By Brad Ziemer
Like father, like son.
For three players at this week’s GolfBC Championship, that phrase rings especially true this Father’s Day weekend.
Jake Byrum, Case Cochran and Dru Love all have dads who won on the PGA Tour. They are all trying to follow in their father’s golfing footsteps and have learned the game is not as easy as their dads made it look.
By Brad Ziemer
Jake Knapp has always loved the views at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club. They looked even better Thursday when he saw his name atop the leaderboard after the first round of the $200,000 GolfBC Championship.
The 25-year-old from Costa Mesa, Calif., opened the PGA Tour Canada-Mackenzie Tour event with a seven-under 64 that gave him a one-shot lead over Grant Leaver of Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Knapp has played in all four GolfBC Championships. In fact, his first one in 2016 was Knapp’s pro debut. He came to Kelowna and successfully Monday qualified his way into the tournament and went on to finish tied for 45th.
“Absolutely, it holds a little sentimental value to me,” Knapp said of Gallagher’s. “My dad came up and caddied for me that event, too. It’s just a great event and it’s one of my favorite venues to come to. It’s one of the most scenic golf courses we play and the city is great. It’s definitely a special event for me.”
By Brad Ziemer
It was early on his back nine when 14-year-old Cooper Humphreys gave himself a talking to.
“I told myself, get your head into it and start making birdies,” he said after completing his first round in the GolfBC Championship at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club.
Apparently, the Grade 8 student at Kelowna’s Aberdeen Hall Preparatory School is a good listener. A short time later, he rattled off two straight birdies and opened the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada event with a respectable five-over 76.
By Brad Ziemer
Keenan Hall saved the best for last.
Hall was the final competitor in Wednesday’s Long Drive Challenge to officially kick off this week’s GolfBC Championship at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club. Hall stepped up and blasted his first of three drives 387 yards to overtake the 378-yard bomb that fellow Kelowna resident Josh Coletti had recorded just minutes earlier.
By Brad Ziemer
James Allenby hasn’t exactly crash landed, but he has returned to Planet Earth. The Langley native has played like a mere mortal in his last two starts. After a string of remarkable rounds and finishes, Allenby arrived at Gallagher’s Canyon for this week’s GolfBC Championship coming off two straight missed cuts.
That’s golf. Just when you think you have it figured out, the game comes back and bites you.
After starting the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada season with a tie for second at the Canada Life Open in Vancouver, Allenby missed the cut the following week at the Bayview Place DCBank Open in Victoria. He bounced back from that setback and Monday qualified his way into last week’s RBC Canadian Open, where Allenby played his first PGA Tour event at Hamilton Golf & Country Club. He played well in Hamilton, shooting two straight rounds of even-par 70, but missed the cut by two shots. He was obviously disappointed not to play the weekend, but Allenby called his Canadian Open experience invaluable.
By Brad Ziemer
Lionel Taylor should be easy to spot this week at the GolfBC Championship.
He’ll be the guy pinching himself on the first tee.
The 23-year-old Kelowna native still can’t quite believe he has a spot in the field of the $200,000 PGA Tour Canada-Mackenzie Tour event being played at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club. Taylor fully expected to be at Gallagher’s this week, working in the golf shop. But his plans changed in a big way when he was told Tuesday morning that he was being granted a sponsor’s exemption into the event.
By Brad Ziemer
When he missed qualifying for the U.S. Open by a single shot late last month, Jared du Toit wasn’t as disappointed as you might expect.
“I knew the GolfBC Championship was the same week as the U.S. Open,” du Toit said. “Normally, I would have been a little more bummed about not getting in, but knowing that I had this week, which is one of my favourite weeks on the Mackenzie Tour, took a little bit of the sting out of it.”
The 24-year-old Kimberley native has something of a love affair going with Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club, the site of this week’s $200,000 GolfBC Championship.
By Brad Ziemer
When Lukas Euler was a kid dreaming of becoming a professional golfer, he probably did not envision that journey starting in Kelowna.
Heck, Euler didn’t even know where Kelowna was. Now he does and Euler, who hails from Germany, is happy to be in the Okanagan, where he will make his professional debut in this week’s GolfBC Championship at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club.
The 23-year-old earned a spot in the $200,000 PGA Tour Canada-Mackenzie Tour event by firing an eight-under 64 in Monday’s qualifier at Okanagan Golf Club’s Bear Course. Euler recently graduated with a finance degree from the University of Kentucky, where he played four years of collegiate golf. He decided to roll the dice and head to Kelowna for Monday’s qualifier.
“This is my first event as a professional and my first Monday qualifier,” Euler said after his round. “I came up here just to try and Monday qualify and it looks like it is going to work out.”
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