BC Golf News and Canadians On Tour

If you are going to hack your way down the 18th fairway, four-putt the final green and expect to win $1,008,000 on the PGA TOUR it helps if you have a commanding lead before playing that last hole. Fortunately for David Toms that’s exactly what he had because he looked like a weekend duffer and still won the inaugual Wachovia Championship at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. on Sunday, May 11 (70-69-66-73--278) by two shots. Tied for second at 8-under pars were Vijay Singh, Brent Geiberger and Robert Gamez while Nick Price, newest inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, and Kirk Triplett T5 at 7-under. Masters Champion Mike Weir, Bright’s Cove, ON, in his first appearance since the Augusta triumph, missed a six foot birdie putt at the last hole and (72-70-73-69--284) T18, adding $78,400 to his season total of $3,365,025, which is second best on TOUR. Stephen Ames, Calgary, AB (69-75-74-70--288) T34 and won $28,280 and Ian Leggatt, Cambridge, ON (71-74-72-76--293) T62 for $11,984. Glen Hnatiuk, Selkkirk, MB (71-79) was cut.

Hale Irwin has won 57 tournaments as a PGA TOUR member, 37 of those since joining the senior Champions Tour. Sunday, winning for the first time this season in the inaugural Kinko's Classic of Austin, Irwin may have discovered a new way to record a victory – by getting angry with himself. He cuffed the ball around during a four-hole lapse on the front nine, including 3-putting from six inches on #6. He whiffed a backhanded attempt, then stubbed the ball a couple of inches before finally dropping his putt and falling from a tie for the lead to four shots back. But three birdies on his final five holes took him to (69-66-73--208) 8-under par and into a playoff with Tom Watson (68-69-73--208) which he won with a birdie on the second extra hole. The win earned Irwin $240,00 and he leads the 2003 Champions Tour money list with $824,155. It was not a particularly satisfying weekend for Kelowna, BC's Dave Barr, who counted 11 bogeys and only seven birdies in 54 holes, ending up T60 at (75-74-71--220) 4-over and receiving $6,560 ($419,467). It was his worst showing of the season and the second time he's finished over par in 10 tournaments.

For the 13th time in her career Rosie Jones has come up a winner, this time capturing the Asahi Ryokuken International Championship at the Mount Vintage Plantation Golf Club in North Augusta, S.C. and collecting $195,000, her biggest payday in golf. Jones was (66-68-69-70--273) 15-under par and 3-strokes ahead of Wendy Ward, five ahead of Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, Lorena Ochoa and Laura Diaz. Reigning Canadians Women’s Open champion Meg Mallon finished strongly (71-74-74-67--286) to T30 while two shots back Lorie Kane, Charlottetown, PEI had the weekend bogey blues and could only (71-69-73-75--288) T38 while earning $6,757. Dawn Coe-Jones, Lake Cowichan, BC (71-76-72-71--290) T48 for $4,437 and Nancy Harvey, Swift Current, SK (73-74-83-72--302) was alone at 77 and came away with $2,401. Missing the cut were Penticton resident A.J. Eathorne of Calgary, AB (72-76), Angela Buzminski, Oshawa, ON (75-75) and Gail Graham, Kelowna, BC (77-79).

Meanwhile, at the Nichirei Cup Championship at Toykyo Yomiuri Country Club Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam had her wishes granted, winning for the second time in six events and capturing a tournament before she faces off against the men of the PGA TOUR in next week’s Colonial. Sorenstam, a 13-time winner last season, led from start to finish and posted a (66-70-71-68--275) 13-under par 9-shot triumph In front of five Japanese players who tied for second.

CANADIAN PRO TOUR
For a 23-year-old Tour rookie from Miami, FL who barely got his Tour card two months ago, Mothers’ Day will long be remembered as the day Erik Compton fired a phenomenal 8-under par 63 to come from behind and win the Canadian Tour’s Michelin Guadalajara Classic in Mexico and earn a cheque for $24,000. Compton started four shots off the pace but his hot round moved him to (67-71-69-63--270) 14-under par and 4-strokes in front of David Hearn of Brantford, ON, who had a hot closing round himself, (70-67-73-64--274) and Mexico’s Antonio Queretaro of Maldonado (67-71-67-69--274), each collecting $11,700. Also posting a final 8-under 63 was Conrad Ray of Hilton Head, SC who moved into a fourth place tie with Derek Gillespie of Oshawa, ON (68-72-69-66--275), Toronto’s Cory Jones (70-69-67-69--275) and Alex Quiroz of Mexico, worth $5,887.50. each. Naniamo, BC’s Darren Griff started and finished with 5-under par rounds and T17 (67-72-74-67--280) to earn $2,250.

It is interesting to note that Compton experienced a heart transplant at the age of 12 and later became a 2nd Team All-American at University of Georgia in 2001. The Canadian Tour now moves south for this week’s Michelin Ixtapa Classic.

FUTURES TOUR
Catherine Cartwright of Florida drained an 18 foot putt for birdie on the 18th hole to force a playoff than sank a 6-foot birdie putt at the same hole in the playoff to gain her first professional victory in the Isleta Casino & Resort FUTURES Golf Classic in Albuquerque, NM. The win was worth $13,300. Cartwright’s game got stronger through each round and she finished regulation at (74-72-67--213) 3-under par while Brazil’s Candy Hannemann caught fire after opening at 8-over and came storming back (80-67-65--213) to force the playoff. Top Canadian was Lani Cahill, Brockville, ON who T14 (76-77-70--223) 10-shots back and collected $1,536. Other results included Kareen Qually, Olds, Alberta, T20 (73-76-75--224) $1,215; Jan Dowling, Bradford, ON, T45 (82-70-75--227) $403; Liz Early, St. Catharines, ON, T45 (77-77-73--227) $403; Isabelle Beisiegel, Quebec, T51 (81-73-74--228) $298. Chris Greatrex, Vancouver, BC, and Marie-Josee Rouleau, Quebec finished out of the cash. Missing the cut were Louise Zylstra (75-81) Toronto, ON; Corina Kelepouris (81-76) Drayton Valley, AB; Kimberly Adams (75-82) Fredericton, NB; Nisha Sadekar (81-79) Toronto, ON; Claudia Beauchesne (84-80) Montreal, PQ; Theresa McDermott (86-80) Scarborough, ON; Kari Hilton (83-71) London, ON.

JAPAN PGA TOUR
Todd Hamilton moved into second place on the Japanese PGA TOUR money list by winning the Fujisankei Classic by five shots ahead of Tetsuji Hiratskuka and Shigeru Nonaka.

WHAT A COINCIDENCE: . . . . It was 58 years ago that Mildred Ella (Babe) Didrikson Zaharias, an amateur at the time, qualified and became the first woman to play on the men’s PGA TOUR in the Los Angeles Open Golf Championship. On Thursday, May 21 LPGA star Annika Sorenstam of Sweden intends to become the second woman when she tees it up in the Bank of America tournament at the 7,080-yard par 70 Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth Texas. It probably wasn’t on her mind when Annika accepted a sponsor’s invitation to go head to head with the men but by bringing the Babe’s name back into the limelight at this time has been a big help to the American Cancer Society who hold their kickoff breakfast Friday, May 22 at the Old Westbury Country Club on Long Island, NY in preparation for the annual Babe Zaharias Memorial Golf & Tennis Tournament. Babe died of cancer in 1956. As good as Sorenstam may be on the LPGA Tour let’s keep this in perspective. The Babe qualified to get her chance on the PGA TOUR -- it was not an invitation. She had spent much of 1945 touring and playing exhibition matches with Walter Hagen and had looked pretty good with her booming drives and aggressive style. However, in her autobiography “This Life I’ve Lead”, a copy of which Mike Riste uncovered for us at the BC Golf Museum, the Babe writes that she and her husband watched the third round of that ’45 L.A. Open, indicating she did not make the cut. As an amateur player Babe won 17 consecutive tournaments in 1947 and later in seven years as a professional lost only once. There is one thing that Annika may never accomplish that Babe Zaharias did. Aside from winning three U.S. Women’s Open titles and gold medals in other sports at the 1932 Olympics, Mildred Ella Didrikson also pitched for St. Louis Cardinals in an exhibition baseball game.

IN THE ROUGH: . . . . despite the public’s desire to see Tiger Woods face off against ‘The Big Easy’, Ernie Els has had to withdraw from this week’s Deutsche Bank–SAP Open in Germany after re-injuring his left wrist, opening a wound caused in March when he was working with a punching bag. A four-time winner world-wide this year, Els now hopes to recover well enough to play the U.S. Open June 12. Woods, the defending Deutsche Bank champion, is making his first tournament appearance since the Masters over a month ago . . . . Weir, although closing with a 3-under 69, had 119 putts over four rounds, 15 more than when he won at Augusta and will likely skip this week’s EDS Byron Nelson to work on his game. He says he’ll then play three in a row before going after the second leg of the Grand Slam, the U.S. . . . . when the LPGA arrives in Vancouver for the BMO Canadian Women’s Open in July you will truly see an international field. This past week for example, 61 of the 144 players who teed off carried foreign passports from 19 different countries outside the U.S. . . . . this is the 9th consecutive year Irwin has won at least one event, tying a record set by Miller Barber who got his first senior victory in the Peter Jackson Champions at Capilano Golf & Country Club in 1981.

PARTNERS WITH YOUTH: . . . . the annual Downtown YMCA Golf Tournament is building momentum. Scheduled for noon on June 11 at Fraserview Golf Course, this event features a prize-filled Putting Contest that has been growing steadily each year in its endeavor to raise funds for Partners With Youth, which helps those unable to afford the benefits of the YMCA http://www.vanymca.org/ to receive memberships and services such as child care and a day at one of 25 summer camps. Telephone (604) 633-3563 or anthony.reid@vanymca.org

The University Golf Course today is the site of the annual BC Golf Museum http://www.bcgolfguide.com/golfmuseum/ fund raiser with 37 foursomes coming together in support of what is considered one of the most complete golf museums in North America and in many ways comparable to the World Golf Hall of Fame http://www.wgv.com/hof/hof.html in Florida.

THE TEENAGE LPGA TOUR: . . . . at the rate new young players are finding their way into LPGA tournaments it won’t be long before high school tutors are required to be part of the TOUR the same way day care and exercise programs are now. The latest teen sensation to forego a week of high school for a taste of TOUR life was 16-year-old Paula Creamer, the No. 1 ranked junior amateur in the U.S. who received a sponsor exemption this past week and (73-72-72-78--295) T71 in her first pro tournament. We’ve already seen 13-year-old Michelle Wie a few times this season and 17-year-old twin sisters Aree and Naree Son. Vancouver’s Ecom-Ji Park, was 17 last season when she played her way into the Canadian Women’s Open and will very likely be among the starters again this year at Point Grey in July.

A ROYAL 25OTH ANNIVERSARY PARTY: . . . . At about this time next year the biggest party in the 250 year history of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews will be getting underway to celebrate the anniversary of the club’s founding of May 14, 1744. A committee has been at work planning for this event for the past three years. So far they’ve arranged for a variety of local and international competitions; a special dinner for about 1,200 members and guests from among all 127 of the R & A’s world-wide affiliated unions and associations; commissioned for oil paintings to mark the driving in of new captain, HRH The Duke of York and of the top table at the club's annual dinner with its traditional display of club trophies and they are going to publish a third volume of the club history. The Royal Bank of Scotland is planning to issue a £5 note with an image of the famed R & A club house and, for the first time in 23 years, the Amateur Championship will be played over the Old Course from May 31-June 5 preceded by an inter-club competition for invited clubs from around the world.