AUSTIN, TX – The Simon Fraser University (SFU) Clan men’s golf team will become the first Canadian school to compete for an NCAA Championship in golf. The team overcame a 17-stroke deficit Wednesday at the NCAA Super Regional to earn a spot in the NCAA Division II Golf Championships in Allendale, MI.

SFU entered the day 17 strokes behind the sixth place team, Chico State, and scored 290 as a team on Wednesday to earn the sixth and final spot at the NCAA Championship.

Mlikotic led his team on the final day of competition, shooting the best round of any golfer throughout the entire tournament, a 68 (-4) to tie for 8^th place individually along with Kevin Vigna, each shooting 221 (+5).

Head Coach John Buchanan is pleased with the achievement, but realizes there is still much work to be done.

“The last rounds were a reflection of our player’s ability,” said Buchanan. “The challenge for the NCAA Championships will now be to stay consistent and play to that ability.”

Mlikotic was also content with his play at the regional qualifier.

“It was good to finish strong,” said Mlikotic.  “I stayed focused and took one shot at a time. I was able to stay bogey free after the first hole, make a couple birdies on seven and eight and then to cap it off with a 20 foot putt from the fringe for birdie. I’d say it was the best round of my life”

Senior Mike Belle (Burnaby, B.C.) had his best round of the tournament in the third round, shooting a 73 (+2) to finish the championship at 232 (+16).

Freshman Craig Titterington (Coquitlam, B.C.) saved his best round of the tournament for last. After shooting 83 and 88 in his first two rounds of post-season play, Titterington fired a 75 (+3) in the final round to aid his team’s comeback.

Bret Thompson (Winnipeg) shot a 78 (+6) in the final round. After scoring for the Clan with rounds of 77 (+5) in the opening round and 78 (+6) in round two, he was edged out by Titterington in round three.

The 2014 NCAA Division II Championship will get underway May 19 at The Meadows Golf Course in Allendale, MI.

UXBRIDGE, Ont. — The Golf Association of Ontario (GAO) held it’s annual Ontario Hall of Fame induction ceremony May 7th at Wooden Sticks Golf Course. Earl Fritz, John Henrick, Dorothy Campbell Hurd Howe and Bob Weeks were inducted as the class of 2014, while Ken McKee was the recipient of the Lorne Rubenstein Media Award.

GAO president Jim King summed up the importance of the evening for golf in the province.

“Tonight is about honouring our past. I think it is very important that we recognize the accomplishments, contributions and the inspiration that these people have provided for the other side of the equation: the up and coming. So it is really nice to honour them.”

The ceremony began with the presentation of the Lorne Rubenstein Media Award to Ken McKee. McKee was unable to attend the ceremony, however, his grandson Maxwell delivered his acceptance speech that was written by McKee and members of his family.

“Mostly we just wanted this speech to convey sentiments and how much he enjoyed covering the game,” read Maxwell. “From high school to the Masters, he just loved getting there to tell the story in his own way. My grandfather is truly humbled and thankful to have been chosen as the 2014 Lorne Rubenstein Award recipient, my grandfather has the utmost respect for his work.”

Maxwell closed with a word of thanks directly from McKee.

“I want to thank the Golf Association of Ontario for this award and to all the players, past and present, I could not have done my job without you.”

The first inductee to be recognized was Dorothy Campbell Hurd Howe. In acceptance of the award for Hurd Howe, the Ladies President of the Hamilton Golf and Country Club, Nancy Rundle, where Hurd Howe was a member while she lived in Canada, sent a letter of thanks for the recognition of one of their own. It was delivered by emcee Rod Black.

Next, Earl Fritz took to the stage to receive his award.

“I never understood how excited one could be until I was called by Dave Mills (retired GAO Executive Director) and told that I would be inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Golf Association of Ontario,” said Fritz. “I was excited and honoured. I was on a cruise in the Mediterranean at the time. The excitement got to me so much that I had to phone Dave and thank him all the way from Barcelona. I’d like to thank all of the other inductees for all of the work they have done to develop the game of golf. Thanks to everyone who is here and to the GAO for such a big honour.”

John Henrick was then recognized. He shared some of the thoughts he had before heading out for his Hall of Fame round of golf earlier in the day.

“I can’t thank you enough for this honour,” stated Henrick. “I am so proud to be a member of the golf scene, still as a player. My last competitive round was played in 2008 at Royal Woodbine and I shot a 70 on a par 72 course. My first competitive round I went to caddie but then herd my name called by the pro shop. Our pro told me I was to fill in for one of the pros. I shot a 74. Ladies and gentlemen 61 years later, I’m getting better!”

Only earlier in the day the final inductee Bob Weeks notified the GAO that he had a family emergency to tend to and would be unable to attend. However, his friend and colleague from SCOREGolf Kim Locke stepped in to say a few words.

“The last thing I wanted to do was to be here speaking for Bob,” said Locke. “I know how honoured and excited he was to have the opportunity to be here tonight. The SCOREGolf brand and its success over the years, without Weeksy, would not have grown and might not even exist today.”

Locke closed with the speech that Weeks had sent to him just hours before the ceremony.

“I have been so fortunate to be able to travel far and wide, meet people and enjoy this wonderful game of golf on so many levels. The best part of it all is just how many friends I have made, for that I am blessed. Not a day goes by that I don’t realize how lucky I am to do what I do. To be honoured here tonight is humbling and extremely exciting.”

With that the 2014 class entered the hall capping off an excellent Hall of Fame Day celebration.

COURTENAY, BC – On a day when heavy rain and gusting winds made Crown Isle Resort and Golf Community a challenging test and just six players broke 70, David Bradshaw held steady with a 1-under 71 to extend his lead to 11 shots heading into the final round of PGA Tour Canada’s British Columbia Q-School.

The 31-year old from Encinitas, California managed three birdies and two bogeys to add one shot to his overnight lead and post 18-under through 54 holes. Amateur Ryan McCormick sat in solo second at 7-under after firing a 5-under 67, the best round of the day.

“I know where I stand and I feel pretty confident,” said Bradshaw. “I just have to try and stay focused and not think about it too much and it should be okay.”

Bradshaw said he felt good about his round despite shooting nine shots higher than the day before, when he carded a course record 62 at Crown Isle. Temperatures hovered around 12 degrees Celsius, with winds gusting to 20 km/h and approximately 20 mm of rain falling through the day. The course averaged 75.35 strokes on Thursday after averaging just 73.74 over the first two rounds.

“I played pretty well. I saved a lot of pars on that back nine,” added Bradshaw. “Hitting the ball forward was the goal. If you made par it was great, and if you made any birdies it was a miracle. On the 14th hole, I hit driver-3 wood today after I hit driver-9 iron yesterday.”

Bradshaw comes into the week off an appearance on the PGA Tour, where he Monday Qualified for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. The Shepherd University graduate also received a timely assist from a Crown Isle resident – four-time club champion Peter Benedictson, whose son Brian is a former PGA Tour Canada member – who stepped into caddie in round three.

“With a day like today, you definitely need a caddie, and he did an awesome job,” said Bradshaw. “When it got really windy around the middle of the front nine, it was a big relief to have him around and help me with the weather.”

With the top 18 players this week earning exempt status and rest of the top 40 plus ties earning conditional status for 2014, seven players were tied for 18th position at 1-under, a leaderboard that would result in a seven-for-one playoff for exempt status if it were to remain. Forty-one players were at even or better and in position for conditional status.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Martin Kaymer stopped thinking, started swinging and played his way into the record book Thursday in The Players Championship.

Kaymer missed only two fairways. He putted for birdie on all but one hole. And the former PGA champion finished with four straight birdies to become only the fourth player to shoot 9-under 63 on the Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass, giving him a two-shot lead over Russell Henley.

Kaymer took advantage of a perfect day for scoring – warm weather, hardly any wind and soft greens.

There were 28 rounds in the 60s, which made the score by Adam Scott look even worse. With another chance – his best one yet – to get to No. 1 in the world for the first time, Scott finished with a pair of double bogeys from shots in the water and signed for a 77. It was his highest opening round at The Players since his first trip in 2002.

Kaymer was flawless, hitting whatever shot he felt he needed. His final blow was a hybrid that ran through the ninth green and into a bunker, leaving a simple up-and-down for birdie. He had a 29 on the back, the first player in the 32-year history at Sawgrass to break 30 on either nine.

Roberto Castro also opened with a 63 last year. The only others with 63 were Greg Norman in the first round in 1994, and Fred Couples in the third round in 1992.

“It’s just a nice bonus,” Kaymer said. “It’s only the first round of a long, long tournament. It’s nice to make some history. No one shot 29 on that golf course before.”

Kaymer would not have seemed like a good candidate.

He has not won since the HSBC Champions in Shanghai at the end of 2011. He hasn’t had a top 10 all year. But the 29-year-old German has felt his swing start to come together in recent weeks. His name has been featured on leaderboards more and more.

And he had a simple explanation.

“I stopped thinking,” Kaymer said, a former world No. 1. “I thought a lot the last two years about swing changes … that every shot I made I reflect on it, what I did wrong, what I did right.”

A few weeks before the Masters, he spent time with longtime swing coach Gunter Kessler in Phoenix, and then they had another good session in Germany.

“And then it just clicked a little bit,” he said. “I thought, `OK, I know I can hit pretty much every shot when I needed to hit it.’ If it’s a draw, if it’s a fade, low or high, I know that I can do it. It’s just a matter of getting the confidence on the golf course and then letting it happen and really doing it.”

Henley, who won the Honda Classic in a four-way playoff in March, made birdie on half of his holes to atone for one big mistake. He hooked a tee shot into the water on No. 7 and compounded that with a three-putt for double bogey. But he answered with six birdies on the back nine for a 65.

“I knew I was playing well and felt really comfortable on the greens,” Henley said. “But it was one of those back nines where you get to 18 and I just realized that I had a putt for 7 under. So that was pretty cool.”

Bae Sang-Moon had a 66.

The group at 67 included Sergio Garcia, who spent last year in a war or words with Tiger Woods that lasted right up until the Spaniard hit three balls into the water on the two closing holes and Woods walked away with the win. Garcia looked sharp, happy and was confident in his game.

And he had loads of company. Lee Westwood, 20-year-old Jordan Spieth and U.S. Open champion Justin Rose also were at 67. The group at 68 included Ernie Els and Dustin Johnson. There were 67 rounds under par, and the scoring average of 71.99 was the eighth-lowest for an opening round at The Players Championship.

But it wasn’t easy for everyone.

Rory McIlroy made three bogeys over his last seven holes and tumbled to a 70. That was nearly as bad as Phil Mickelson. Coming off a 76 in the final round at Quail Hollow last week, he started his round by missing a 3-foot par putt and shot 75.

Of the four players with a mathematical chance to reach No. 1, only Masters champion Bubba Watson broke 70. He had a 69, while Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar each had a 71. Only four players had a worse score than Scott.

Kaymer reached No. 1 three years ago, and then sought to change his swing because he could only hit a fade. He prefers to play by feel, not by mechanics. A swing change left him little choice but to think too much. Now, he can only hope it’s as simple as see the shot and hit the ball.

Canada’s Graham DeLaet opened with a 3-under 69, he’s tied for 19th with seven others. David Hearn was one-back of DeLaet after a 2-under 70. He’s tied for 29th.

SANTO DA SERRA, Madeira Islands – The first round of the Madeira Islands Open was postponed after heavy fog prevented any play on the Santo da Serra course on Thursday.

Play was abandoned at 5 p.m. local time, leaving organizers hopeful of starting the European Tour’s 1,500th tournament on Friday.

While the capital Funchal was bathed in sunshine all day, visibility on the golf course, 700 meters (2,300 feet) above the city, was restricted to about 50 yards.

“It is a very unusual mini ecosystem here at this venue, and, while many of the holes on the course further down the mountain are clear, unfortunately some are still under fog,” tournament director Jose Maria Zamora said.

OAKVILLE, Ont. – Golf Canada’s CEO, Scott Simmons and RBC Canadian Open Tournament Director Bill Paul visited a McDonalds in Oakville, Ont. Wednesday May 7th, 2014  as honourary servers to assist in raising money for Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada – the official charity partner of the RBC Canadian Open.

McDonalds restaurants across the country were hosting McHappy Day, where $1 from each Big Mac, hot coffee and Happy Meal sold that day were donated directly to neighbourhood children’s charities and Ronald McDonald Houses.

Scott and Bill were proud to be a part of McHappy Day and have shared their thoughts in this video. Enjoy!

GC:       What prompted Bear Mountain to host the CNFL Pacific Championship?
JR:       It’s an honour to be able to host some of Canada’s best young players. Most all of us started out as junior golfers and being able to give back and work with Golf Canada to grow the game is a privilege.

GC:      What do you think will challenge competitors the most?
JR:       The greens on the Valley Course. They are large with slopes and ridges so I would expect to see some scoring swings take place on our greens.

GC:      What can players expect when they arrive at your club?
JR:       It’s true Mountain golf. We pride ourselves on our service and facilities and are looking forward to showing all the youngsters and their families a great time while they are competing here.

GC:      Why is hosting this championship important to the club?
JR:       We want to become the best Resort and Golf Community in Canada so working with Golf Canada hosting high end events is a natural fit.

GC:      What preparations have went into hosting this championship?
JR:       Our membership is amazing and so many of them have volunteered to help drive shuttles for the players, do scoring and such. It would not be possible to organize without the help of our membership.

GC:      What does hosting an event like this do for your local community?
JR:       This is great for our resort and will allow many of the players to stay here for the entire trip staying in the hotel and taking the elevator back to their room at the end of the day.

GC:      Are there any significant holes or sections of the golf course that should provide excitement for the tournament?
JR:       The greens and staying away from three putts will likely decide the winner. Our Valley Course is a little more user friendly than the Mountain but still a very good test of golf. I am always impressed when we host junior event of the caliber of play and the Valley will demand some shot making and an all-around solid game.

GC:      What does your club do to encourage and engage your junior membership each season?
JR:       All of our golf memberships include free junior golf memberships for our member’s children. We run very popular Kids Bear Cub Camps all Summer long both golf specific and 5 spot taking advantage of the tennis, swimming, hiking and volleyball options at the resort. We also have 5 sets of tees with both courses playing around 4,500 from the forward tees as a softer introduction to junior golfers.

Golf is a sport rich in history and tradition. These elements are upheld at all levels of the game – see the video below to learn how the CN Future Links “Learn To Play” junior program helps to introduce these elements to children.

New this year, Learn To Play is changing from seven levels to four stages and refocusing its programming to target a smaller age range.

The target age group of 6-12 year-olds will now be rewarded with colour-coded hats and gear provided by the program’s new apparel sponsor, Puma Golf. CN Future Links instructors will benefit by enticing juniors with the popular, vibrant Puma colours that have been made famous by PGA Tour stars Rickie Fowler and Canadian Graham DeLaet.

With the new updates, the seven core modules of Learn To Play remain unchanged. Acting as foundational elements, the modules are easily transferrable to other sports and aspects of life – one of the primary goals of CN Future Links.

You can read more about each core module of CN Future Links here.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The Match Play Championship will not be in its traditional spot early in the 2015 season for the first time since it began in 1999.

The future of the World Golf Championship remains muddled after Accenture decided this year not to renew its title sponsorship. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem had said in February that he hoped to have a clear direction within a month or so.

“This has been taking longer than we thought,” Finchem said at The Players Championship. “We’ll see. We probably won’t have anything to say for at least a few weeks.”

But an announcement out of Texas on Tuesday made one thing clear. There is no room on the schedule for the Match Play Championship between the start of the year and The Players Championship.

The Valero Texas Open announced that it would be played next year on March 26-29, two weeks before the Masters. That means every day on the PGA Tour calendar is taken between the Hyundai Tournament of Champions (Jan. 9-12) and The Players (May 7-10).

The Match Play traditionally wraps up the West Coast Swing at the end of February, except for in 2001 when it was played in Australia in early January. The Honda Classic, the start of the Florida Swing, will be held next year on Feb. 26 to March 1.

Finchem did not rule out a return to Tucson, Ariz., which has an experienced host organization in the Conquistadors and Tucson is a strong golf market.

“Where we’re going is an open question,” he said. “Certainly, Tucson is a possibility.”

The tour is in talks with at least one potential sponsor, and it’s a remote possibility that the tournament simply takes a year off. One problem with that is the PGA Tour would have a hole in its schedule.

The Byron Nelson in Dallas (under new sponsorship next year with AT&T) is to be played May 21-24. That would leave a week open after The Players.

Finchem said in February that the tour was looking at a makeover for the Match Play because even the best players – Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, for example – are not guaranteed being around for more than one day in the current format of single elimination.

Woods, Mickelson and Adam Scott did not play this year.

The greater concern appears to be a title sponsor, which could play a large role in where the Match Play is held. But for 2015, the only open date before the end of the major championship season would be May 14-17.

(COURTENAY, BC) – California’s David Bradshaw opened up a massive lead at PGA Tour Canada’s British Columbia Qualifying Tournament Wednesday, firing a 10-under 62 at Crown Isle Resort and Golf Community to lead by 10 shots through 36 holes.

Bradshaw’s 62 is a competitive course record at Crown Isle and gave him a 17-under par total, following his opening 65 in Tuesday’s first round. Summerland, B.C.’s Greg Machtaler was in solo second at 7-under after a second round 69.

“I was hitting it great and putting really well. I had one little blip when I three-putted nine, but I made everything I looked at,” said Bradshaw, who carded 11 birdies on Wednesday. The 31-year old said any thoughts of shooting 59 were dashed after three-putting the ninth hole – a turn of events that Bradshaw said actually helped him on the back nine.

“When I got to 5-under on eight, it occurred to me that I could do it,” said Bradshaw of the potential for a sub-60 round. “But when I three-putted nine, it kind of relaxed me because I knew it was done with and I could just focus on the next shot.”

With a double-digit lead heading into Thursday’s third round, Bradshaw said he’s going to focus on the tasks at hand as much as possible.

“Golf’s a weird game. It seems like the more you focus on the individual shot, the better they total at the end,” said Bradshaw, who is coming off an appearance two weeks ago at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he Monday Qualified to play on the PGA Tour for the fourth time in his career.

Machtaler carded five birdies to offset a double bogey and give him a 3-under 69, his second straight sub-60 round for the week.

“I’m really happy with where I am and how I’ve played,” said Machtaler, who said he’s looking forward to the challenge of two more Q-School rounds. “They’re definitely not comfortable rounds, so I couldn’t ask for more to be where I am right now.”

With the top 18 players this week earning exempt status and rest of the top 40 plus ties earning conditional status for 2014, 20 players were at 3-under or better and in position for full cards, while 47 players were at even or better and in position for conditional status.