Tour Canada in 2014, while Chilliwack’s Brad Clapp came agonizingly close to winning the PGA Tour Canada stop at Point Grey early in 2014).
No story on British Columbia golf would be complete without mention of the legendary Doug Roxburgh. Not only did Roxburgh win his sixth Canadian amateur title in 2014, the Canadian Senior Men’s Amateur at Capilano, he made the cut for the 47th time in the British Columbia Amateur.
Roxburgh fully intends to play his 49th British Columbia Amateur in 2015 at Fairview Mountain and may even take his game to the British Senior Amateur at Royal County Down in Ireland.
All in all, the future of British Columbia golf has never been brighter.