Royal Colwood Proves Tough Test For PGA of BC Pros
Once again, the A.V. Macan design proved its mettle with only one competitor able to better par over two rounds...
The Nike Golf PGA of BC Club Professional Championship presented by Oakcreek Golf & Turf LP is open to all Head Professionals, Head Teaching Professionals, and Executive Professionals and the field totalled 44 from all over the province.
The winner of the tournament that featured a purse of $15,000 was Padraic O’Rourke (shown above) who stayed patient and earned his first PGA of BC tournament victory at the challenging course on southern Vancouver Island.
He also had a definite game plan for the demanding A.V. Macan design: hit as many greens in regulation as possible.
“After playing a practice round on Sunday, I knew the golf course was going to be tough. You look at the scorecard and you think you are going to shoot 65 and then you get out there and the greens are just so tough. My chipping, to be honest, has not been very good. I knew I would have to hit a lot of greens. Today, I think I hit 15 or 16 and yesterday I hit 17. I definitely managed my ball.”
The greens are really the defence of the golf course and with them 'stimping' at well over 11 for the entire tournament, putting was at a premium.
O’Rourke spoke about that in talking about his first hole of the second round, “It starts on #1. Today, I was aiming 10 feet left of the pin and ended up 30 feet right and was left with a downhill putt that I just breathed on. Luckily I rolled it down to an inch but the greens are just so difficult.” (See expanded profile on O’Rourke’s win here.)
The top Island finisher was Lance McCullough, Head Professional at the Ridge Course at Cordova Bay for whom the tournament was sort of a homecoming. McCullough was a junior golfer at Royal Colwood, and was joined on the bag by his dad Craig.
“It was a pretty special tournament for me on many levels,” said the younger McCullough in an interview with the Times-Colonist.
The other two Vancouver Island PGA of BC members who finished top-ten were Victoria GC’s Lindsay Bernakevitch (who has won this tournament twice) and Crown Isle’s Jared Siminoff. Siminoff rebounded from an opening 79 to shoot a tournament-best 68 in the second round, moving him inside the top 10.
To be fair, the majority of the competitors have not had much time to work on their games, especially during these challenging times.
Said host Executive Professional and GM Winston Michell, “I think that a lot of our Head and Executive Professionals probably spend a little extra time at their desk than they’d like to and not as much time on the golf course honing their game. But to get them together in one place after what everybody’s been through over the last year will certainly be an enjoyable sigh of relief for everyone. Royal Colwood is a very special club. I think it’s one of the top 30 clubs in the country year after year, and to be able to showcase it to my and Head Professional Rich Chlopan’s peers while supporting the PGA of British Columbia is very gratifying.”