The Richmond Olympic Oval Will Be The Site Of International Olympic Day Celebrations On Monday, June 15th And Golf Is Playing A Major Role - Image Courtesy Richmond Olympic Oval

by Alfie Lau, Inside Golf

Monday, June 15 looks like any other Monday, the beginning of another work week and the last spring Monday of 2015.

But look a little deeper and you may discover it’s the biggest day in British Columbia golf.

Let’s start with an event that’s not just about golf, but is important nevertheless. Golf will return to the Olympics in Rio in 2016 and International Olympic Day will be celebrated from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Richmond Olympic Oval, with British Columbia Golf and CN Future Links playing a big part in this event.

Surprisingly, Despite Turning Down Fox TV Sports Request For An Interview, Tiger Woods Did Answer Some Questions For The Rest Of The Media After Shooting Another Round In The 80's - Image Credit Bryan Outram

by Alfie Lau

The epitaph has been written several times this year already.

It came after an 82 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the subsequent missed cut. It came a week later when after only 11 holes, a WD and a hurried rush to the parking lot, where an impromptu press conference was held only because his car was blocked by camera stands and reporters.

It came two weeks ago when he shot 85 at The Memorial in the third round, a score not even a 14-handicapper would take.

And now, we come here to praise and to bury the great golf career that spawned 14 Major titles for Tiger Woods.

 Colin Montgomerie and Scott McCarron Went toe-to-toe for most of the final round plus three playoff holes. Here are a few highlights... 

Dan McCarthy of Syracuse, New York, wrapped up Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada Player of the Year honours, finishing with $157,843 in earnings on the season to top the Order of Merit and lead five players who earned status on the Web.com Tour for 2017.

McCarthy, 31, who produced a unprecedented season of four wins and the all-time record for single-season earnings, will be fully exempt on the 2017 Web.com Tour after finishing $73,768 ahead of No. 2 Brock Mackenzie of Yakima, Washington. Joining McCarthy and Mackenzie in The Five were No. 3 Taylor Moore of Richmond Hill, Ontario, No. 4 Aaron Wise of Lake Elsinore, California and No. 5 Adam Cornelson of Langley, B.C.

The Five will graduate to the Web.com Tour in 2017 and look to follow in the footsteps of at least nine PGA TOUR-era Mackenzie Tour alumni who will have PGA TOUR status for the 2016-17 season, including 2013-15 Order of Merit winners Mackenzie Hughes, Joel Dahmen and J.J. Spaun.

The Famous 16th Hole Stadium At TPC Scottsdale Is A Show Unto Itself At The Waste Management Phoenix Open - Image Courtesy YouTube

By Alfie Lau

Security officials said the line-up started at 1 a.m. Saturday. And since the gates to the TPC Scottsdale for the third round of the 2020 Waste Management Open wouldn’t open until 7 a.m., that meant six hours of hearty celebration, anticipation and planning for when the Running of the Phoenicians to the coveted seats at the 16th hole would commence.

Veterans know the best route is through the underpass, behind the 18th green and then a quick left so you go down the right side of the 10th fairway. Just past the 10th green, another 50 yards away, is the first entrance into the backside of 16. Run another 150 yards and you get to the entrance for seats closer to the tee box.

2011 Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers (L) Of The Green Bay Packers And Playing Partner Ho Sung 'The Fisherman' Choi Pose For Photos At The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am - All Images Credit Alfie Lau

By Alfie Lau

The movers and shakers and the superstars of the PGA TOUR were all at Monterey Peninsula Country Club Thursday morning.

There’s Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth, playing with their normal amateurs Wayne Gretzky and Jake Owen. Johnson and Spieth would each shoot (-5) and just two strokes back, both are definite contenders to win again at Pebble.

You’ve got Miss America 2015 Kira Kazantsev, comedians Bill Murray, Larry the Cable Guy and Ray Romano, and a pretty saucy U.S. Ryder Cup team of Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson, with Reed shooting (-3) and Mickelson (-6).

Mickelson made history when he discovered that he hit every fairway and to his knowledge, that’s the first time in 27 years that he has accomplished this feat. The PGA TOUR would later correct that and say it was the first time since 1998 – 21 years – that Mickelson had hit every fairway during his round.

by Alfie Lau

Five years after he burst onto the national golf scene, Nick Taylor was still worrying about one thing: laundry.

Taylor won the 2014 Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi on Sunday.

His first PGA TOUR victory comes with a $720,000 first-place cheque, a two-year exemption on the PGA TOUR and exemptions into the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits next August and the Players Championship at Sawgrass next May.

(But not The Masters in April, because there was a competing WGC event in China last week).

By THE PGA OF CANADA

The PGA of Canada is proud to announce The Lincoln Motor Company has renewed its partnership with the PGA of Canada as presenting sponsor of the RBC PGA Scramble.

Collin Morikawa - Screen Capture/PGA TOUR

The word unprecedented speaks to our collective human experience in describing 2020. Lives and careers were uncertain. But as we navigated the new reality, golf was well-positioned to lead. Golf thrived in the crisis and with a makeshift easel of tournaments, the world’s best players painted impressively.

Justin Ray, 15th Club for PGATOUR.com, lists the best PGA TOUR statistics of 2020.

Click here to read the full story...

Via Press Release

LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. (Feb. 17, 2021) – The USGA announced today that Mike Whan will join the organization this summer as CEO, and will become the eighth top executive in USGA history.

Last month, Whan announced his intention to step down as LPGA Commissioner in 2021, after his organization completes a search for the next Commissioner. His transition follows an impressive 11 years at the helm of the LPGA, during which the organization experienced historic growth in virtually every aspect of the business.

LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. AND ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND (Sept. 18, 2018) - A global online questionnaire and data-gathering exercise on distance in golf has been launched by the USGA and The R&A today as part of the Distance Insights project.

The detailed questionnaire is open to all interested participants in golf until Oct. 31, 2018 and is available in 10 languages. Administered independently by Sports Marketing Surveys Inc., it can be accessed at both usga.org/distanceinsights and at randa.org/distanceinsights.

by Bryan Outram

With an amateur career that rivals the best to ever play the game in not only B.C. or Western Canada but all of the country - (with all due respect to Doug Roxburgh) - Abbostford, British Columbia's Nick Taylor is beginning to show the same consistent skills as a young professional that had him ranked as the number one amateur in the world for a 20 week span in 2009.

Early Storylines and a Complete Odds Evaluation...

Samantha Richdale gained 24 spots in the world rankings after finishing in a tie for 45th at the LPGA Tour’s Yokohama Classic. It was her best LPGA result of the season in three tournaments. The result helped her moved up to No. 3 in the Canadian rankings.

Augusta James, who lost a spot in the Canadian rankings to Richdale, gained three spots in the world rankings after finishing in a tie for 11th at the Symetra Tour’s Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Women’s Health Classic in South Carolina. It was her fourth Top-15 result this season in five starts.

Jennifer Kirby gained 79 spots in the world rankings after finishing in a tie for 7th in South Carolina. Kirby’s best career finish on the development tour enabled the former Golf Canada National Team member to move up to No. 12 in the Canadian rankings.

Last Year's First Round Leader Of The Freedom 55 Financial Open, Langley's Thomas Hay, Is Looking To Carry That Lead A Little Further This Year - Image Courtesy Golf Canada

Langley Resident One Of A Number Of B.C. Pros To Tee It Up In Season-Opener At Point Grey

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

A 2015 season that started with considerable promise quickly turned sour for Langley’s Thomas Hay, who is confident that this year will be different.

At last year’s season-opening event on the Mackenzie Tour--PGA Tour Canada circuit, Hay grabbed the first-round lead with a bogey-free 66 at Vancouver’s Point Grey Golf & Country Club.

Surrey's Adam Svensson Is Just Two Back In The Web.com Tour's Winco Foods Portland Open After An Opening Round 64

For Immediate Release

North Plains, Ore. – Rookie Curtis Thompson fired a course-record, 9-under 62 Thursday and grabbed the first-round lead at the WinCo Foods Portland Open, the final event on the Web.com Tour’s regular season schedule.

Thompson, older brother to LPGA star Lexi, chalked up nine birdies in a flawless trip around the Witch Hollow course at Pumpkin Ridge in suburban Portland to take a two-shot lead over Canada’s Adam Svensson, who's bogey-free round included 7 birdies.

Kelowna's Samantha Richdale Is One Of Three British Columbians To Receive An Exemption Into The CP Canadian Women's Open Next Week - Image Courtesy Golf Canada

via press release

Coquitlam, B.C. (Golf Canada) – Golf Canada and Canadian Pacific (CP) are pleased to announce the names of 14 players who have received exemptions into the 2015 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, August 17 – 23, 2015 at The Vancouver Golf Club.

Headlining the list of exemptions is previously confirmed 17-year old Team Canada Young Pro Squad member Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ontario who earned her exemption by way of winning the 2015 PGA of Canada Women’s Championship, the third event on the 2015 Canadian Women’s Tour.

Michael Gligic Was One Of Three Canadians To Earn Guaranteed Starts For The Web.com Tour Regular Season - Image Credit Claus Anderson/PGA TOUR Canada

With files from PGATOUR.com

The final round of Final Stage of the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament wrapped up Sunday afternoon at Whirlwind Golf Club (The Cattail and Devil’s Claw), outside Phoenix, Arizona, with recent University of Virginia graduate Danny Walker capturing medalist honors with a 27-under total for 72 holes.

Along with Walker, finishers from second through to 40th place and ties received guaranteed starts to kick off the 2019 Web.com Tour season, with Canadians Brad Fritsch, Michael Gligic and Albin Choi in that mix. Vancouver's Sean Harlingten was also in the field and earned conditional status finishing T74 with a very respectable 14-under par total, just 4 shots out of the top 40.

Kelowna's Samantha Richdale Earned Conditional Status On The LPGA Tour For 2016 - Image Courtesy Golf Canada

courtesy Golf Canada

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Quebec’s Maude-Aimée LeBlanc won with panache, earning her LPGA Tour card for 2016 at the end of the five qualifying rounds in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The Sherbrooke, Que., native recorded a score of 71, 1-under par in the final round Sunday. Her cumulative record of 350 (-10) saw her finish tied for fourth, a single-stroke be enjoying her second year with full status on the LPGA Tour, having previous qualified in 2011.

Merritt, BC's Roger Sloan, Seen Here Getting Set To Tee Off At Bear Mountain GC In Victoria, Finished 4th In The Web.com Tour's Panama Championship - Image Credit Alfie Lau/British Columbia Golf

Courtesy Golf Canada

PANAMA CITY, Panama – The Canadian trio of Roger Sloan, Ryan Yip and Adam Svensson all finished inside the top 10 on Sunday at Web.com Tour’s Panama Championship.

Sloan, from Merritt B.C., paced the Canadians with a final-round 66 to climb into sole possession of 4th place at 4-under par for the tournament. The finish marks his first top-10 finish early into the 2018 season (he collected four in 2017).