Team Canada Amateur Squad’s Maddie Szeryk continues to lead the B.C. Women’s Amateur at 6 under par after carding a 1-over-par 74 in round three to sit three shots ahead of her teammate Naomi Ko at Vernon Golf and Country Club, in Vernon, B.C.

Szeryk, 20, led by six after 36 holes but was inconsistent in Thursday’s third round recording five birdies to combat six bogeys and posting her first over par round of the tournament.

The London, Ont., native is coming off a stellar junior season with Texas A&M. She was named a First-Team All-American and won the Dr. Donnis Invitational at Kane’ohe Klipper Golf Course, posting an Aggies’ record season stroke average of 71.24 in the process.

Ko, the 18-hole leader, was ten shots back of Szeryk entering play on Thursday at 3 over par (69-80).

The Victoria, B.C., product was on fire in round three carding the lowest score of the tournament so far – a 6-under-par 67 with seven birdies and just one bogey on her card.

Ko and Szeryk recently dueled at the Women’s Western Golf Association Amateur Championship with Szeryk getting the best of her teammate 2 and 1 in the round-of-16.

Amateur Squad’s Jaclyn Lee (Calgary, Alta.) is in third at 1 under par alongside Surrey, B.C., native Michelle Kim, after matching rounds of 73 (E).

Ottawa’s Grace St-Germain – the fourth member of the team Canada Amateur Squad in Vernon – is fifth at 1 over par (78-70-74).

Development Squad rookie Mary Parsons (Delta, B.C.) is ninth at 14 over par after a third round 79 (+6). Her teammate Chloe Currie (Mississauga, Ont.) is T17 at 25 over par (83-77-84).

For the full leaderboard click here.

The Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada goes across Canada with 12 events in 2017, with players competing to take the next step on to the path to the PGA TOUR. Check out tournament profiles, players to watch, feature stories and more in the 2017 Mackenzie Tour Digital Magazine.

Click here to read.

Team Canada’s Maddie Szeryk carded a bogey-free, 4-under-par 69 on Wednesday at the B.C. Women’s Amateur to move to 7 under par and take sole possession of first place through 36 holes at Vernon Golf and Country Club in Vernon, B.C.

The London, Ont., native started the day in second at 3 under par. Four birdies in round two vaulted her into first place—six shots clear of Michelle Kim (Surrey, B.C.) who is 1 under par.

Szeryk, 20, had a stellar junior year with Texas A&M en route to lowering her own season stroke average record with a 71.24 mark in 2016-17 and pouring in an Aggies’ record 128 birdies.

The three-year Team Canada member is coming off an impressive win at the Women’s Western Amateur Championship at River Forest Country Club from June 12-17.

Fellow Amateur Squad golfer Jaclyn Lee is in third at even par (72-74). The Calgary native had five top-10 finishes with Ohio State in her sophomore season helping the Buckeyes reach the match-play quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I National Championship.

Amateur Squad teammate Grace St-Germain is in fourth place at 2 over par. The Ottawa native carded a 3-under-par 70 in Wednesday’s second round.

18-hole leader Naomi Ko (Victoria, B.C) struggled in round two. The fourth-year member of the Team Canada Amateur Squad posted a 7-over-par 80 to drop into fifth place at 3 over par.

Delta, B.C., product and Development Squad rookie Mary Parsons is ninth at 8 over par after a second-round 75. Her teammate Chloe Currie (Mississauga, Ont.) is T15 at 14 over par (83-77).

Click here for the full leaderboard.

Team Canada Women’s Head Coach Tristan Mullally shares a tip to help you find the sweet spot in your warm up

The Web.com Tour and Ellie Mae announced today that 2017 National Basketball Association (NBA) Champion and Golden State Warriors All-Star Guard Stephen Curry will play in the Tour’s Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae, to be contested the week of July 31-August 6, 2017.

Curry will maintain his amateur status in the event and will compete on an unrestricted sponsor exemption.

“We are elated to have Stephen Curry compete in this year’s Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae,” said Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae Tournament Director Trish Gregovich.

“Our longstanding goal has been to create a meaningful community impact through this event, and allowing a true pillar of the Bay Area community and a genuine sports superstar inside the ropes to compete alongside future PGA TOUR stars helps to elevate that effort.”

Curry, a member of the Warriors since 2009, is a two-time winner of the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons, and has appeared in the last three NBA Finals with the Warriors, helping lead the team to Championships in 2015 and 2017.

The 29-year-old is also currently the Warriors’ all-time leader in three-pointers made, and four of the top five single-season three-point totals in NBA history, including a record 402 three-pointers in 2015-16.

Curry has been selected to three All-NBA Teams and has been a starter on the Western Conference All-Star team in each of the last four seasons.

“I’m honored to have the opportunity to play with the pros in the upcoming Ellie Mae Classic, not only to be able to compete against some of the best golfers in the world, but to also help bring light to the tournament’s charitable footprint of giving back to the Warriors Community Foundation,” said Curry.

“Golf has always been a passion of mine and it’s a dream come true to get the chance to play inside the ropes amongst the pros in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned tournament.”

Game! Blouses! @JordanSpieth with the hole-out from the bunker to win it! Congrats bro

— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) June 25, 2017

Last year’s Ellie Mae Classic produced one of the most memorable weeks in the Web.com Tour’s 28-year history, with Germany’s Stephan Jaeger posting a PGA TOUR-record 58 in the opening round on his way to a record-setting 30-under-par 250 total and a seven-shot victory.

“We’re proud to welcome Stephen Curry to the Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae. He’s a terrific player on the court and we expect him to dominate on the green as well,” said Jonathan Corr, president and CEO of Ellie Mae.

“We’re also thrilled to once again partner with our main charitable beneficiary, the Warriors Community Foundation. We love seeing the players, coaches and staff out on the course, supporting the tournament’s tradition of philanthropy, which aligns with our core value of giving back.”

“It’s a huge honor.” ⛳️ ?@Warriors guard @StephenCurry30 officially accepts an unrestricted sponsor invitation into @EllieMaeClassic. pic.twitter.com/fVO2rU8pr9

— Web.com Tour (@WebDotComTour) June 28, 2017

The Warriors Community Foundation serves as the event’s main charitable beneficiary, as charity continues to play a key role in every PGA TOUR-sanctioned event, with other Ellie Mae charities also benefiting.

The TOUR and its tournaments generated a record $166 million for charity in 2016, in turn elevating the all-time total donated to charity to $2.46 billion.

Since purchasing the Golden State Warriors in 2010, Joe Lacob and Peter Guber have continued the club’s longstanding tradition of community involvement. The Warriors Community Foundation, established in 2012 under the new ownership group, serves to expand the team’s impact locally.

Click here for more information on the Ellie Mae Classic.

The addition of a new title sponsor sees the PGA Women’s Championship of Canada take a major step forward in becoming one of the top boutique standalone women’s golf events in the world.

DATA Communications Management has signed on to become title sponsor of the 30-year-old championship.

The sponsorship sees a newly established VIP Pro-Am and the introduction of TEAM DATA—a roster of Canadian female golf professionals who will be invited by DATA Communications Management to become ambassadors and receive sponsorship dollars as they chase their dream.

“We are thrilled to welcome DATA Communications Management as the title sponsor of our premier women’s championship,” said PGA of Canada president Steve Wood. “The unique event is a great celebration of women’s golf and this partnership with DATA Communications Management gives the event a major boost at the perfect time.”

The DATA PGA Women’s Championship of Canada will be held at Scarboro Golf & Country Club Aug. 14-16. The winner of this year’s championship will earn an exemption into the CP Canadian Women’s Open at the Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club, Aug. 21-26.

“We are extremely excited about becoming the title sponsor of this very unique professional national championship for women,” said Greg Cochrane, President of DATA Communications Management. “We see it as a tremendous opportunity to support young female professional golfers on their journey to success, while showcasing our brand and entertaining our customers along the way.”

The PGA Women’s Championship of Canada was first played in 1987 and past champions include five-time winner Lorie Kane, Brooke Henderson, Alena Sharp, Cathy Sherk, Gail Graham, Nancy Harvey, and Jessica Shepley.

More details regarding TEAM DATA will be released in the coming weeks before the 2017 DATA PGA Women’s Championship, with an additional unveiling at the event itself.

Player confirmations and announcements will continue in the weeks leading up to the championship.

Admittance to the DATA PGA Women’s Championship of Canada is free and spectators are encouraged to attend during the 36-hole championship play.

Click here for more information on the Data PGA Women’s Championship of Canada.

I’ll admit this is a tad presumptuous, but when Brooke Henderson publishes her autobiography, she might well title it, “Faith, Family, Friends and Fairways.” (I love alliteration.)

For proof, you need look no farther than her tweet after winning her fourth LPGA title, the Meijer LPGA Classic on Father’s Day, a couple of weeks back.

“Thanks to my Dad and to God our father for this amazing day!!”

Thanks to my Dad and to God our Father for this amazing day!!Happy Father’s Day!! ☺️☝?️

— Brooke Henderson (@BrookeHenderson) June 19, 2017

At 19 and in only her second full year on tour, Henderson will try to defend her title this week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago.

When she won the 2016 PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Washington, she became the first Canadian woman to win a major since Sandra Post did so in 1968. When she won the Meijer, she tied Lorie Kane’s record of four LPGA victories.

The three are tied together in other ways. They are all sweetness and light on the outside but that masks a fierce competitive nature. Raised in small towns (Post in Oakville, Ont., Kane in Charlottetown, P.E.I., and Henderson in Smiths Falls, Ont.), all three were introduced to golf by their fathers.

And it would be remiss not to mention Jocelyn Bourassa of Shawinigan, Que., who was the LPGA rookie of the year in 1972. The following year, she won our country’s national women’s Open championship, then called La Canadienne and now the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.

Among the legacies that Henderson is inheriting, Bourassa’s may mean the most in this, Canada’s 150^th birthday year, for Bourassa was the last Canadian to win our women’s Open. There will be additional pressure as the tournament takes place Aug. 21-27 at what Henderson now calls her home club, the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.

But pressure is something the self-confident Henderson is used to. Rather than flinch, she embraces it.

In a recent conference call, she said she was “really excited for the opportunity” to defend her PGA title and enthused about the support she is receiving.

Along with a focus on her professional goals, she is cognizant of the impact she is having on the game, especially in Canada. Her success, like that of Bourassa, Post and Kane, is inspiring.

“Of course I have personal goals but the impact on the game is really huge for me. I have people of all ages coming up to me asking for a photo with me or an autograph. I really hope I can do so much good for golf.”

Henderson is blessed to have her sister Brittany, also an accomplished golfer, as her caddie. Her mother and her father, who is her coach, travel with them frequently. (It should be noted that Henderson, as a member of Team Canada, learned much under the tutelage of national women’s team coach Tristan Mullally.)

“I am extremely grateful for my family’s support. My sister as my caddie, my dad as coach, and my mom as my No. 1 fan and cheerleader. None of this would have been possible without all the sacrifices from all of them.

“I believe everyone is given a special gift and I hope I can make the most of mine.”

Doubtful that anyone who cares about golf in Canada doesn’t believe that Brooke Henderson isn’t a special gift herself.

Team Canada’s Naomi Ko is leading the way at 4 under par after 18 holes of the B.C. Women’s Amateur at Vernon Golf and Country Club in Vernon, B.C.

The Victoria, B.C., product carded a opening round 69 with five birdies and one bogey to sit one stroke clear of her Amateur Squad teammate Maddie Szeryk (London, Ont.), who posted a 3-under-par 70 to grab sole possession of second.

Ko, 19,  will be a junior at North Carolina State in the fall. She posted a season stroke average of 74.53 with the Wolfpack in 2016-17 and recently finished 3rd at the prestigious Porter Cup.

Szeryk is coming off an impressive win at the Women’s Western Amateur Championship at River Forest Country Club from June 12-17. The 20-year-old will enter her senior season at Texas A&M as the Aggies career stroke average leader at 71.64.

Fellow Amateur Squad golfer Jaclyn Lee is T3 at 1-under-par (72). The Calgary native led Ohio State in stroke average during the 2016-17 season at 73.71.

The fourth member of the Team Canada Amateur Squad Grace St-Germain of Ottawa is T9 at 5 over par after an opening round 78.

Delta, B.C., product and Development Squad rookie Mary Parsons is T12 (+6). Her teammate Chloe Currie (Mississauga, Ont.) is T24 at 10 over par after an 83 in Tuesday’s first round.

Click here for the full leaderboard.

Most golf fans are familiar with Italy’s Molinari brothers, Francesco and Edoardo Molinari; Tiger and Cheyenne Woods; the Haas and Stadler father-son duos; and of course, the Henderson sisters, Brooke and Brittany, here at home. But there are many more competitive golfing families out there, including the James’.

For Geoff and Jean James, it was quite common to see their daughter Augusta promptly pop out of her bedroom when the alarm clock went off for school. She’d then quietly launch into her regular routine of brushing her teeth, getting dressed and making breakfast.

The final task on her daily to-do list was to venture into another bedroom and wake younger brother Austin from his slumber. He was not going to miss the bus on her watch.

“She would wake me up for school and be on my ass if I wasn’t there on time,” laughs Austin. “She’s definitely the more punctual one.”

“I am notoriously bad for babying him,” Augusta admits. “He definitely knows how to take care of himself but he’s just so laid back that sometimes to me it doesn’t look like it.”

Now in their 20s, the school bus seems like a distant memory for the James kids. In its place are airplanes and cars, the usual form of transportation for two emerging young golfers. Augusta, a third-year pro on the LPGA Tour and Symetra Tour, and Austin, a senior at Charleston Southern University, are both prized athletes with Golf Canada’s high-performance program.

Big sis is on the Young Pro Squad while little bro is a National Amateur Team member, though their primary grooming ground has been Loyalist Country Club in Bath, Ont.

That’s where father Geoff is positioned as the head professional, providing easy access to the tee and practice facilities. They’d spend hours upon hours there in the summer and, once they were old enough to work, escape for a quick round after their shifts.

“Growing up I was always very competitive with her and I would keep score to try to beat her,” remembers Austin. “I don’t think she was paying much attention to what my score was because I would lose 98 per cent of the time. She would wax me up and down the golf course.”

“He only thought that I wasn’t keeping score,” answers Augusta. “But I was counting down the days until I wasn’t going to be able to hit it as far as him or beat him as easily. When we first moved to Loyalist he was actually playing a tee up from me. Now I have such a difficult time keeping up with him.”

Standing six-foot-three, Austin towers over his older sister and uses his strength to overpower golf courses too. That, along with his putting, has helped him even out the friendly-but-fierce matches with pint-sized Augusta.

It wasn’t any easier when they were on the same team either. At 10 and 12 years old, Austin actually played a few levels up on Augusta’s hockey team. She was a solid defenseman in a boys league, but he was the star forward.

“It had its challenges sometimes because he was so much better than me,” Augusta says. “It took a little while I guess to just relax with that fact but it was hard to be too upset when we were winning hockey games because he was on that team.”

The James’ were never a one-sport family and Augusta acknowledges her edge on the ice carried over to the golf course. Austin too.

“It gives you kind of a grit or competitiveness that I find a lot of golfers don’t really have,” he explains. “So I think it was really beneficial. She started gravitating to golf at 12 or 13 and I was a little later, focusing on hockey until 15 or 16.”

When Austin did join Augusta on the links full time, his natural abilities allowed him to catch up quickly. However, that only pushed the elder sibling to be more focused and determined to stay a step ahead.

Augusta composed a sterling amateur career, logging high finishes at the Ontario Women’s Amateur, Porter Cup, and U.S. Women’s Amateur over the years. But the brightest moment from Augusta’s pre-professional days came in 2014 when she captured the Canadian Women’s Amateur, beating favourite Brooke Henderson in the process. She was the talk of her town and her house.

For two weeks. Because Austin matched her feat by winning the Canadian Junior Boys Championship.

“For them to win back-to-back national championships, two weeks apart, that is something that I never even imagined,” says Geoff. “It takes a lot of work to win a national championship and for two of them to do it, back to back, brother and sister, I thought that was pretty cool.”

Like always, there was no animosity whatsoever towards Austin for stealing Augusta’s thunder. The James family has always operated like a team. The kids continue to feed off each other’s strengths, with Augusta’s work ethic rubbing off on Austin and Austin’s calm, creative demeanour now present in Augusta. They often track each other’s play from afar and turn to each other for improvement or reassurance.

“I definitely value his opinion a lot on my golf game,” she adds.

“You have to let things roll off your back and he helps me do that because he is so laid back. I can take a lot from him and from growing up with him to my golf game for sure.”

The siblings will get to spend more time training and relaxing together — they are both big movie buffs — in the fall once Austin graduates and eventually turns pro, with the plan to join his sister down in Florida.

It speaks to the strength of their bond despite the distance they’ve grown accustomed to over the past five or six years when Augusta left for North Carolina State University. More than anything, it reveals their family values and character.

“Of everything that I’m proud of, it’s nothing to do with golf but how they handle themselves with everybody that they come into contact with. They’re just really good kids,” explains Geoff, noting their development and progress off the course.

“Most importantly to me is how they’ve turned out as people.”

Though both are projecting to long careers in the professional ranks they know their future wouldn’t be possible without their past, in which mom and dad a played pivotal role.

“It was very instrumental,” reflects Austin. “Those are the two biggest influences in mine and (Augusta’s) golf world, bar none.”

“They’ve afforded us all these opportunities. They put a lot of time, money, effort, sleepless nights into us,” adds Augusta. “So I hope that we’ve made them proud and shown that we will work hard in appreciation of the sacrifices they’ve made for us.”

This article was originally published in the Family Issue edition of Golf Canada Magazine. Click here to view the full magazine

Legendary Canadian designer Stanley receives most of the praise but his four brothers all shared deep connections with the game too.

Stanley Thompson is a Canadian golf institution. That is a universally shared opinion. The renowned course designer is to golf in this country what Harry Colt is to the British Isles and what Donald Ross and Alistair Mackenzie are to the U.S. — the benchmark and standard by which classic and even modern courses are routinely judged.

Being one of golf architecture’s immortals, Thompson enjoys a status reserved for the revered and is on a pedestal accorded to few.

During an illustrious career spanning over three decades, he designed or was involved in the construction of more than 145 courses, including some of this nation’s finest: Capilano, St. George’s, Cape Breton Highlands, Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and Fairmont Banff Springs, to name a select few.

Along with Ross, he is one of the co-founders of the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) and his immediate understudies, Robert Trent Jones, Robbie Robinson, Howard Watson and Geoff Cornish, passed along Thompson’s visionary talent to a third generation of Canadian architects. That contemporary group includes Doug Carrick, Thomas McBroom, Graham Cooke and Les Furber.

The Toronto Terror’s reputation has even crossed over to the sporting mainstream. Already a member of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame (1980), the federal government named Thompson a Person of National Significance in Canada in 2005, an honour bestowed on the designer posthumously by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. Only two years ago, and more than 60 years after his passing, he was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

However, his well-documented career features another claim to fame. He was one of five members of the “Amazing Thompsons,” a title Stanley proudly shared with his four brothers — Nicol, Mathew, Bill and Frank.

Arguably the royal family of Canadian golf, the Thompson boys dominated the golf scene during the early 1920s, led by eldest brothers Nicol and Mathew as professionals and the younger Bill, Stanley and Frank as decorated amateurs.

“They were fine golfers with a lot of talent and were definitely a force to be reckoned with back in the day,” explains Stan Thompson, Nicol’s grandson. “My grandfather was the head professional at Hamilton Golf & Country Club for many, many years. He was good enough to lead the first two rounds of the Canadian Open played there in 1930.”

“He also won the 1922 PGA Championship of Canada and finished second in 1913 in the (Canadian) Open. Frank and Bill Thompson were also very successful, winning three Canadian Amateurs between them. Frank also won the Florida Winter Amateur one year and once beat Bobby Jones in a match. Quite often back then they would take road trips together to play. When they showed up at events it was like, ‘Okay, who is going to be second?’ All the brothers were players first.”

The golf bloodline of the working class Thompson brothers begins where you expect: in the caddie yard. All five boys looped at Toronto Golf Club and learned the game’s finer points under legendary Canadian pro George Cumming, who would eventually join forces with Nicol to form the first incarnation of the Thompson family golf course design business.

The Thompson brothers in 1923. Left to right: Frank, Mat, Nicol, Stanley and Bill

At Toronto GC, the boys were surrounded by greatness. Distinguished Canadian champions Karl Keffer, Albert Murray and Charles Murray were all members.

“The influence of Toronto Golf Club was very important to all of their careers,” reflects Mathew Thompson’s grandson, Matt Thompson. “It was the connections they had there. That and the friendships they had with so many greats of the day, players like Bobby Jones, were very important and I’m sure quite instrumental in their success as golfers. The more I dig into it, the more interesting the family history gets.”

Even the lives of the Thompson women — mother Jeannie and sisters Marion, Betty, Isobel and Jean — were intertwined with the game. According to the Thompson Society website, Betty was the family financial wizard. For years she looked after the books for the family’s foray into course design while also running her own mail-order company.

“She was smart. All of the girls enjoyed themselves too. They liked a good party,” Stan Thompson added.

Fine players first, the Thompson boys became immersed in course architecture early on. Influenced by Colt’s routing and detail at Toronto GC, they collaborated in their formative years to build Rye Field, a six-hole family short course nearby. It proved a humble beginning for what would eventually become a thriving national and international business.

Regrettably this chapter of Thompson family history would transpire under difficult circumstances: the passing of patriarch James Thompson.

With the father of the family gone, eldest brother Nicol called a family meeting where it was decided that Stanley, who had just returned from the First World War, would assume control of the Thompson design company. The rest of the boys would remain in golf in their various capacities.

“They were in business together off and on the golf course,” said Stan Thompson, “but what is interesting about that, and I’ve seen it mentioned frequently, is that Stanley was anointed the designated course designer. That was his calling. The boys recognized it. My grandfather considered himself a professional first. Same with Mathew. It made sense for Stanley to assume that role.”

In the ensuing years the decision proved to be well considered. Thompson’s first design, Muskoka Lakes Golf & Country Club, received high praise. In 1922 he branched out to form his own firm, Stanley Thompson & Co. Limited, where he quickly secured status as the country’s go-to architect.

Before the decade closed he had cemented his reputation with the completion of Alberta’s Jasper Park Lodge and Banff Springs and Toronto’s St. George’s.

As business continued to flourish it was not uncommon for the other boys to step up to lend an assist. Nicol was still highly regarded. In his early days he played pivotal design roles in both courses at Hamilton’s Chedoke Golf Club; Midland Golf & Country Club; Brantford Golf & Country Club; and Owen Sound Golf and Country Club (now called Legacy Ridge).

He also worked on several courses in and around the Niagara Peninsula. Occasionally through the years that has sparked debate and prompted research into which Thompson did what?

“I think it’s partly their own fault,” Stan Thompson asserts. “As players, they didn’t promote themselves and my grandfather certainly didn’t self-promote as a course designer. It wasn’t important to him. He didn’t need to be known for anything other than being a club professional.”

Today, golf remains a staple in the lives of many of the post generations of Thompsons. Some members of the family play better than others but the passion is strong throughout.

“My dad, Nicol Jr., won the Ontario Junior in 1925 and 1926,” Stan Thompson adds. “I still play. I’m in my 70s now and I have had nowhere near the talent my father and grandfather or uncles had but the thing I and a lot of the family inherited from them was a true love of the game.”

In modern golf circles the Thompson name remains prominent thanks in large part to the Stanley Thompson Society, an organization founded in 1998 by the late Bill Newton, a cousin of Matt and Stan Thompson. It remains dedicated to the conservation of classic Thompson golf courses through education and awareness.

“My cousin Matt and I say this all the time. We wish now we had heard more stories from them when we were younger,” Stan Thompson says, “but you can’t go back. What we can do is celebrate them as part of the hierarchy of golf in Canada. As members of the family we’re pleased by the attention the Thompson family name continues to receive. I think all of them would be proud.”

This article was originally published in the Family Issue edition of Golf Canada Magazine. Click here to view the full magazine