Ziemer's B.C. Golf Notes: Roxburgh Set To Defend B.C. Senior Title; Wheeldon Second In Thunder Bay; Yu Runner-up At PNGA Amateur; Open Season For Hadwin
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- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2018-07-16
BC Golf Legend Doug Roxburgh Goes For His Fourth B.C. Senior Men's Title This Week At Big Sky Golf Club. (File Image)
By BRAD ZIEMER, British Columbia Golf
Doug Roxburgh is looking for another senior moment. Fresh off his 52nd straight B.C. Amateur Championship appearance, where he made the cut for the 50th time, Roxburgh this week defends hisB.C. Senior Men’s Championship title at Big Sky Golf Club in Pemberton. A huge field of 168 players will play in the 54-hole event that begins Tuesday.
“It is going to be a fun week,” Roxburgh said. “I just like playing competitions. Big Sky is a great course, you have to hit every club in the bag and it will be a good challenge.”
Roxburgh, a 13-time winner of the B.C. Amateur, won his third B.C. Seniors title last summer at Myrtle Point Golf Course in Powell River. His first two B.C. Senior wins came in 2013 at Eagle Point in Kamloops and 2014 at Christina Lake Golf Course.
“It is just a really good design,” Roxburgh said of Big Sky. “It’s a good routing with some majestic views. You tee off on the first hole and you are looking right at Mount Currie. It’s a good course.” The 66-year-old Roxburgh finished tied for 27th at last week’s B.C. Amateur Championship at Rivershore Golf Linksin Kamloops, where he fired rounds of 73, 74, 75 and 72.
WHEELS UP
Former B.C. Junior Boys champion Riley Wheeldon of Comox closed with an eight-under par 64 and finished solo second at the Staal Foundation Open in Thunder Bay, Ont., on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada circuit.
Wheeldon birdied the 18th hole to move to 21-under par and into a tie for the lead with Ben Griffin of Chapel Hill, N.C.. But Griffin, who was playing behind Wheeldon, also birdied 18 to finish at 22-under. Wheeldon earned $21,600 and moved to ninth from 44th on the Mackenzie Tour money list.
He also earned an additional $2,500 bonus from Freedom 55 Financial for being the low Canadian. Wheeldon started the season with a tie for 10th place at the Freedom 55 Financial Open at Point Grey Golf Club in Vancouver.
Two other British Columbians finished inside the top 20 in Thunder Bay. Jared du Toit of Kimberleytied for 15th place at 15-under par, while Ryan Williams of Vancouver tied for 20th at 14-under. Jake Duvall, the 2017 B.C. Amateur champion from Victoria, tied for 38th at 10-under, while 2011 B.C. Amateur champion Dave Rose of West Vancouver was 64th at one-under.
GOOD ON YU
Vancouver’s Trevor Yu made a nice run at the PNGA Men’s Amateur Championshipat the Home Course in DuPont, Wash. Yu, who is heading into his senior year at Oregon State University, made it all the way to the 36-hole championship match, where he was defeated 2-up by Mitchell Baldridge of Edgewood, Wash.
OPEN SEASON
Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin will play in his second Open Championship at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland this week. Hadwin missed the cut in his Open Championship debut last summer at Royal Birkdale Golf Course.
Fellow Abbotsford product Nick Taylor tied for 34th at the PGA TOUR’s John Deere Classic. Taylor will compete in this week’s Barbasol Championship in Nicholasville, Ky.
HEADING SOUTH
Next up for new B.C. Amateur Championship winner Chris Crisologo is the 52nd annual Pacific Coast Amateur at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Crisologo and Victoriaresidents Nolan Thoroughgood and Lawren Rowe will compete for British Columbia in the Morse Cupteam competition that is part of the Pacific Coast Amateur.
The tournament runs July 24-27. Abbotsford’s James Lepp is the only British Columbian to have won the event. Lepp captured the title when the tournament was held at Capilano Golf & Country Club in West Vancouver in 2003.
NAILED IT
James Presnail and Mark Kitts of Shadow Ridge Golf Club won the PGA of B.C. Pro-Assistant Championship at Black Mountain Golf Club in Kelowna. Kitts sunk a 15-foot putt for birdie on the first playoff hole to beat the team of Matt Palsenbarg and John Shin from the Northview Golf Academy in Surrey.
Both teams had finished the 36-hole event at 21-under par. Presnail and Kitts earned $2,500 for the win.
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT
New B.C. Junior Boys champion Ilirian Zalli of Vancouver is competing at this week’s 71st U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. The tournament begins with two rounds of stroke play. Competitors will play a round on each of Baltusrol’s Upper and Lower courses. The top 64 players will advance to match play on the Upper Course.
The 16-year-old Zalli, who won the recent B.C. Junior Boys Championship held at Kamloops Golf & Country Club by four shots, is one of five Canadians in the 156-player field.
PLAYING POPPY
Surrey’s Coco Pei has a spot in this week’s 70th playing of the U.S. Junior Girls Championship at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif. Like the Junior Amateur field, the Junior Girls competitors will play two rounds of stroke play followed by match play.
SEASON’S BEST
West Vancouver’s Seann Harlingten had his best finish of the season on the Web.com Tour, tying for 24th place at the Utah Championship. Harlingten closed with a five-under 66 to finish at 15-under par. Merritt’s Roger Sloan tied for 49th at 11-under.
ACED BY SON
My former Vancouver Sun colleague and good friend Iain MacIntyre is something of a golf nut. MacIntyre, who now writes for Sportsnet, figures he has logged more than 2,000 rounds of golf and has never had a hole-in-one. This past Thursday, MacIntyre took his 16-year-old son Tom, who had never played a full round of golf, to Loomis Trail Golf Course near Blaine, Wash. You know where this is going, right?
Yes, Tom aced the fifth hole from 118 yards over water to a tight front pin. “He now leads me 1-0,” MacIntyre tweeted.
CHIP SHOTS
West Vancouver’s Kevin Spooner closed with a nine-under 63 at Chilliwack Golf Club and won the Vancouver Golf Tour’s Chilliwack Open. Spooner finished the 36-hole event at 14-under par, six shots better than runner-up Brad Clapp of Chilliwack. Spooner earned $2,000. . .Lauren Kim of Surrey tied for first place in the girls’ 11-12 age category at the Junior World Golf Championships near San Diego. Kim finished the 54-hole event at five-under par.