Amateur Golf

Team Canada’s Garrett Rank of Elmira, Ont., will begin play at the 82nd Dixie Amateur, Tuesday, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Competitors will play on three different courses from December 18-21, with a round played at each the Heron Bay Golf Club, the Palm-Aire Cypress Club and the Woodland West Country Club. The eventual champion of the tournament will be decided back at the Heron Bay Club on the fourth and final day of the tournament.

The 25-year-old, product of the University of Waterloo, comes into the tournament as the 179th ranked amateur in the world. Rank looks to carry over his solid play from the Argentine Amateur Championship, where he finished runner-up to Spain’s Antoni Ferrer Mercant in the final match.

Alongside Rank, 10 other Canadians will be competing at the historic South Florida event that originated in 1924. Canadians in the field this week include; Ralph Wigle, of Cottam, Ont.; Dominic Brabant of Verdun, Ont.; Jordan Baktish of Newmarket, Ont.; Carl Pelletier of Pont-Rouge, Que.; Greg Holmes of Ottawa, Ont.; Zhong Yang Fu of Thornhill, Ont.; Sean Bozuk of Burlington, Ont.; Sameer Kalia, of Campbellville, Ont.; and Ryan Borg, of Orangeville, Ont.; and Paolo Addona of Montreal, Que.

The Dixie Amateur has become a steppingstone to the PGA Tour and professional ranks for many outstanding players, such as notable past champions, Curtis Thompson, Peter Uihlein, Brandt Snedeker, Erik Compton, Hal Sutton and Lanny Wadkins.