Ziemer's B.C. Golf Notes: Macdonald on the bubble at final PGA Tour Canada event; Delta resident Yi Cao a winner in Minnesota; John, Kong advance at LPGA Tour Q-school; Canadian Senior Men’s Championships set for Big Sky
Vancouver BC's Stuart Macdonald - Image Credit Bernard Brault/Golf Canada
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald will be on the bubble when the PGA Tour Canada circuit completes its season at this week’s Fortinet Cup Championship in Calgary.
Macdonald missed the cut at last week’s final full-field event, the CRMC Championship, in Brainerd, Minn. In doing so, he dropped from fourth to fifth on the Fortinent Cup points race.
The top five on the list after this week’s event at Country Hills Golf Club in Calgary will earn status on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour. Macdonald must hold his position or improve it in order to earn one of those five coveted cards.
Only the top 60 players on the points list qualified to play in Calgary. Two other British Columbians are in the field. Kimberley’s Jared du Toit, who also missed the cut in Minnesota, is 31st on the points list. Victoria’s Lawren Rowe, who tied for 34th last week, enters the Calgary event 51st on the points list.
The top five is not the only target this week. Players finishing sixth through 25th on the points list get to skip the first stage of PGA TOUR qualifying school this fall. The top five get a final pass to the final stage of Q-school.
Those missing the top 60 suffered a double-whammy of sorts. Not only do they not get to compete in the season-ending Calgary event, they have no status for next year on the new PGA Tour Americas. That tour is a merger of the PGA Tour Canada and Latinoamerica circuits and players finishing inside the top 60 will be exempt through the Latin America portion of the 2024 PGA Tour Americas circuit.
PAIN IN THE NECK: China’s Yi Cao, who has called Delta home in recent years, won the Minnesota event by eight shots. That is the largest winning margin this season on PGA Tour Canada. He finished at 22-under par and moved to ninth from 55th on the points list. Cao’s dominating performance followed three straight missed cuts and he won despite a sore neck that bothered him all week. “There’s a lot of things going through my head the last couple weeks,” Cao said. “I just love golf. I don’t want to do anything else except play golf. I know I can play. I know I can compete.”
SCHOOL DAYS: Vancouver’s Leah John passed the first test, but has no plans to write the final exam. The two-time B.C. Women’s Amateur champion sailed through the first stage of last week’s LPGA/Epson Tour qualifying school. John tied for 19th in a field of 320 players in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where the top 95 and ties advanced to second stage. John, an amateur who is in her senior year at the University of Nevada, plans to compete at second stage in mid-October. But if she survives stage 2 of Q-school, she won’t be going to the third and final stage.
“If you qualify for stage 3 you have to declare yourself a professional to go play in it,” John said. “I want to finish school, so if I were to make it through stage 2 I would keep my amateur status and not go to finals.” The ideal scenario for John would be to succeed at stage 2, which would give her some status on the 2024 Epson Tour that she could use after graduating next spring. John fired rounds of 68, 70, 71 and 72 at Q-school to finish at seven-under par. “I was really going down there for experience, so it was sort of a free spin,” John said. “I signed up the day registration closed. I just kind of went there and I wanted to see what it was like. I guess having no pressure out there helped me perform. Qualifying for stage 2 is a huge bonus.”
STEADY PLAY: Another Vancouver amateur, Tiffany Kong, also made it through first stage last week. Kong finished tied with John at seven-under par and tied for 19th overall. Kong graduated this past spring from Princeton University. She played steady golf at Q-school and did not have a bogey in her first two rounds. Stage 2 of Q school goes Oct. 17-20 in Venice, Fla. The final stage of Q-school will be played Nov. 30-Dec. 5 in Mobile, Ala.
ACROSS THE POND: Several British Columbia pros are heading to Europe to compete in the first stage of the DP World Tour qualifying school. Coquitlam’s Henry Lee is competing at a first stage site Sept. 13-16 in Ebreichsdorf, Austria. Vancouver’s Stephen Thomas, Jared du Toit of Kimberley and Kaleb Gorbahn of Smithers are scheduled to play Sept. 19-22 in Bogogno, Italy. Duncan’s Callum Davison is competing Sept. 26-29 at a site in Redding, Denmark. Vancouver’s Scott Kerr and Aidan Goodfellow of Parksville are scheduled to play Oct. 3-6 at a site in Moliets, France. The second stage of the DP World Q-school will be played Nov. 2-5 at four sites in Spain, while the Q-school finals go Nov.10-15 in Tarragona, Spain.
SENIOR MOMENT: Vancouver’s Doug Roxburgh will be one of seven past champions in the field for this week’s Canadian Men’s Senior Championship at Big Sky Golf Club in Pemberton. Roxburgh, the 13-time B.C. Amateur and four-time Canadian Amateur Championship winner, won the title in 2014 when the event was played at Capilano Golf & Country Club in West Vancouver.
A 36-hole Inter-Provincial team competition will be held during the first 36 holes of the tournament. B.C. Senior Men’s champion Andrew Pinette of Surrey, Mike Legg of Prince George and Scott Humphreys of Kelowna will represent British Columbia.
TITLE DEFENCE: Defending champion Shelly Stouffer of Nanoose Bay finished fourth at the Canadian Women’s Senior Championship in Mill Bay, P.E.I. Stouffer completed the 54-hole event at Mill Bay Golf Resort at 17-over par, six shots behind winner Mary-Ann Hayward of St. Thomas, Ont. Jackie Little of Procter, B.C., finished sixth and fourth overall in the Super Senior category for players aged 60 and over. Stouffer defends her U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship Sept. 30-Oct. 5 at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
WHISTLER WINNER: Khan Lee of Meadow Gardens Golf Course in Pitt Meadows fired rounds of 68 and 67 to win the Vancouver Golf Tour’s Whistler Open at Nicklaus North Golf Course. Khan’s 36-hole total of seven-under par was one shot better than Steven Lucuyer of Seymour Creek Golf Centre in North Vancouver. Khan earned $2,000 for the win. James Allenby of Langley Golf Centre and Kevin Stinson of Cheam Mountain Golf Course tied for third at four-under par.
NEW ASSISTANT: New Brunswick native Krysta Schaus, a former PGA of Canada Apprentice Professional of the Year award winner, has been named a full-time assistant coach with the men’s and women’s golf teams at Simon Fraser University. Schaus played on the women’s golf team at NCAA Division II Erskine College in South Carolina and later served as an assistant golf coach at Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina while earning a Master of Business Administration degree. She earned the Moe Norman Apprentice Professional of the Year award in 2020 while working as an assistant pro at Toronto Golf Club. Schaus replaces Kat Kennedy, who recently stepped down as assistant golf coach at Simon Fraser to pursue other opportunities.