L-R: Stuart Macdonald, AJ Ewart & Jared du Toit - Macdonald/du Toit Courtesy Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

He won his most recent qualifying school by 10 shots, but that doesn’t mean Jared du Toit is looking forward to his next one.

Q-school is not something you savour as a pro golfer. It’s all about survival, moving on to the next stage and finding a place to play. All that is on the line is your career. Try draining a five-foot putt for par with those kinds of thoughts racing through your head.

“I don’t care who you are, if you are a PGA TOUR winner or you’re a guy coming out of college, whatever, Q-school is just hard,” du Toit, a Kimberley native, said over the phone from Arizona.

Leah John top-10s on Epson Tour and also gets CPKC exemption; New B.C. Senior Men’s champion to be crowned in Revelstoke: Marine Drive plays host to Canadian Junior Girls Championship

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf (July 22, 2024)

Mary Parsons’ first professional win came with a bonus she really wasn’t expecting. Along with the $10,000 first-place cheque for winning the Kathy Whitworth Championship in Trophy Club, Tex., on the Annika All Women’s Pro Tour, Parsons knew she was also getting a spot in an Epson Tour event in late August.

But the Delta native is also receiving something much bigger than that. Parsons was informed after her win that she has a spot in this week’s LPGA Tour event, the CPKC Women’s Open in Calgary. “I am very thrilled,” Parsons said over the phone. “It will be my second LPGA start. I played back in 2019 as an amateur. It will be exciting to play an LPGA event as a pro now. I will try to keep it rolling and see what I can do.”

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf (August 6, 2024) •  Nick Taylor ties for 30th in Paris; Stuart Macdonald ties for 7th on PGA Tour Americas; Lauren Kim fifth at Canadian Women’s Amateur

Matthew Wilson File Photo - Image Credit Chuck Russell/Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Matthew Wilson wants to end his junior golf career on a high note and the Nanaimo native is off to a terrific start. Wilson kick-started his final round with a pair of chip-in eagles on his front nine at Summerland Golf Club and won the NextGen Pacific Championship by one shot over Joshua Ince of Surrey.

“I have put in a lot of work this off-season and one of the things I really wanted to do, especially with this being my last year of junior golf, is get my game in a good spot to win a lot of golf tournaments,” Wilson said.

New Capilano GC Head Professional Mike Haraguchi

Taylor, Hadwin head to Pebble Beach and Netflix; Lauren Kim gets second crack at Augusta National; Sloan heads to Panama for season debut on Korn Ferry Tour

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

(January 27, 2025) - You can count on one hand the number of head professionals Capilano Golf & Country Club has had since opening in 1939. Mike Haraguchi is honoured to be among them.

The highly regarded West Vancouver private club recently appointed the Richmond native as their new head pro.

He succeeds Mark Thirtle, who departed last year to become director of golf at La Cumbre Country Club in Santa Barbara, Calif.

The 11th Green At Kapalua GC In Maui, Site Of The Sentry TOC - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Five Canadians, including British Columbians Nick Taylor, Adam Hadwin and Adam Svensson, are in the field for The Sentry, this week’s season-opening PGA TOUR event at Kapalua on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

A $20-million purse will be up for grabs for the 59-player field. There is no cut in the 72-hole tournament, which is one of the PGA TOUR’s ‘Signature’ events. Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes are the other Canadians in the field.

The Sentry will not have its 2023 winner back to defend his title as Jon Rahm has defected to LIV Golf. That move benefitted Hughes, who moved up one spot on the FedEx Cup points list to No. 50 and qualified to play in all of the Signature events this year.

View From The 1st Tee At Vancouver's Langara Golf Club - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Even on these soggy November days, there is plenty of roll on the fairways at Langara Golf Course. And now, thanks to a unanimous vote last week by the Vancouver Park Board, there is also plenty of optimism about the course’s future.

For not the first time, there have been calls recently from academics and assorted others to have at least part of Langara used for affordable housing. The park board’s answer was an emphatic no and commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky indicated his ABC party colleagues on Vancouver city council feel the same way.

From L-R: Nick Taylor, Adam Hadwin, Adam Svensson - Images Courtesy Golf Canada/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The PGA TOUR wraps up its regular season at this week’s Wyndham Championship with many players scrambling to play their way into the top 70 and qualify for the lucrative FedEx Cup playoffs.

The British Columbia trio of Nick Taylor, Adam Svensson and Adam Hadwin have no such worries. All three are well inside the top 70.

Taylor, who is 12th on the FedEx Cup points list, is taking his second straight week off and not playing the Wyndham Championship. Hadwin and Svensson are both in the Wyndham field.

BC's Megan Osland - Image Credit Bernard Brault/Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Kelowna’s Megan Osland not only had to beat her opponents, she had to beat the heat to win the Oscar Williams Classic on the Women’s All Pro Tour. The 72-hole event was held in Anna, Tex., during what has been an epic heat wave in parts of the southern U.S.

“I would say most of the days it was between 40 and 45 degrees Celsius, plus the humidity,” Osland said over the phone. “I had a 7 a.m. tee time one day, so I got to the course just before 6 a,m. and I got out of the car and I just started sweating. At 6 a.m.! It was crazy. The heat was definitely a battle in itself.”

Delta, BC's Mary Parsons (3rd From Left) Was Part Of The Bronze Medal Winning Team From Canada In The Mixed Team Golf Event At The Peru Pan American Games. L-R: Austin Connelly, Brigitte Thibault, Parsons, Joey Savoie - Image Credit: David Jackson/ COC

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Delta’s Mary Parsons won a medal Sunday and came close to earning a second one at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. Parsons, Brigitte Thibault of Rosemere, Que., Joey Savoie of La Prairie, Que., and Austin Connelly of Lake Doucette, N.S., combined to win the bronze medal in the mixed team event on Sunday.

The Canadians finished with a team score of 552, just three shots behind the silver medalists from Paraguay. The United States took the gold medal with a team score of 544. “I think all four of us grinded out every shot to kind of get to where we are,” Parsons said. “We knew coming down the stretch we had to keep pushing because it wasn’t going to be over until it’s over.”

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

It has been a tough few years for Bald Eagle Golf Club, the Point Roberts layout that was forced to close during the Covid pandemic, then re-opened in 2022 only to close again for the 2023 season.

It is now scheduled to re-open sometime early this summer with a new, but familiar name and a new owner. The course is returning to its former name, Point Roberts Golf & Country Club, and has targeted June 15 as a re-opening date, although there is a good chance it could be a week or two after that.

Yeji Kwon misses cut at LPGA Q-school; Henry Lee advances to final stage of Asian Tour Q-school; Surrey council to debate Peace Portal redevelopment in New Year

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

(December 9, 2024) - The second stage of PGA TOUR Q-school wrapped up last week and its long list of casualties included British Columbians Stuart Macdonald of Vancouver, Chris Crisologo of Richmond and A.J. Ewart of Coquitlam.

For them and so many others, PGA TOUR regular Joel Dahmen had some words of encouragement he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “For every player who didn’t get thru 2nd stage this year, keep your head up,” Dahmen said in his post. “I never got through myself. Keep believing.”

BC's Lawren Rowe - Photo Credit Chuck Russell/Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Lawren Rowe of Squamish closed with the low round of the day, a five-under 67, and the former University of Victoria standout tied for seventh at the PGA Tour Americas’ debut event, the Bupa Championship at Tulum in Mexico.

The PGA Riviera Maya course played tough all week. The 36-hole cut was five-over par and only 11 players finished the event under par. Rowe was one of those 11 as he completed the tournament at one-under par.

Clay Feagler of The Woodlands, Texas won the event on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff after finishing at four-under par.

Sagebrush Golf Club In Quilchena, BC - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

If all goes as planned, the Sagebrush experience will cost a little less this season and taste much better.

The highly regarded Merritt-area layout is moving to a more traditional fee green-fee structure for the 2024 season and new general manager Chris Hood is also focused on upping Sagebrush’s food and beverage game.

“We did a survey at the end of last year of our players and one of things that came back from people is they wanted to see more simplified rate structure more in line with what other courses do,” Hood, a veteran of the B.C. golf industry, said in an interview.

Victoria, BC's Jeevan Sihota - Image Credit: Bernard Brault/Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The Latin American portion of the PGA Tour Americas circuit concludes at this week’s Inter Rapidisimo Golf Championship in Bogota, Colombia, where Victoria’s Jeevan Sihota must make the cut to secure his playing privileges for the tour’s North American swing.

Sihota enters the tournament ranked 61st on the Fortinet Cup points list. The top 60 players after this week’s event will be exempt for the nine Canadian events and one U.S. tournament on the North American swing that begins next month in Victoria.

SFU Red Leafs Men's Golf Team - Image Courtesy SFU/Sonoma State Athletics

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The solid play of senior Aidan Goodfellow (Centre In Team Photo Shown) and a pair of clutch 18th-hole birdies by Michael Crisologo and Jordan Bean helped the Simon Fraser University men’s golf team earn a spot in the NCAA Division II national championship tourney for the first time since 2015.

The Red Leafs tied for fourth at the West/South Central regional tourney in Rohnert Park, Calif., where the top five teams earned spots in the national championship tourney.

It was a nail-biter of a final round as only seven strokes separated the top nine teams.

Merritt, BC's Roger Sloan - Image Credit: Bernard Brault /Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

When the harsh reality of losing his PGA TOUR card hit home, Roger Sloan acknowledges going through a period of mourning of sorts.

“When we lost our card, it got really dark there for several weeks,” Sloan said in a telephone interview from his Houston-area home. “You don’t know when you are going to get back out there. Your friends are out there, you hang out with a bunch of guys out there and it kind of just gets ripped from you.

“I still have dreams of winning on the PGA TOUR and it’s hard to win on the PGA TOUR when you are on the Korn Ferry Tour. So some dreams get ripped from you and that tugs at your heart a little bit. It does get dark. There is a period of time where you just have to let it sink in a little bit, know that it is going to pass and look forward to what opportunities you have right now.”

Merritt's Roger Sloan Is The Lone BCer In This Week's Season-Opener On The PGA TOUR - BC Golf File Photo

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

One season ends and another begins. There really is no off-season anymore on the PGA TOUR, which tees off its 2020-21 season with this week’s Safeway Open in Napa, Calif.

It is the first of a record 50 tournaments, including six majors, scheduled over the next year in what the PGA TOUR has dubbed a ‘super season.’

The U.S. Open and Masters, both postponed due to COVID-19, will be played twice over the next year.

BC's Roger Sloan Has His Work Cut Out For Him This Week - Image Credit Marcus Oleniuk/Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Merritt’s Roger Sloan saved his exempt status on the PGA TOUR with a clutch finish at last summer’s season-ending Wyndham Championship. 

Sloan needs an even bigger finish this week as he returns to the Wyndham, where he lost in a six-man playoff and tied for second last year. That finish moved him from 131st on the points list to 92nd, got him into the playoffs and secured his exempt status for this past season.

Sloan enters this week’s event in Greensboro, N.C., in even more desperate straits than he was a year ago.

BC's Roger Sloan Won The Korn Ferry Tour's Utah Championship - Golf Canada Photo/Bernard Brault

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Merritt’s Roger Sloan took a huge step toward regaining his PGA TOUR playing privileges by winning the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship in dramatic fashion. Sloan birdied three of his last four holes — including his final two — to win by one shot.

The victory, which came nine years after his first Korn Ferry Tour win in Nova Scotia, moved Sloan from 92nd to 27th on the tour’s points list. Only two regular-season events remain and if Sloan can stay inside the top 30, he will earn PGA TOUR playing privileges for the 2024 season.