Carrigan Uses His Length To Tame Nanaimo And Grab Big First-Round Lead At B.C. Mid-Amateur Championship

Kevin Carrigan Tees Off On The 17th En Route To His Opening Round, Tournament Leading 68 At Nanaimo GC In The BC Golf Men's Mid-Amateur/Mid-Master Championship - Image Credit Brad Ziemer

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

NANAIMO -- Kevin Carrigan is apparently a quick study. Of course, he had a very knowledgeable instructor. A couple weeks ago, Carrigan headed up Island from his Victoria home to play a couple of rounds at Nanaimo Golf Club, the site of this week’s B.C. Mid-Amateur & Mid-Master Championships.

He asked Sandy Harper, the accomplished longtime Nanaimo member, to play with him. “Any time you can get a look at a golf course before you come out it is invaluable, right, and needless to say there’s not a guy out here who knows more about this place than Sandy does,” Carrigan said after shooting a four-under 68 to grab a five-shot lead after the first round of the Mid-Amateur.

The big-hitting Carrigan, a two-time Canadian Mid-Amateur champion, birdied all four of Nanaimo’s par 5s and holed some timely putts. “The pins were in just diabolical spots,’ Carrigan said. “I had a couple that just rammed into the hole and otherwise I was three-putting for sure. Even the one bogey I had I made a 20-footer that broke three feet.”

The Mid-Amateur is open to players 25 and over. The Mid-Master, for players 40 and over, is being played at the same time. The aforementioned Harper had a share of the Mid-Master lead after opening with a one-over 73 on Tuesday.

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The 59-year-old Harper, who won the 2012 B.C. Senior Men’s Championship at Nanaimo, wasn’t taking any credit for Carrigan’s solid round on Tuesday. “We played a couple of rounds together,” Harper said.

“When he outdrives me by 60 yards it’s hard to tell him what lines to take. You can certainly tell him what side of the fairway is better and that kind of stuff. Truly, when Kevin is on his game, he is in a different class than the rest of this field. It is just different. He hits it like a Tour player and he’s a great guy to play with, too.”

image credit brad ziemer - Nanaimo's Own Sandy Harper Fired A One-Over Par 73 To Start The Mid-Am/Mid-Master Championship

Harper said he’d be surprised if Carrigan does not go on to win what would be his second B.C. Mid-Amateur title. “I would think so,” Harper said. “I said to him when we played together, the course sets up so well for him because he hits it long and high and the par 5s are par 4s for him, whereas I am laying up on all of them.”

Harper normally hits a lot of fairways and greens, but had to do a considerable amount of scrambling to post his one-over 73. “I had maybe four or five one-putts,” Harper said. “I’m totally happy with my round. I was kind of scrappy today, so it was pretty good.”

Harper has a share of the Mid-Master lead with Gudmund Lindjberg of Pitt Meadows and Greg Bismeyer of Mission. Victoria’s Craig Doell is just one shot back after a two-over 74.

Like many in the field, Doell had difficulty reading the subtle breaks on Nanaimo’s greens. “The greens definitely got me today,” Doell said. “I think I had 35 putts. They are very challenging greens. Any putt from any range is in jeopardy of missing, basically.”

Josh Coletti of Nelson, Brent Wilson of Cobble Hill, Cameron MacKenzie of Vancouver and Scott Kral of Victoria also shot 73s and are part of a seven-way tie for second in the Mid-Amateur competition.
Defending Mid-Amateur champion Jordan Belton of Surrey had a roller-coaster opening round. Belton had six birdies, but several ‘others’ and shot a 77.