Graham DeLaet Wins ATB Financial Classic Championship

DeLaet started his year in South Africa and racked up a pair of back-to-back second-place finishes on the Sun Shine Tour. Then, earlier this month he came in second behind Mike Grob in the City of Surrey Invitational.

Sunday a bogey-free 64 elevated De Laet to a  four-stroke triumph  over Byron Smith who had closed with a 68.
 
DeLaet finished the tournament at 21 under par 267 and earned his second Canadian Tour titles and first since the Desjardins Montreal Open last August.
 
Scott Gibson’s 69 moved him into solo third at 15 under 273 while Mauricio Molina finished fourth at 14 under.
 
Third round leader Stuart Anderson fell to fifth at 275 after a closing 73, one ahead of Garrett Frank (67) and two ahead of Andrew Parr with a 70.
 
Richard Scott (68) and Josh Habig (74) shared ninth spot at 278.
 
Parring the first, DeLaet caught fired with six birdies on his next seven holes to hold a three-stroke cushion over Byron Smith after eight holes.
 
“I’m a little bit speechless,” said DeLaet.
 
“I got off to a great start by one-putting my first seven holes,” said DeLaet, who earned $24,000 and jumps to third on the Order of Merit. “I made a couple of nice up and downs for par and made some really good birdie putts.
 
“The crazy thing is that I turned in six under and didn’t have much of a cushion. I knew Stuart (Anderson) and Byron (Smith) were right behind me so it was a pretty stressful day for a while.
 
“Because of that, I kept pressing and made a really good par save on ten. I hit a really good approach that landed three feet from the pin but it spun off into the back fringe.
 
“I ended up making a good eight-footer for par, which kept the momentum going. It would have been a little devastating if I had missed that one because I had only a two stroke lead over Byron at the time.”
 
Riding that momentum, DeLaet snaked in a 30-footer downhill at No. 13 for his seventh birdie of the day and followed it with scrambling pars at 14, 15 and 17, where he failed to cut the corner and was forced to take an unplayable lie at the par five.
 
“Both Josh (Habig) and I thought we got around those trees and couldn’t believe that we ended up in the junk.”
 
Forced to lay up with his third, DeLaet pulled his fourth into the rough 12 feet left of the pin and sank the chip for another rescued par.
 
“I was hitting it great and rolling it well, which is a pretty good combination.” he added. “When you keep doing that, you’re going to do well.”
 
After several second place finishes, DeLaet knew the time for his second Tour win was imminent.
 
“I have been playing with a lot of confidence for the past year and knew that if I kept playing like this, the wins would come,” concluded DeLaet.
 
Despite a 68, Byron Smith couldn’t keep up with DeLaet this afternoon.
 
“I ended up hitting some good golf shots but they kept rolling over the green,” said Smith. “They were getting a little bit hard and when you try to force things under those kinds of conditions, it simply doesn’t happen.
 
“Graham DeLaet is an amazing talent, he’s quite impressive. When he gets confidence and learns how to seal the deal, which it looks like he has, he will be very, very dangerous.
 
“I think he is one of those guys that not only is going to make it but who is going to do really well.”
 
In the Clubhouse:
The biggest one day comeback was recorded by James Allenby of Langley who shot 18-over par 80 in his first round and rebounded with a 9-under par 63 the next day to make the cut - - a 17-stroke comeback . . . Eugene Smith aced the fifth hole and was five under through his first six holes.

CANADIAN TOUR - - $150,000 ATB Financial Classic,
Sirocco Golf Club
7,185 yard, par-72
(a-denotes amateur)
Canadians in BOLD

Graham DeLaet, $24,000    72-64-67-64-----267
Byron Smith, $14,400        72-68-63-68-----271
Scott Gibson, $9,000        70-68-66-69-----273
Mauricio Molina, $, 7,200    67-67-73-67-----274
Stuart Anderson, $6,000    67-69-66-73-----275
Garrett Frank, $5,175        67-66-71-72-----276
Josh Geary, $5,175        70-69-70-67-----276
Andrew Parr, $4,650        69-70-67-70-----277
Richard Scott, $4,200        73-70-67-68-----278
Josh Habig, $4,200        71-67-66-74-----278
George Coetzee, $2,978.57    70-74-67-68-----279
Hugo Leon, $2,978.57        75-66-71-67-----279
Liam Kendregan, $2,978.57    72-71-67-69-----279
Jae Woo Im, $2,978.57        70-70-69-70-----279
Mike Grob, $2,978.57        72-66-69-72-----279
Eugene Smith, $2,978.57    70-69-69-71-----279
Jim Lemon, $2,978.57        72-68-67-72-----279
Bryn Parry, $1,907.14        71-68-72-69-----280
Jason D’Amore, $1,907.14    72-70-69-69-----280
Russell Surber, $1,907.14    71-68-71-70-----280
Wes Heffernan, $1,907.14    71-71-68-70-----280
Danny Sahl, $1,907.14        68-73-69-70-----280
Tom Stankowski, $1,907.14    67-70-72-71-----280
Tyler Harris, $1,907.14        72-71-63-74-----280
Ryan Horn, $1,473.75        72-70-66-73-----281
Andy Matthews, $1,473.75    76-67-70-68-----281
Brett Lederer, $1,473.75    71-67-75-68-----281
Andrew Smeeth, $1,473.75    70-68-73-70-----281
Ryan Yip, $1,290        70-71-70-71-----282
Alex Coe, $1,290        76-68-67-71-----282
Andres Gonzales, $1,290    73-69-66-74-----282
Justin Smith, $1,087.50        69-72-72-70-----283
Jaime Kurelik, $1,087.50    74-68-70-71-----283
Brady Stockton, $1,087.50    73-68-70-72-----283
Brett Bingham, $1,087.50    71-69-71-72-----283
Luke Hickmott, $1,087.50    74-69-66-74-----283
Matt Marshall, $1,087.50    71-70-67-75-----283
Lee Curry, $1,087.50        70-69-72-72-----283
Joseph Greiner, $918.75    75-68-67-74-----284
Mitch Tasker, $918.75        70-68-75-71-----284
Kris Wasylowich, $789        73-71-72-69-----285
Peter Laws, $789        73-65-72-75-----285
Michael Gligic, $789        72-69-68-76-----285
Andrew Johnson, $789        70-72-70-73-----285
Barrett Jarosch, $789        77-66-69-73-----285
Drew Stoltz, $654        74-69-73-70-----286
David Jackson, $654        77-64-76-69-----286
Brady Schnell, $654        68-76-71-71-----286
Tyler Martin, $654        68-74-66-78-----286
James Allenby, $654        80-63-75-68-----286
Ryan Panichpakdee, $556.29    74-69-74-70-----287
Garrett Sapp, $556.29        71-73-73-70-----287
Erik Justesen, $556.29        74-70-73-70-----287
Hoyt McGarity, $556.29        71-69-71-76-----287
Greg Machtaler, $556.29    72-72-71-72-----287
Brad Heaven, $556.29        71-72-70-74-----287
Oliver Tubb, $556.29        73-70-67-77-----287
Mike Mezei, $498        71-72-72-75-----290
Jordan Irwin, $498        70-72-74-74-----290
Darren Hupfer (a)        74-70-77-71-----292