DUNCAN, B.C. – Canadians Kolten Almgren, Zach Ryujin, Mike Aizawa, Ethan Bennett and Brent Wilson earned exemptions into the 2018 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship on Friday in the 18-hole qualifying event at Duncan Meadows Golf Course.

Almgren, a University of B.C. sophomore from Comox, B.C., posted the low score of the day with a 4-under par 68, highlighted by an eagle on the par-5 12th hole.

Ryujin of North Vancouver, B.C., was next in line with a 3-under-par 69, good for sole possession of runner-up honours. Aizawa (Richmond, B.C.), Bennett (Stoney Creek, Ont.), and Wilson (Cobble Hill, B.C.) rounded out the top five that punched their tickets to the third-oldest amateur event in the world.

The first, second and third alternates are Alec Berry (Corvalis, Oreg.), Sadiq Jiwa (Vancouver, B.C.) and Drew Herbert (Currumbin Gold Coast, B.C.).

The Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship takes place from Aug. 6-9 at Duncan Meadows Golf Course and Pheasant Glen Golf Resort, with a field of 246 players competing from nine countries around the world.

The field will be reduced to the low 70 and ties for the final two rounds contested at Duncan Meadows.

In addition to claiming the title of 2018 Canadian Men’s Amateur champion, the winner will earn exemptions into the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, Calif., and the 2019 RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf & Country Club in Hamilton, Ont., from June 3-9.

The champion will also be eligible to receive an exemption into the U.S. Junior Amateur, the U.S. Mid-Amateur or the U.S. Senior Amateur, if applicable.

In total, about 500 visitors (players, coaches, caddies, friends and family members) are expected to spend up to a week or more in the Cowichan Valley for this multi-day competition supported by upwards of 200 volunteers from across southern Vancouver Island.

Click here for full qualifier results.

RENO, Nev. – Low Canadian sits T7 with 11 points after the first round on Thursday in the Barracuda Championship, the PGA Tour’s only modified Stableford scoring event.

He carded only one bogey and fired six birdies, two on the front nine and four on the back.

Ollie Schniederjans scored five points with a closing eagle to take a three-point lead.

Schniederjans hit a 5-iron approach from 275 yards to 3 feet to set up the eagle on the par-5 18th at Montreux Golf and Country Club.

“Eagles are huge in this format,” Schniederjans said. “So, it’s a little more nerve-wracking, 3-footer being three more points. It’s interesting you have putts that are worth more than others.”

He finished with 17 points, also making six birdies. Players receive eight points for an albatross, five for eagle, two for birdie and zero for par. A point is subtracted for bogey, and three points are subtracted for double bogey or worse.

Denny McCarthy was tied for the lead with a hole to play just before sunset, but lost three points with a double bogey on the par-4 ninth to drop into a tie for second with Aaron Baddeley.

“This golf course isn’t easy,” McCarthy said. “If you get out of position, it’s tough. That’s how you can make scores. Like at home, on the last hole, minus-three, double. But for the most part I was putting it in play. I was giving myself really good looks on the greens.”

Robert Streb was fourth at 13 points, followed by Ryan Palmer and Hudson Swafford at 12, and John Merrick and Tyrone Van Aswegen at 11.

The winner will earn a spot in the PGA Championship next week at Bellerive, if not already eligible. Schniederjans is using the event to stay sharp for the PGA.

“Just my game is finally coming around,” Schniederjans said. “I really feel in control of my swing for the first time in a while. So, I felt really good coming in. And I kind of wanted to just get playing, because I felt like my stuff was finally in a place. Instead of taking a week off, I kind of wanted to get on a roll, play a little bit before the PGA and roll into next week with some rounds.”

Chasing his first tour victory, he’s using his Georgia Tech education to crunch numbers on the high-altitude course.

“It’s pretty simple math, but I think it helps,” Schniederjans said. “The wind makes it really tough. I factor in the flight that I’m going to hit, and I do the elevation first. And then I factor in the wind.”

McCarthy, playing in the final group of the day off the 10th tee, eagled the par-5 13th and made five more birdies – three on par-5 holes. The former Virginia player is 149th in the FedEx Cup standings in his first PGA Tour season, with the top 125 advancing to the playoffs and keeping their tour cards.

“There’s a lot of really, really good players out here that are playing really, really well most of the time,” McCarthy said. So, if you’re not on your game mentally and physically, you’re going to get lapped out here, I promise you.“

Baddeley is 135th in the FedEx Cup race.

“I’m not stressed, to be honest,” Baddeley said. “Whether you go to Web finals or whether you finish in the 126 to 150 category, you’re going to get starts and my game’s in a good spot. I’m not stressed. I’m at ease with whatever happens. Just got to go out and play and try and win a golf tournament.”

Rod Pampling holed out for eagle from 123 yards on the par-4 14th to get to 15 points, then dropped six points on the final four holes with three bogeys and a closing triple bogey.

Norman Xiong, the Nicklaus Award winner at the University of Oregon, scored eight points playing on a sponsor’s exemption. He missed the cuts in his other three PGA Tour starts since turning pro.

Defending champion Chris Stroud had seven points. Geoff Ogilvy, the 2014 winner, also was at seven points along with Hunter Mahan. David Duval, playing on a sponsor’s exemption, scored three points.

LYTHAM ST ANNES, England – For Brooke Henderson, learning to navigate the Ricoh Women’s British Open has been a learning process. In her three prior starts, she had yet to crack the top 40. The statistic comes as a surprise to anyone who regularly follows the major champion and six-time LPGA Tour winner. But the Canadian took a huge leap forward in her progress on Thursday, when she posted a 3-under par, 69 at Royal Lytham & St Annes. It is her first sub-70 round at the Women’s British Open.

“Every time you’re over here you learn more and the experiences that you really need,” Henderson said. “It’s very different than what I grew up playing on.”

Henderson grew up playing in Smiths Falls, Canada and found she needed to adjust her game in order to play better on the links. When she won for the first time on a links-style course in 2017 with her victory in New Zealand she was vindicated in the changes she adopted.

“It was crazy conditions, so I think that was really a good learning curve for me,” Henderson said about the windy conditions she encountered in New Zealand. “It gave me a lot of confidence moving into links courses that if something goes wrong, like it kind of did this morning, I just kind of relaxed and was able to come back from that.”

Henderson got off to a rough start with two bogeys in her first three holes after getting caught up in the pot bunkers riddled throughout the course. She credited her caddie and sister, Brittany, for helping turn around her day and record five birdies on the back nine.

“I got into some of the pot bunker and found that they were very difficult to get out of,” Henderson admitted after her round. “But after that I kind of settled down a little bit. The back nine was great.”

Henderson put herself in contention at the season’s last major, too, at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship where she faded on the weekend with rounds of 70-74 and settled for a T6.

Tsawwassen, B.C. – At the completion of the second round of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Beach Grove Golf Club in Tsawwassen, B.C., a total of 70 players had made the cut at 21-over par (165).

It was brought to attention of the Tournament Committee late in the evening on Wednesday that Ellie Szeryk of London, Ont., who was sitting alone in second place in the Junior Girls Division and leading the Juvenile Girls Division at 1-under (143), had signed for a score lower than she had taken.

As part of the due diligence, the Tournament Committee reviewed the scorecard with Szeryk personally, which ultimately resulted in a penalty of disqualification.

A total of 69 players will now continue to compete in the final two rounds of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship. A link to updated scoring and third round pairings is here.

The world’s best amateur golfers are set to compete in the 114th Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship in British Columbia at both Duncan Meadows Golf Course and Pheasant Glen Golf Resort from Aug. 6-9.

The championship was first held in 1895, making it one of the most storied sporting events in Canada and third oldest amateur championship in the world. Duncan Meadows will play host to 252 players from nine countries over four stroke play rounds, while Pheasant Glen will co-host for the first two rounds prior to the 36-hole cut.

Duncan Meadows Golf Course has hosted 10 provincial and national tournaments, including the 2011 Canadian Women’s Amateur. The course is a mix of open grassland with stream and pond habitat in a gently rolling landscape with maple and fir woodlands framed by unforgettable mountain and valley views. Resident eagles, mink, deer and visiting elk are witness to golfers of all levels taking up the challenge.

Co-host Pheasant Glen boasts breathtaking views in the beautiful landscapes of Qualicum Beach. The 18-hole course is a multi-million dollar rebuild by new owners, who finished the course started by Doug Carrick in 1990 and completed by Frank Russell in 2005. The course previously hosted the 2016 B.C. Amateur Championship, 2015 Future Links, driven by Acura Pacific Championship, and the 2008 Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship.

Pheasant Glen Golf Resort

In 2017, Zach Bauchou of Forest, Va., became the 22nd American to capture the Canadian Men’s Amateur crown, winning at the Toronto Golf Club by a one-stroke margin.

Current PGA TOUR Canadians Mackenzie Hughes (Dundas, Ont.) and Nick Taylor (Abbotsford, B.C.) are recent winners of the event. Taylor won it in 2007 while Hughes won back-to-back titles from 2011-2012 – the last player to win in consecutive years.

A full field of competitors will compete for the Earl Grey Trophy and the title of Canadian Men’s Amateur champion, including Team Canada’s Hugo Bernard, the 2016 champion from Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Que. He’ll be joined by teammate and 2017 low Canadian Josh Whalen of Napanee, Ont. Also in the draw are Vancouver Island natives Jeevan Sihota (2017 Future Links, driven by Acura Pacific Champion).

An inter-provincial team championship will be played in conjunction with the first 36 holes of the competition with three-member teams vying for the Willingdon Cup. Team Quebec consisting of Bernard, Marc-Olivier Plasse (Mercier, Que.) and Étienne Papineau (St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.) shot a combined 7 under par to capture their first team championship in 20 years (1997) and seventh victory all-time.

The Canadian Men’s Amateur Qualifier will be played at Duncan Meadows Golf Course on Aug. 3 – a minimum of five spots into the tournament will be awarded. Additional information can be found here.

The field will be reduced to the low 70 and ties for the final two rounds contested at Duncan Meadows.

In addition to claiming the title of 2018 Canadian Men’s Amateur champion, the winner will earn exemptions into the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, Calif., and the 2019 RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf & Country Club from June 3-9.

The champion will also be eligible to receive an exemption into the U.S. Junior Amateur, the U.S. Mid-Amateur or the U.S. Senior Amateur, if applicable.

In total, about 500 visitors (players, coaches, caddies, friends and family members) are expected to spend up to a week or more in the Cowichan Valley for this multi-day competition supported by upwards of 200 volunteers from across southern Vancouver Island.

**Tournament update – Player Disqualification: At the completion of the second round of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Beach Grove Golf Club in Tsawwassen, B.C., a total of 70 players had made the cut at 21-over par (165).

It was brought to attention of the Tournament Committee late in the evening on Wednesday that Ellie Szeryk of London, Ont., who was sitting alone in second place in the Junior Girls Division and leading the Juvenile Girls Division at 1-under (143), had signed for a score lower than she had taken. As part of the due diligence, the Tournament Committee reviewed the scorecard with Szeryk personally, which ultimately resulted in a penalty of disqualification.

A total of 69 players will now continue to compete in the final two rounds of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship. A link to updated scoring and third round pairings is here.

TSAWWASSEN, B.C. – Céleste Dao carded a 2-under-par 70 to jump into the lead after the second round of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Beach Grove Golf Club.

The Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Que. native was one of two players, again, to shoot under par. She started the day off strong firing three birdies on the first three holes. She made the turn at one under and would go on to bogey holes 10 and 12 to sit at even par.

Dao approached the 10th green after over shooting from the fairway. She made a beautiful chip onto the green and the ball sat about 6 feet away from the hole. She lined up her putt for the par and the ball missed the hole, not going as she had planned.

“I missed a short putt. After that I had another bad hole, but after hole 12 I started making birdies and went back to normal, so I was happy,” said the 17-year-old. “The round was up and down, some holes went well, and some others so-so. So, I’m happy.”

She finished the day on Wednesday carding seven birdies and five bogeys. Dao heads into the third round in the lead–ahead of fellow Team Canada Development Squad member Ellie Szeryk–by two strokes. She sits a total of 3-under for the tournament.

Ellie Szeryk made a major comeback after firing a 77 in her opening round on Tuesday. Szeryk finished the round with a 6-under 66, the lowest score of the tournament so far.

“It went well, I was pretty relaxed. I had a really good time with my group which I think really helped my score,” said the London, Ont. native. “I had some good shots. I didn’t put myself in a good position off the tee but I managed to have a good approach shot on the par 5s and I made one long putt. It was pretty simple birdies.”

Ellie made the turn at 3-under.

“It’s nice to start off with a clean slate I had a pretty rough first round so hopefully I’m just going to continue the momentum.” she said.

She took the crowd by storm when she carded four birdies in a row on her back nine, sitting 4-under through her last 5 holes.

“I had a lot of lip-outs yesterday, and missed a lot of putts, so I knew that at some point they were going to drop, I didn’t think they were all going to drop at once, so it was a nice surprise,” said the 16-year-old.

Szeryk sits in second and heads into the third round at 1-under 143 for the tournament, leading the Juvenile Girls Championship.

Emily Zhu from Richmond Hill, Ont. sits two strokes behind Szeryk at 1-over 145 in third place. She recorded a 1-over-par 73 in Wednesday’s round.

The cut was set at 21-over-par and 70 golfers will advance to the final two rounds on Thursday and Friday.

Team Quebec took home the win in the inter-provincial team competition after duking it out with Team British Colombia all the way until the final group came in off the green. Team Quebec finished 4-over par for the tournament and Team B.C. finished 8-over. Defending Champions, Team Ontario, finished in third at 15-over.

Click here to view the full leaderboard for the 2018 Canadian Junior Girls Championship.

At the time, it was the biggest win of Nick Taylor’s life, a victory he credits with providing the confidence and inner belief that ultimately helped propel him to the PGA TOUR.

Taylor won the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship in 2007 and he’ll never forget the crazy final day he endured en route to the title. It lasted nearly 10 hours and 38 holes. Taylor would be the first to tell you it should have been over much sooner than that.

Taylor, then 19, was playing Michael Knight of Calgary in the 36-hole final of that 2007 Canadian Men’s Amateur at Riverside Country Club in Saskatoon. That was the last year the championship was decided via match play.

“I remember the morning match I kind of hung in there, lost on 18 to go one-down, and then I played really well in the afternoon and was three-up with three to play,” the Abbotsford, B.C., native said in a recent interview. “What sticks out to me is those last three holes.”

The adventure started on the par 5 16th hole at Riverside.

“I three-putted 16 for par to lose the hole and that is when they blew the horn because of an electrical storm,” Taylor said. “We went in for an hour or so and it felt like it was forever. Having had that opportunity to win and three-putt and then have to sit on that for a while wasn’t great. When we went back out there, the wind was blowing 30 miles an hour. It was crazy the way the conditions had changed.”

On the par 3 17th hole, Taylor once again had a chance to close out the match, but again three-putted.

Things got really crazy on the 18th hole, where Knight hit his drive way left down a steep embankment. Knight managed to find his original tee shot after hitting a provisional, but it didn’t look like he had much of a shot.

“So Mike is down there and he has a buddy caddying for him and they are laughing because they found the ball and it wasn’t in a good place,” Taylor said. “They were like ‘oh well, let’s just take a swing at it’ and it comes out perfectly. It almost comes up close, but rolls over the ridge and he’s about 20 feet away. He almost makes it, but gets his par.”

Taylor, meanwhile, is just 12 feet away in the fringe. He knows he can two-putt and win. So you can guess what happens next.

“It was such a fast putt,” Taylor said. “I hit it out of the fringe and it ripped by about six feet and I missed that. So my head was really spinning at that point for doing that.”

The match finally ended on the 38th hole. Both players had ended up in the same greenside bunker. Knight hit first and bladed his shot out of bounds. He had to take a drop into the same bunker and hit his next shot long into another bunker. Taylor then blasted out onto the green and Knight conceded.

“I played great that week, but if I had lost it would have been devastating,” Taylor said. “I remember trying to register what had happened and thinking that really I should have won that on the 16th hole. And then with the delay and everything that happened it was just kind of crazy.”

Taylor’s win at the 2007 Canadian Amateur followed his 2006 victory at the Canadian Junior Boys Championship and he became just the second player to win the Junior and Amateur back to back. Vancouver’s Brent Franklin first accomplished the feat in 1985, also at Riverside in Saskatoon.

Taylor said that win in Saskatoon meant so much to him, both at the time and in the years that followed. After closing out the match, Taylor and his family drove through the night to Calgary for a flight to California.

“I flew down to the U.S. Amateur to San Francisco and ended up playing really well down there, too.”

Taylor made it all the way to the quarter-finals of the U.S. Amateur, which was being played at Pebble Beach. “So it was a crazy couple of weeks.”

But his Canadian Amateur win also had more long-lasting effects.

It helped get Taylor selected to the national amateur team, which provided him with all sorts of opportunities, and got him into his first Canadian Open. His confidence soared.

“I think it really helped my amateur career and my confidence going back for my second year of college (at the University of Washington),” Taylor said. “I struggled a bit in my first year at Washington. I was in and out of the lineup and didn’t play great.  That Canadian Amateur win was big for a lot of reasons.”

This year’s Canadian Amateur returns to Taylor’s home province of British Columbia. The 114th playing of the championship goes Aug. 4-9 at Duncan Meadows Golf Course and Pheasant Glen Golf Resort on Vancouver Island.

The field will include all four members of the national amateur team Taylor used to be a part of: Hugo Bernard of Mount-Saint-Hilaire, Que., Joey Savoie of La Prairie, Que., Josh Whalen of Napanee, Ont., and Chris Crisologo of Richmond, B.C. Team Canada Development Team members Christopher Vandette of Beaconsfield, Que., Nolan Thoroughgood of Victoria, Thomas Critch of Hamilton, Johnny Travale of Stoney Creek, Ont., and Peyton Callens of London, Ont., will also be in the field.

Competitors will each play one round at Duncan Meadows and Pheasant Glen before the field is cut to the low 70 and ties for the final two rounds at Duncan Meadows.

The winner will receive an exemption into the 2019 RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf & Country Club and the 2019 U.S. Amateur Championship.

The Willingdon Cup inter-provincial team competition, which was won by Quebec in 2017, will be contested during the first two rounds of the event.

Taylor still keeps an eye on amateur golf in Canada. Chances are, he will be checking the scores on his computer and his mind will go running back to Saskatoon and that crazy day in 2007.

CALGARY – While iconic golfer Phil Mickelson is currently having a stellar season, making birdies isn’t the only thing on his mind: Mickelson is also heavily involved in creating a championship golf course of his own in Calgary, Alta.

Phil Mickelson Design has teamed up with Windmill Golf Group to build a remarkable golf course: Mickelson National Golf Club. The new course is located just west of Calgary at Harmony, a roughly 1800-acre real estate development by Qualico Communities and Bordeaux Developments.

Seeding at Mickelson National Golf Club began in August 2017 and the course’s construction will be completed by the end of August this year. After construction is complete, the course will mature for a period-of-time, so it can be in world class condition when it opens. Some of the first holes, however, are nearly ready to play.

Barry Ehlert, President of Mickelson National Golf Club and Managing Partner, commented, “The community of Harmony is outstanding, and the golf course is looking fantastic. People ask all the time when it will open. Our opening-date goal remains the same as it has always been: to open the course for some golf in 2019 with an official grand opening in 2020. Additionally, construction on the clubhouse will begin in 2019. There’s a lot of progress and work ongoing.”

Because the Mickelson National Golf Club will be a completely private club, many people will have limited opportunities to actually play the course. To allow more people the chance to get out on this unique course, Ehlert and his team have decided to open four holes to anyone who tours this one-of-a-kind course between August 1 and September 19. People can visit tourandplaymickelsonnational.com to register. Then in September they’ll get to play it with the chance to win some great prizes too.

Ehlert continues, “Because of the overwhelmingly-positive responses of people touring the golf course to-date, we have decided to do something that I don’t believe a private course of this magnitude has ever done before: give the public the chance to play a few holes of the course well before the grand opening.”

The opportunity to participate in this exclusive event is limited and is a unique chance for golf enthusiasts to sample this amazing course before opens.

Adam Hadwin is optimistic he’ll return for the PGA Championship next week after dropping out of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational with a hip injury.

The top-ranked Canadian golfer made the call to bow out of this week’s event in Akron, Ohio on Wednesday, deciding that rest is best heading into the final major of the year next week in St. Louis.

Hadwin’s agent, George Sourlis, told The Canadian Press that the injury was due to femoroacetabular impingement, a condition that causes bones to rub together and something the Abbotsford, B.C., golfer has been dealing with since he was young. It flared up again early this week in Ohio following a missed cut at the Canadian Open.

The pain was intense enough that Hadwin couldn’t hit all the shots needed to compete in a tournament. For example, the 30-year-old couldn’t hit balls out of a bunker because of the way his hips are positioned.

Hadwin plans to work with his doctor to prepare for the PGA Championship next week.

Historically, when Hadwin has dealt with hip problems, he has been back to normal within a week after rest.

Hadwin is coming off a disappointing Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont. He missed the cut by one stroke and described his frustration level afterward as “100 out of 10.”

Hadwin is the only Canadian scheduled to play in the PGA Championship.

TSAWWASSEN, B.C. – Lauren Kim carded a 3-under-par 69 to lead by one stroke after the first round of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Beach Grove Golf Club.

After playing the third round of the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship at Marine Drive in B.C. last week with a bug bite on her arm causing her pain to bend her arm; Kim was healthy and bug bite free heading into the first round on Tuesday.

“I feel confident after doing well today, I feel confident heading into the week,” said Kim.

The 12-year-old carded four birdies and one bogey to jump in front of Céleste Dao who had the clubhouse lead after the morning wave.

“I didn’t hit a lot of fairways today, it was actually hard, my swing was off, and I was just trying to par my way in, I was like try to keep it even, make your pars and do what you can,” said the Surrey, B.C., native. “I had a good start to my back nine, I started with a birdie and hit more fairways, it was easier.”

Kim has already tasted the winners circle this season, after she played up a division – against girls 15-18 years old – winning the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour’s Ford Seres Tournament in May and was T5 at the Future Links, driven by Acura Pacific Championship later that month.

Céleste Dao, member of the Team Canada Development Squad, came in with a 1-under-par 71, to sit one stroke back of Kim.

“My birdies came mostly on the par 5s. I was reaching them in two or doing up and downs from the bunkers. Otherwise, I was sticking it close to the pin with my wedges on the other holes I birdied. I did have one chip-in.” said the Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Que. native.

Dao – the 2018 Mexican Junior Girls Champion – was two under on her front nine. When she made the turn she recorded two bogeys, then two birdies to recover, but fired one last bogey on hole 16 to finish her round 1-under.

“You have to take advantage of the par 5s. You just need to be patient, there are some holes that may look like they are birdie opportunities, but you need to identify the holes where you need to play safe,” said the 17-year-old. “The front nine is tighter for the drives, the back nine is longer and I think the greens are harder on the back nine, more elevation.”

Emily Zhu from Richmond Hill, Ont. and Hannah Lee from Surrey, B.C. both came in at even par 72.

Zhu sat tied with Dao at 1-under throughout her entire round until she recorded a bogey on her last hole to finish T3.

Team Quebec is leading the inter-provincial team competition at even par and defending champions, Team B.C., sit in second at 6-over-par.

Click here to view the full leaderboard for the 2018 Canadian Junior Girls Championship.