COURTENAY, British Columbia—It was a popular win as Jimmy Jones held it together just enough to walk away with medalist honors at Crown Isle Resort, shooting an even-par round of 72 Friday to capture the top spot at the sixth and final 2023 PGA TOUR Canada Qualifying Tournament.

Jones—who lists Lake Cowichan, British Columbia, as home and is the son of the late LPGA Canadian great Dawn Coe-Jones—had a strong following all week, just two hours from his mom’s hometown.

It was just as an attractive runner-up finish for Max Sear, who hails from the provincial capital of Victoria, where the opening tournament—the Royal Beach Victoria Open—begins play this coming week as PGA TOUR Canada’s ninth and final season gets underway.

Sear, a member of Royal Colwood in Victoria, had family and friends on hand to witness his play as he tied for second with U.S. player Carr Vernon, a stroke behind Jones’ leading pace.

Jones and Sear started the day in the top two spots, respectively—with Jones holding a two-stroke lead—and managed to hang on for the gallery that followed. The winner had rounds of 72-63-68-72, finishing at 13-under, while Sear suffered a double bogey on his final hole for a 1-under 71 to fall one shot short of forcing a playoff.

Vernon birdied his last two holes to catch Sear with his round of 69.

With the win, Jones earns full playing privileges for the year, eligible for every open tournament. It was an emotion triumph, he admitted.

“The nerves were real. Exciting nerves, too. This win is going to bring me to tears,” he said, his eyes starting to mist up. “This one is for Mom. She was up there, cheering me on, and it means a lot to me, especially with all the support here.

“It feels, like we said [Thursday], like a home game. You want to perform for everybody in the crowd. But there were a lot of emotions and thoughts out there. Everyone knows golf, though, you have to keep it simple, and that was the goal.”

It was a cautious start as Jones had to hit a provisional drive on the first tee, but he luckily found the errant first tee shot. He had three birdies and three bogeys on the day and gutted things out, which the fans appreciated at tournament’s end.

“I signed a bunch of autographs today, more than I ever have, which is pretty cool and makes you feel good. It’s so special to have my boy Mark (Valliere, his caddie) with me and my godmother, Kelly, was here watching,” said Jones.

“It was Family Part Two up here, and it’s something I will always wear on my sleeve, and I hope to come back here as many times as I can,” said the Tampa-born Jones, who won with the tattoo DCJ (his mom’s initials) and a Maple Leaf freshly stamped on his right wrist.

Jones was also glad he pulled off the win and had Sear there right behind to make it a Vancouver Island affair.

“We had a fun day. We were chatting a lot, and I’ve known Carr, too, from playing college, so it was a good grouping,” Jones said.

As for Sear, it was a bit of a struggle all day, but his putter saved him just enough, until the final hole when he missed an eight-footer for bogey that would have forced a playoff with Jones.

“I didn’t have my best stuff. I struggled all day, hitting wipey cuts again. I just managed it with a good couple of up and downs before I completely puked on myself on the last hole,” he said. “I slipped on the drive (on 18); chipped it out; hit another bad shot; bad chip and missed the putt and missed by one.

“It is what it is. I’d rather do it now than when there’s a purse on the line, I guess,” Sear said, still glad to have played in the final grouping. “I had never played with Jimmy before, so it was nice to connect. Any time you can feel like it’s a home game and play well makes it that much sweeter.” 

Several others made their charges to earn exemptions through the first half of the season, including Canadian amateur Matthew Anderson, who just turned pro, finishing fourth after his final-round 66 propelled him 11 spots.

Tyson Dinsmore’s 67 left him fifth, while Kyle Vance made the biggest leap, with his 8-under 64 that left him tied for sixth with fellow U.S. player Daniel Wetterich and Canadian Raoul Ménard, who both shot 69s.

A four-player playoff featuring Canadians A.J. Ewart and Jake Lane and U.S. players Hagen Fell and Dylan Healey produced the last two exemption spots for the first half of the season with Lane making a par on the third extra hole to advance and Healey making birdie on the fifth playoff hole to secure the final spot.

Ewart and Fell, along with 18 others, picked up conditional playing status.

Did you know that 2022 PGA TOUR Canada Fortinet Cup winner Wil Bateman earned the right to start in the field at the PGA TOUR’s Canadian Open in Ontario this week and turned in a scintillating, 6-under 66 Friday to move into a tie for 23rd after two rounds at Oakdale Golf and Country Club? The 66 moved him up 84 spots on the leaderboard after an opening 74.

Key Information 

How the Tournament Worked 

PGA TOUR Canada, along with PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, are international PGA TOUR-sanctioned tours that provide access to the Korn Ferry Tour and are part of the pathway to the PGA TOUR. Since its inception in 2013, PGA TOUR Canada has held 34 Qualifying Tournaments across the U.S. and Canada. This event was the final of six 2023 PGA TOUR Canada Qualifiers scheduled in advance of the 2023 season. Each qualifier was a 72-hole, no-cut event, with playoffs, if necessary, for the medalist position and for the 10th and final position available.

One-hundred-seventeen players started the tournament Tuesday, with 114 completing all 72 holes. Below is a breakdown of the various PGA TOUR Canada memberships earned this week.   

• There were 15 amateurs playing at Crown Isle Resort. The top finisher was Matthew Anderson of Mississauga, Ontario, who was fourth after rounds of 70-69-72-66 – 277. He, of course, turns pro with the result. Here are the three players who earned status this week:

Etienne Brault of Mercier, Quebec, ran into a nice stretch of holes midway through his final round. A birdie on No. 8 was followed by par on 9 before he birdied the 10th hole and eagled the par-4 11th with a rare deuce on the hole that plays 401 yards. It was the third eagle on the hole for the week and second on the day as Hagen Fell also turned the trick Friday after Ty Campbell completed the feat in the second round.

Callum McNeill, who shot a course record 60 on day two and was in position for a finish that would lead to exempt status, struggled to a 75 and fell 11 places into a tie for 14th. The Scotsman started the day four shots back of winner Jimmy Jones. McNeill will have conditional status this season. 

Crown Isle had been good to Jimmy Jones and Max Sear. Sear finished fourth here last year and Jones tied for seventh.

Matthew Anderson, of Mississauga, Ontario, got on a heater in the much-cooler temperatures Friday, weather that also featured some light rain throughout the day. Anderson finished with seven birdies and a bogey for an impeccable round of 6-under 66. “It feels good. I definitely expected to be sitting in this position, with status, but it’s actually nice to have done it. Having to go out and shoot a good round when I needed it was cool as well,” he said.

Kyle Vance made a big leap of his own via a spectacular 8-under 64 that moved him up 27 places into the tie for sixth and status through the first half of the season. “I had to make it happen. It was definitely there. I had a great practice round. The second round killed me,” Vance said of his 77. “I felt like I was stumbling. The next round I figured it out and shot minus-5 and then minus-8 to finish. We were checking the leaderboard. I knew I needed two more (birdies) and went birdie-birdie to finish. I really needed it.”

It’s amazing what can transpire when your give-a-darn factor drops. Take Aidan Goodfellow for example. The Parksville, British Columbia, resident got over the disappointment of shooting his way out of a top-10 spot Thursday. With the stress gone, he turned in an 8-under 64 in the final round, adding to his 71-78-77 start. The 64 moved him up 27 positions on the leaderboard, but still left him at 55th overall.

Will Stewart from the United States kept a nice, clean scoresheet on his final round, with three birdies on each side and no bogeys to be seen for a 7-under 65. It was a nice bounce-back from his 77 Thursday. The 65 pushed him up 32 spots on the leaderboard to a tie for 40th, but he ultimately fell short of getting his card.

Quotable

“It was a rough winter. I needed surgery on my hip and couldn’t play for about three months, but the people behind me stuck with me and this is for them. A little fight back to show what I have in me.” – Kyle Vance

“A lot less than you think. It was a lot of trust in my game that was the main reasoning. That putter got going. I gave myself some chances and took advantage of them.” – Noah Steele speaking about the difference in his play the last two days (rounds of 70 and 65) following opening scores of 74-75. His tie for 24th left him with conditional status.

“I’m thrilled. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes work to get me to this stage.” – Noah Steele

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR Canada will merge into a singular Tour to form PGA TOUR Americas, which will begin play in February 2024, the PGA TOUR has announced.

PGA TOUR Americas will consist of 16 events contested across Latin America, Canada and the United States from February through September. The top 10 finishers on the season-long points list will earn Korn Ferry Tour membership for the following season.

“As we build on the rich golf history across Latin America and Canada, we are thrilled about PGA TOUR Americas and the role this tour will play in preparing players for the next step in their professional golf journey,” said Alex Baldwin, who oversees PGA TOUR Americas, the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry and PGA TOUR University. “PGA TOUR Americas will be an extremely competitive tour aimed at identifying, developing and transitioning top-performing players to the next level as they ascend through the ranks and strive to reach the highest level of professional golf, the PGA TOUR.”

The PGA TOUR Americas season will begin in February with the Latin America Swing, which will conclude in May. Eligibility for the Latin America Swing will include the top 60 finishers from the final 2022-2023 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Points List and the top 60 finishers from the final 2023 PGA TOUR Canada Points List. PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry will also provide access to the Latin America Swing of PGA TOUR Americas for the winners of a First Stage site, as well as additional finishers beyond the 40th position and ties from Final Stage of 2023 PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry. Additional access to the Latin America Swing will include the Latinoamérica Dev Series and the highest finisher on the 2023 APGA season-long points list who is a member of the APGA Player Development program.

The top 60 players from the Latin America Swing will continue on to compete in the North America Swing. Additionally, PGA TOUR Americas will host a mid-season Q-School, as well as introduce graduates from PGA TOUR University (finishers 6-20). Full eligibility for PGA TOUR Americas will be announced later this year and will feature similar categories to PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR Canada, including open qualifiers, sponsor exemptions and eligible Korn Ferry Tour members.

As PGA TOUR Americas heads to the North America Swing, members will compete in Canada and the United States from June through September in an effort to finish in the top 10 on the season-long points list and earn Korn Ferry Tour membership – exempt through the third reshuffle – for the following season.

In addition to Korn Ferry Tour cards being awarded to the top 10 finishers on the PGA TOUR Americas Points List, there are also numerous performance benefits available on PGA TOUR Americas. Five conditional Korn Ferry Tour cards are available to the top two finishers in the Latin America Swing and the top three performers from the North America Swing, in the event those individuals do not finish in the top 10 on the final PGA TOUR Americas Points List.

Additionally, performance on the PGA TOUR Americas Points List will grant access into 2024 PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry. The top 10 finishers on the PGA TOUR Americas Points List, the top two finishers in the Latin America Swing and the top three finishers in the North America Swing will earn exemptions to Final Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry.

Finishers 11–25 on the PGA TOUR Americas Points List, finishers 3–10 from the Latin America Swing and finishers 4–10 from the North America Swing will earn exemptions to Second Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry.

All remaining PGA TOUR Americas members will earn exemptions to First Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry.

The 2024 PGA TOUR Americas schedule will be announced in September. Finalized details regarding eligibility – including the priority ranking – as well as purses and points distribution, will be announced closer to the 2024 PGA TOUR Americas season beginning in February 2024.

TORONTO — PGA TOUR Canada announced its 2023 schedule, featuring a calendar of 10 tournaments that begins in June and concludes in September. After a successful inaugural Fortinet Cup season, this marks the second year of the competition that rewards top points-earners during the PGA TOUR Canada season. 

“We couldn’t have been more pleased with our 2022 season. Introducing the Fortinet Cup was so fulfilling for everybody associated with PGA TOUR Canada, and it was extremely gratifying to again team with long-time partners and venues while also welcoming new communities, golf courses and partners. It’s with a significant amount of pride that we present this new schedule,” said PGA TOUR Canada Executive Director Scott Pritchard. “We’ve put together a strong group of tournaments in conjunction with our partners, sponsors and host organizations, and while our season is still a few months away, we can’t wait to get underway.” 

“Fortinet is excited to once again welcome our community of customers and partners to a season-long Fortinet Cup in Canada. Our first year sponsoring PGA TOUR Canada was an unqualified success, with more than 600 technology leaders sharing insights and a first-class golf experience,” said Marc Asturias, Vice President of Marketing and Government Vertical at Fortinet Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. “We’re a company with a long track record of key investments in Canada over the last 20 years as its top cybersecurity platform vendor. Making the investments needed across Canada has been critical—to showcase the talents of these early-in-their-careers professional golfers, positively impact communities and local nonprofits across the Tour and bring value to our business customers and partners.”

Following six Qualifying Tournaments that lead up to the regular season, PGA TOUR Canada will begin its season June 12-18, at the Royal Beach Victoria Open at Uplands Golf Club in British Columbia’s capital city. 

The next week, June 19-25, the Tour travels to Waskesiu, Saskatchewan, for the Elk Ridge Saskatchewan Open. The third tournament in three weeks is the ATB Classic in Edmonton, moving to a course that is a PGA TOUR Canada venue for the first time—Northern Bear Golf Club.

The Tour will have a one-week break before players visit Quebec, for the Quebec Open at Golf Château Bromont on July 10-16. This is Golf Château Bromont’s inaugural year hosting a PGA TOUR Canada tournament. The Commissionaires Ottawa Open at Eagle Creek Golf Club in the capital city’s suburb of Dunrobin is the next week, July 17-23. 

The third of four tournaments in a month-long stretch of golf is the venerable Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos CBM Aggregates at TPC Toronto in Caledon, Ontario, on July 24-30. This will be the fourth playing of the tournament at the only TPC facility in Canada. The four-tournament stretch concludes with a return to Windsor, Ontario, for the Windsor Championship at Ambassador Golf Club July 31-August 6. 

As the end of the season approaches, the Tour will observe a scheduled two-week break, the season concluding with three consecutive tournaments. Players will travel to Winnipeg, Minnesota in the U.S. and then end in Calgary. 

“We feel there is a good pacing to the tournaments, our breaks coming at strategic times, allowing the players to regroup and recharge at critical points during the season,” Pritchard added. 

The CentrePort Canada Railpark Manitoba Open, the 2022 PGA TOUR Canada Tournament of the Year, is again set for Southwood Golf and Country Club on August 21-27. After making history in 2022 as the first tournament outside Canada to host an official event, the CRMC Championship presented by Gertens will again be at Cragun’s Conference and Golf Resort in Brainerd, Minnesota. 

The following week, the Tour’s ninth season ends, with the limited-field Fortinet Cup Championship, moving to a new home at Country Hills Golf Club in Calgary for its final event. The top-60 players on the Fortinet Cup standings following the CRMC Championship will be eligible to compete. Country Hills has previously hosted PGA TOUR Canada tournaments four times. In addition, the winner of the Fortinet Cup Championship will earn a berth in the PGA TOUR’s Fortinet Championship played in California later this year. 

“All nine of our full-field tournaments are crucial as they lead to the Fortinet Cup Championship. Returning to a familiar spot—Country Hills Golf Club—is an exciting turn of events for the conclusion of our year as we crown a Player of the Year and send off five players to the Korn Ferry Tour for the 2024 season,” Pritchard continued. “PGA TOUR Canada has grown immensely since it began in 2013, and I am constantly amazed and impressed at the level of play and abilities of our players. The fact they are going on to success on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR should come as a surprise to no one.”

2023 PGA TOUR Canada Schedule

PGA TOUR Canada announced it will hold six Qualifying Tournaments to determine Tour membership for the 2023 season – five in the U.S., beginning in late-February and concluding with a final qualifier in Canada a week before the Tour’s regular season begins.

PGA TOUR Canada completed its season in September, crowning the Fortinet Cup Points List leader – Edmonton’s Wil Bateman – as Player of the Year. Bateman became the inaugural winner of the Fortinet Cup after winning twice in 2022 and is now a fully exempt member of the Korn Ferry Tour for the 2023 season. Players hoping to follow in Bateman’s footsteps can begin by earning PGA TOUR Canada membership, with playing spots available at the six Qualifying Tournaments. 

“We are coming off a remarkably successful season, and we will continue to build on that momentum in 2023. The first steps are at our Qualifying Tournaments, where players can get on the path that will take them to their ultimate destination, which is the PGA TOUR,” said PGA TOUR Canada Executive Director Scott Pritchard. “Through the years, we’ve been fortunate that so many players are interested in pursuing their professional dreams by playing on PGA TOUR Canada. We anticipate there will be strong demand by players to come to our Tour, as players know about the quality of courses, the cities we visit and the caliber of competition PGA TOUR Canada offers.”

The qualifiers begin with two tournaments in Florida (Weston and Howey-in-the-Hills) on consecutive weeks in late-February, early March. The action starts February 21-24 at The Club at Weston Hills’ Tour Course, as it hosts a Qualifying Tournament for a second consecutive year. The Howey-in-the-Hills tournament is at historic Mission Inn Resort and Club, a long-time host of both PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica tournaments. It has hosted six previous PGA TOUR Canada qualifiers. The following week, the RTJ Golf Trail at Highland Oaks in Dothan, Alabama, is the site for a third consecutive year.

A month later, the qualifiers move west, with events at Wigwam Golf Club in the Phoenix suburb of Litchfield Park, Arizona (April 4-7) and at Soboba Springs Golf Course in San Jacinto, California (April 11-14).

Notable PGA TOUR members to emerge from these sites in recent years include Cameron Young (medalist at Dothan in 2020), Will Zalatoris (runner-up at Wigwam Golf Club in 2019), Alex Smalley (T3 at Howey-in-the-Hills in 2020), Hayden Buckley (T4 at Wigwam Golf Club in 2019), Carson Young (T7 at Howey-in-the-Hills in 2020) and Philip Knowles (T9 at Howey-in the-Hills in 2019).

Bateman finished T5 at the Wigwam Golf Club site in 2021, retained membership for 2022 via the points list and won the Fortinet Cup with his two-win season.

The final Qualifying Tournament is set for June 6-9 in Courtenay, British Columbia. Crowne Isle Resort and Golf Club has previously hosted seven Qualifying Tournaments. PGA TOUR Canada’s season begins the week after this Q-School.

Here is a look at the six tournaments that will all be 72-hole, Tuesday-to-Friday, no-cut events:

“This is a great lineup of tournaments that will test players’ skills and abilities. Those who emerge with Tour cards will have another strong PGA TOUR Canada schedule to play in 2023, with a chance to continue progressing in their professional careers,” Pritchard added.

Among player benefits available, a three-time winner on the Tour would earn automatic promotion to the Korn Ferry Tour. Additionally, the top five players on the 2023 Fortinet Cup Points List will receive 2024 Korn Ferry Tour membership, with the player finishing first earning fully exempt status. The top five players will also be exempt into the Final Stage of the 2023 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament, competing for a PGA TOUR card, which will be awarded to top-five finishers and ties. Those in the sixth-through-25th Fortinet Cup positions are exempt into the Second Stage of the 2023 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament. In addition, the top 60 players on the final Fortinet Cup standings will retain their PGA TOUR Canada playing privileges for 2024.

PGA TOUR Canada will announce its complete regular season schedule in early 2023.

KITCHENER, Ont.—Wil Bateman didn’t necessarily need to win the season-ending Fortinet Cup Championship in order to secure the Fortinet Cup title and Player of the Year honors. That’s exactly what he did, though, shooting a final-round 1-under 69 Sunday at Deer Ridge Golf Club to defeat Jeffrey Kang by two strokes. In the process, Bateman won the Fortinet Cup, finishing with 1,654 points and vaulting past Jake Knapp, who entered the week with the standings lead. It was quite the double dip. 

ELECTRIC!!

Edmonton’s @WilsonBateman wins the @FortinetCupChmp and the #FortinetCup in dramatic fashion.

He’s earned full @KornFerryTour status for next year pic.twitter.com/itRDW4eNKH

— PGA TOUR Canada – Fortinet Cup (@PGATOURCanada) September 18, 2022

With the victory, Bateman locked up his 2023 Korn Ferry Tour playing privileges, making him eligible to play in every open tournament on that Tour’s schedule. He is also the second Canadian—along with Mackenzie Hughes in 2013—to win PGA TOUR Canada Player of the Year honors. He pocketed a $25,000 bonus from Fortinet for winning the inaugural Fortinet Cup, and next summer Bateman is invited to play in the PGA TOUR’s RBC Canadian Open. By finishing second, Knapp will be conditionally exempt on next season’s Korn Ferry Tour. He tied for 34th at the closing tournament of the year. 

After Bateman and Knapp, the third-, fourth- and fifth-place Fortinet Cup finishers were Americans Noah Goodwin, Scott Stevens and Ryan Gerard, respectively. The players received their membership cards during a ceremony following the end of play Sunday at Deer Ridge Golf Club.

Bateman, a native of Edmonton, played in his 59th career PGA TOUR Canada event with this appearance—this season easily his best. Before this year, Bateman had never recorded a top-three finish and only had one career top-10.  

Exempt when the season began by virtue of his 21st-place finish on the 2021 Forme Tour Points List, Bateman was three strokes off the lead through 54 holes in the season-opening Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist. A final-round, 3-over 73 derailed his chances, but he put everybody on notice two weeks later when he chipped in to end the playoff and record an extremely popular win at his hometown ATB Classic presented by Volvo Edmonton. He put an exclamation mark on his season with his resounding victory Sunday, allowing him to join Noah Goodwin as the only two-time champions this season. 

“I think setting some solid goals for myself and knowing that I can attain them was big. Coming into this week, I think I put more pressure on myself, more than the pressure I felt when I was out [on the course] just because I wanted to achieve some of my goals,” Bateman said. “I knocked off a few of those goals, so it was a lot of fun.

“I still have bigger goals and dreams that I want to accomplish,” Bateman continued, “but this is a really good start. Just knowing where I was four to five years ago, if someone would have told me that I would be here I would say they were insane.”

“What a fun season it was, and to come down to the Fortinet Cup Championship, our final event of the year, with so many players with still so much to play for has been incredible to watch,” said PGA TOUR Canada Executive Director Scott Pritchard. “Wil proved from start to finish that he was our best player against formidable competition, and his performance under pressure this week to win the tournament and the Fortinet Cup was impressive. He will always have the Fortinet Cup on his mantel to remind him of what a special season 2022 was. Congratulations to Wil on what is an outstanding accomplishment. I can’t wait to see what he can do next season the Korn Ferry Tour.” 

The players who finished in the sixth-through-10th positions on the Fortinet Cup standings are exempt into the finals of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament in Savannah, Georgia. That 72-hole tournament is November 4-7. The five PGA TOUR Canada players exempt into the Qualifying Tournament, hoping to secure Korn Ferry Tour status via that route, are Thomas Walsh (No. 6), Jeffrey Kang (No. 7), Danny Walker (No. 8), Joe Highsmith (No. 9) and Ian Holt (No. 10). 

The 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season, the 34th in its history, starts in mid-January, the full schedule still to be announced. 

Beginning in 2013, the Korn Ferry Tour became The Path to the PGA TOUR by awarding all 50 membership cards to Korn Ferry Tour players for the following PGA TOUR season. Players can initially qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour through the Qualifying Tournament and by securing a top-five Fortinet Cup finish on PGA TOUR Canada or a top-five Totalplay Cup performance. PGA TOUR Canada sent its first five players to the Korn Ferry Tour following its inaugural season in 2013. They were Mackenzie Hughes (Canada), Riley Wheeldon (Canada), Mark Hubbard (U.S.), Hugo Leon (Chile) and Wil Collins (U.S.). This is the eighth group of PGA TOUR Canada players to move on to the Korn Ferry after the Tour did not contest tournaments in 2020 and 2021 due to the global pandemic.

Final 2022 Fortinet Cup Standings

(BROMONT, QC) – On Friday morning, ORORO PGA Women’s Championship of Canada at Bromont co-leaders Sarah-Eve Rhéaume, a 22-year-old amateur from Quebec City, and Min-G Kim, an Epson Tour veteran with nearly $120,000 in career earnings, battled back-and-forth with hopes of lifting the Lorie Kane trophy and assuring themselves a spot in August’s CP Women’s Open. 

By late Friday afternoon, Rhéaume pulled away – making nine birdies over the course of her final 14 holes, including four in her last five holes – to win by three strokes with a tournament-best final-round 66. The winning margin would have been higher had Kim not dropped a 60-footer on the last hole for her second eagle of the day. 

Shortly after Kim got the large Golf Chateau Bromont crowd warmed up, Rhéaume tapped in a short birdie look to set the crowd ablaze, with her mom waiting greenside to be the first one to give her daughter a bear hug. 

“It feels great, I had a great day, and it feels good to get the win,” said Rhéaume. “I had a good birdie putt on 5 and had a good look at eagle on 6 but just tapped in for birdie. Then I birdied three in and row and back nine shot 31, that was solid.”

“My mom coming down was nice and fun, my friend Matt caddied for me this week, this was the second time we’ve worked together and both times we’ve won, so we have a pretty good thing going,” said Rhéaume.

The first event they won together was the Glencoe Invitational – also comprised of both amateurs and professionals. Today she bested Kim, who ended up going home with the low professional cheque, while the first time it was Caroline Ciot, who ended this week in a tie for fifth and earned low PGA of Canada member honours. 

Somebody else holding the big cheque at Chateau Bromont didn’t bother Rhéaume, likely because she will make her LPGA debut in August in Ottawa alongside Brooke Henderson – the last amateur prior to Rhéaume to win the ORORO PGA Women’s Championship.

“Any time you can be compared to Brooke it’s a good thing,” said Rhéaume. “She has accomplished so many great things. I’m just lucky to have my name along with hers on this trophy.”

Members of the Golf Canada Amateur Squad, including Rhéaume, put on quite the show on Friday. In addition to Rhéaume’s 7-under par 66, Brooke Rivers shot 69 and Celeste Doa shot 68 – which would have been the low-round of the tournament if not for her teammate’s spectacular day. 

Following Rhéaume’s LPGA debut in Ottawa, she says the plan is to return to Furham University for her fifth and final season. 

The next PGA of Canada National Championship is the GOLFTEC Senior Men’s Championship of Canada, set for August 23-26 at Connaught Golf Club in Medicine Hat, AB. 

Myles Creighton has always wanted to wear the Maple Leaf on his golf gear. Now that he can as a member of Golf Canada’s young pro squad, he’s having a career season.

The product of Digby, N.S., was named to the national sports organization’s roster in mid-March and has proudly represented Canada on the PGA Tour _ Latinoamerica since. He’s the highest ranked Canadian heading into the third-tier tour’s championship tour this week and the highest ranked golfer from the Maritimes on any tour.

“I take huge pride in representing that part of the country and Canada in general,” said the 26-year-old Creighton. “I’ve always wanted to be on Team Canada’s growing up and I was just shy in junior golf and just left off the team in amateur golf.

Creighton is 32nd in the TotalPlay Cup rankings, dropping two spots after taking two weeks off Latinoamerica for the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto and a week of vacation. That ranking makes him the only Canadian in the field this week at the Bupa Tour Championship at PGA Riviera Maya in Tulum, Mexico.

“I love this golf course. I’ve been looking forward to playing it all year,” said Creighton, who noted that the fairway. “I’m just going to try and play my best but I feel like this is a great course for me.”

He’s had two top-10 finishes on tour this season, tying for ninth at the JHSF Aberto do Brasil on May 24 and then tying for third at the Jalisco Open on May 29. He also tied for 19th twice this season.

“I know that I can win on this tour,” said Creighton, who is targeting a card on the Korn Ferry Tour. “I would love to win this event it would do a lot for me because it’s an increased amount of points and 600 points. It could get me in the top 10.”

Creighton’s season won’t end at the Bupa Tour Championship, as he intends to return to the Maritimes and compete in the Prince Edward Island Open on the PGA Tour Canada. That event begins on June 30 at Dundarave Golf Club in Cardigan, P.E.I.

“I was really looking forward to it because my family is going to come up and I was going to get the chance to see them,” said Creighton. “I was able to see them at the Canadian Open, which was great, but they’re still going to come out so it’ll be a great week.’

TORONTO, Ont. — Featuring a regular season that begins in early June and ends in mid-September, PGA TOUR Canada announced its 2022 schedule Tuesday for the Fortinet Cup as part of the season-long competition. Fortinet announced it will be the Tour’s Cup sponsor as the Tour awards points based on player performance, with a $100,000 bonus pool up for grabs for the top competitors. 

PGA TOUR Canada’s regular season is offering a return to full-action and Korn Ferry Tour membership to the top players, a summer lineup of 11 tournaments beginning in Victoria, British Columbia, and concluding in Kitchener, Ontario. The Tour also will hold an official event outside Canada for the first time when players travel to Brainerd, Minnesota, late in the summer. 

PGA TOUR Canada did not play in 2020 due to issues surrounding the global pandemic, and it organized and hosted a scaled-down, eight-tournament Tour in 2021 mainly for players residing in Canada. This will be the first season since 2019 that features full fields and a path for players to reach the Korn Ferry Tour. 

“This is a significant time in the history of PGA TOUR Canada as we begin the Fortinet Cup era. The Fortinet Cup offers players the ability to compete on some of the best golf courses in Canada—along with the added bonus of another tournament played in the U.S.,” said PGA TOUR Canada Executive Director Scott Pritchard. “Spanning coast to coast, the 2022 schedule is one we are proud to announce and is already setting up for a triumphant return of PGA TOUR Canada.”

“Fortinet is excited to partner with PGA TOUR Canada. The Tour delivers an amazing experience—in equal measure for its fans and golfers. As PGA TOUR Canada’s premier sponsor and the host of Fortinet Cup, our company will bring its deep expertise in cybersecurity innovation to the world of golf,” said Marc Asturias, Vice President of Marketing and Government Vertical at Fortinet Latin America and Canada. “Our partnership furthers Fortinet’s vision to make possible a digital world that we can always trust by securing people, devices, and data everywhere.” 

The season gets underway June 2-5 at a familiar Tour site, Uplands Golf Course, for the newly named Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist. After a scheduled one-week break for the PGA TOUR’s RBC Canadian Open, players will tee it up three weeks in a row, starting the week of June 13-19, at the ATB Classic presented by Volvo Edmonton, followed by the Elk Ridge Open (June 23-26) in the Resort Village of Elk Ridge in Waskesiu, Saskatchewan, and the Prince Edward Island Open in Cardigan (June 30-July 3).  

The Tour observes a two-week break to begin July before resuming action in Ontario, for the Osprey Valley Open presented by Voroantim Cimentos CBM Aggregates (July 21-24) in the Toronto suburb of Caledon. The Ontario Open (July 28-31) in Tottenham is the next week, bringing July to a close. The Quebec Open is scheduled for August 4-7 in Blainville, with another off week preceding the Manitoba Open (August 18-21).

The visit to Minnesota, for the CRMC Championship presented by Gertens (August 25-28), and the next week’s GolfBC Championship (September 1-4) in Kelowna, British Columbia, bring August to an end and takes the players into September. The season concludes September 12-18 at the Fortinet Cup Championship, the Tour’s best players from the Points List assembling for the first time at Deer Ridge Golf Club and the Fortinet Cup final positions decided, as well as the $100,000 bonus pool for the top-10 players. The overall Fortinet Cup champion will pocket $25,000.

“It’s exciting to think where we are beginning and culminating our season, along with the other nine cities and golf courses we’ll visit during the year. There is so much to look forward to, the ATB Classic returning to Edmonton, PGA TOUR player Graham DeLaet serving as the honorary chair at the Elk Ridge Open, having the Ontario Open and its storied history as part of our schedule and visiting TPC Toronto, one of the premier TPC facilities in the network,” Pritchard explained. “Traveling outside Canada to Minnesota for a tournament, with Tom Lehman significantly involved, spending a week in Quebec and moving the GolfBC Championship to a September date for the first time are all things we’re anxiously anticipating.

“In addition,” Pritchard continued, “Prince Edward Island has had to wait a year to make its official debut on our schedule, and Manitoba is also back after a two-year hiatus. It will be great to play our tournaments in those two regions. I simply can’t be more excited about what we will offer this year’s crop of players.”

PGA TOUR Canada began in 2013 as the PGA TOUR’s second International Tour. Since its inception, the Tour has seen 14 of its alums win 16 PGA TOUR titles, while 46 past PGA TOUR Canada players have collected 49 total Korn Ferry Tour victories. 

The Tour has already held five of its seven Qualifying Tournaments to determine its complete 2022 player roster. This week the Tour is conducting its sixth qualifier, in the Tacoma, Washington, area, with the final Qualifying Tournament in Canada to follow. The first five medalists during this Qualifying Tournament season are Alex Herrmann and Austin Hitt (from the Florida tournaments), amateur Jacob Bridgeman (from the Alabama qualifier), Max Marsico (from the Arizona qualifier) and Jake Vincent (from the California qualifier). 

2022 PGA TOUR Canada Schedule

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TORONTO, Canada—PGA TOUR Canada announced Thursday that Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions based in Sunnyvale, California, will sponsor the Tour’s season-long points competition, the Fortinet Cup, an agreement that begins this season and runs through 2026.

The Fortinet Cup will mirror the competitive structure of the points-based competitions on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica. Through the sponsorship, the Fortinet Cup will offer a new $100,000 player bonus pool—with $25,000 to the winner—to the top Fortinet Cup points-winners who earn membership on the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour, with the No. 1-ranked player at the end of the season eligible to play in every open Korn Ferry Tour tournament the following season. The Fortinet Cup winner will also be exempt into the PGA TOUR’s 2023 RBC Canadian Open. The players finishing in the second-through-fifth positions earn Korn Ferry Tour membership, while Korn Ferry Tour benefits are available to those finishing sixth through 10th.

Fortinet will also be the title sponsor of the Tour’s season-ending and flagship event, starting this season, the Fortinet Cup Championship, taking place September 15-18 at Deer Ridge Golf Club in Kitchener, Ontario.

“We are extremely excited to partner with Fortinet as PGA TOUR Canada returns to a full schedule,” said Scott Pritchard, the Tour’s Executive Director. “The Fortinet Cup will give players a week-to-week gauge of how they’re doing, with significant benefits available to them thanks to Fortinet. It will certainly be fitting that the points chase culminates at the Fortinet Cup Championship in Ontario. We have an exciting season ahead of us and are extremely happy to make this announcement and begin this partnership.”

“Fortinet is excited to partner with the PGA TOUR Canada as both our organizations are committed to trust and creating exceptional experiences—ensuring players and customers are set up for success to overcome even the most trying conditions and challenges,” said John Maddison, Executive Vice President of Products and Chief Marketing Officer at Fortinet. “This partnership will benefit our community, customers and local nonprofit organizations. We look forward to hosting the Fortinet Cup Championship in Ontario.”

Charitable giving will also be part of the partnership, proceeds from official PGA TOUR Canada Fortinet Cup tournaments will benefit nonprofit organizations in the areas of science, technology, energy, mathematics (STEM), women, military veterans and minorities in the 11 host cities of the competition.

“As the premier sponsor of PGA TOUR Canada, we look forward to further educating and supporting companies, government and educational institutions on the importance of cybersecurity. As the largest cybersecurity vendor in Canada, Fortinet can use its deep expertise in cybersecurity, innovation and training to address the increasing number of challenges and threats they face,” added Marc Asturias, Vice President of Marketing and Government Vertical at Fortinet Latin America and Canada. “These initiatives further Fortinet’s vision to make possible a digital world that organizations can always trust by securing people, devices and data everywhere.”

Fortinet’s mission is to make possible a digital world that organizations can always trust. Fortinet delivers the most innovative, highest-performing network security fabric to secure and simplify organizations’ IT infrastructures. Fortinet is a leading global provider of network security and SD-WAN, switching and wireless access, network access control, authentication, public and private cloud security, endpoint security, and AI-driven advanced threat protection solutions for carriers, data centers, enterprises, and distributed offices.

From its inception, in 2013, PGA TOUR Canada used a money-list ranking to determine its top players. It planned on switching to a Points List in 2020 until the global pandemic forced the Tour to cancel its last two seasons. Previous money-list winners include current PGA TOUR players Paul Barjon (2019), Tyler McCumber (2018), Kramer Hickok (2017), J.J. Spaun (2015), Joel Dahmen (2014) and Mackenzie Hughes (2013).

Next week, PGA TOUR Canada will announce its 2022 schedule, which will begin in early June and conclude with the Fortinet Cup Championship in mid-September.

TORONTO—The Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada announced December 28 it will hold 2022 Qualifying Tournaments at seven separate sites over a six-week period, beginning in mid-February and concluding in late-April. While the global pandemic made it difficult for PGA TOUR Canada to conduct its season as it had since its 2013 inception, the Tour did play a series of eight tournaments for players living in Canada this past summer on top of a set of four events it held in 2020. The 2022 campaign will be the first full season in two years that features a complete complement of members.

Registration for the tournaments begins January 4, 2022 at noon EST. Players can access the registration site here.

“It is so exciting to look forward to next season and everything that is in place for a very successful 2022,” said Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada Executive Director Scott Pritchard. “In years past, we’ve been fortunate to have so many players interested in qualifying to compete on PGA TOUR Canada. We anticipate the demand will be similar to what we have experienced in the past as players know the caliber of competition PGA TOUR Canada offers.

“We look forward,” Pritchard continued, “to hosting players at each of these seven outstanding courses as they begin on their paths to reaching the PGA TOUR.”

Six of the Qualifying Tournaments will be in the United States, with one in Canada. The qualifiers begin with two in Florida (Weston and Howey-in-the-Hills). The Howey-in-the-Hills tournament will be held simultaneously with the event in Dothan, Alabama. Following those three tournaments, the Tour moves west in April for qualifiers in Arizona (Litchfield Park), California (San Jacinto) and Washington (DuPont) before playing its final qualifier in Canada at a familiar site, Crowne Isle Resort and Golf Club, in Courtenay, British Columbia.

The seven, 72-hole, no-cut Qualifying Tournaments will all be Tuesday-to-Friday events and take place on the following dates and locations:

“What’s heartening is we are familiar with each one of these venues, and they are all high-quality golf facilities that have either hosted previous PGA TOUR Canada qualifiers or other PGA TOUR International Tour qualifiers,” Pritchard added.

A year ago, Colombia’s Camilo Aguado earned PGA TOUR Canada status and ended up playing on the Forme Tour after capturing medalist honors at The Club at Weston Hills’ Qualifying Tournament.

Mission Inn Resort and Club’s El Campeon Course is a well-known site for both Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Qualifying Tournaments. It has previously hosted five PGA TOUR Canada qualifiers, with Luis Gagne (2021), Isaiah Salinda (2020), John Coultas (2019), Dawson Armstrong (2018) and Jake Knapp (2017) emerging as medalists.

The RTJ Golf Trail at Highland Oaks is familiar with PGA TOUR Canada Qualifying Tournaments, twice a host venue. Previous medalists are Keenan Huskey (2021) and Cameron Young (2020)—Young a rookie on the 2021-22 PGA TOUR.

Jeffrey Kang was the medalist earlier this year, in March, when he won the Qualifying Tournament at Soboba Springs Golf Course in San Jacinto, California, the first time the course served as host. Arizona’s iconic Wigwam was where amateur Clay Feagler was the medalist just a few weeks before his Pepperdine team won the NCAA Championship. The Home Course in the Tacoma suburb of DuPont also was a first-timer, in June, with Canadian Callum Davison the medalist. Davison holds 2022 PGA TOUR Canada status via his Points List win on the series of Canada-based events this past summer.

The Qualifying Tournament season concludes at Crowne Isle Resort and Golf Club, a six-time PGA TOUR Canada Qualifying Tournament host. Previous medalists were Andrew McCain (2019), Jake Shuman (2018), Horacio León (2017), Aaron Wise (2016), Eric Onesi (2015) and David Bradshaw (2014).

“We will be following the sun early in the year then make our way to the warm West Coast of Canada for the final qualifier—at Crowne Isle—in advance of the start of our regular season schedule,” Pritchard continued. “What I like about this schedule is the variety of the courses where we will be holding tournaments and the unique challenges they will present to the players.”

The Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada will announce its complete regular season schedule in early 2022. Players who qualify for PGA TOUR Canada and then finish in the top five on the Points List earn Korn Ferry Tour status for the following year.