After demolishing a field of her female peers, Christine Wong showed she can compete against the men, too.
The British Columbian, a teaching pro who once played tour golf, placed 32nd last week at the PGA Assistants’ Championship of Canada, one of the five major events on the PGA of Canada’s schedule.
While she was 15 shots behind winner Branson Ferrier at the event in Calgary, she made the cut and was among a pack of middle finishers that included former Korn Ferry Tour player Bryn Parry and some of Canada’s top club pros.
She was the only woman in the field of 99, which caught the eye of at least one fan in the gallery, a girl named Maggie. Wong approached the girl and gave her an autographed hat inscribed with a message: “Keep enjoying the game, beat the boys!”
In an interview, she said playing opportunities in all-women events at home are rare so she has supplemented her competition schedule of late with men’s and mixed-field events. She believes her game has improved as a result, observing how the men play but also seeing her own strengths.
“The way the guys play is a totally different game than the women,” she said. “I feel that I have become a more strategic player in competition which allows me to keep up with the guys.”
But her result at the Assistants’ wasn’t the highlight of her season. A few weeks earlier, Wong won the DCM PGA Women’s Championship of Canada.
Her five-shot victory at Oshawa Golf and Country Club near Toronto earned her the newly minted Lorie Kane Trophy, named for the LPGA Tour veteran and five-time winner of the event.
“Lorie Kane is a Canadian golf legend, so to be on the trophy her name is on is spectacular,” said the 29-year-old Wong, who teaches out of University Golf Club in Vancouver in addition to playing tournament golf, including on the Vancouver Golf Tour.
Wong was a standout amateur before turning pro in 2013, then had stints on the Symetra Tour and LPGA Tour, including a start at the U.S. Women’s Open. She’s now an apprentice professional in the PGA of Canada.
Brooke Henderson returned to action last week at the Cambia Portland Classic after a three-week break in her hometown, where she did intensive work with her coach and father, Dave Henderson.
The LPGA Tour star, whose 10 wins include two at the Portland event, acknowledged she’s having “a little bit of an up-and-down year.” But she hopes the late-season mini training camp in Smiths Falls, Ontario, raises her game.
“That one-on-one, that’s really important,” Henderson said.
“It was really nice to kind of regroup, and he really helped me out over the last three weeks. I feel like we made big gains.”
Henderson hadn’t been home since January, which left her relying on FaceTime and e-mails this season to get instruction from her father. She entered a two-week quarantine then to meet pandemic-related public safety measures. But this time, vaccinated and with border restrictions eased, she was able to enter Canada without isolating.
There are at least eight Canadians on the PGA Tour this season, not quite a record but confirmation that the country is in a golden era of men’s golf at the highest level.
The depth of the contingent was on display last week at the Fortinet Championship, the 2021-22 season opener at which seven Canadians teed it up.
Michael Gligic of Burlington, Ontario, was the latest Canadian to earn his place on the top tour. He finished in 19th place at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, a three-tournament “playoff” series that offered PGA Tour cards to the top 25 cumulative finishers.
Gligic, 31, played on the PGA Tour this past season but didn’t keep his full-time card, requiring him to drop down to the Korn Ferry playoffs to win it back.
He had a top-10 result in the second playoff event, then hung on at the finale despite a 1-over-par 73 in the final round. “I’m not going to lie, it was a nervy day from the jump,” Gligic told ScoreGolf magazine. “But I’m really proud of myself for digging deep and getting the job done.”
Adam Svensson of Surrey, British Columbia, and Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ontario, also graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour, based on their top-25 performances during the second-tier circuit’s regular season.
Svensson won twice in 2020-21 to earn his second crack at the PGA Tour. He last played there in 2019. Pendrith notched four runner-up finishes to enter the PGA Tour’s rookie class this season.
The trio of players join regulars Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes, Adam Hadwin, Nick Taylor and Roger Sloan on the PGA Tour. There could be a ninth, tying a record, if Graham DeLaet returns. He hasn’t played since November 2020 because of injuries and had back surgery in February. In his most recent prediction, he said he’s aiming for a fall 2022 return.
And perhaps there might be a 10th if David Hearn can play his way back on to the tour. He didn’t keep his full-time card last season but can get into a few 2021-22 events based on his veteran member status. He also has three starts owing to him after taking a medical leave in August. He has declined to disclose what his injury involved.
PGA Tour star Harold Varner III was in Toronto last week to officially launch a new grass-roots program for juniors.
The RBC Community Junior Golf Program aims to bring more young players into the game, especially those from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented communities. Program participants will get affordable access to public courses (as little as $5) and outings that follow the First Tee Canada and Youth on Course curriculum. Organizers at Golf Canada expect more than 10,000 players to be involved in the RBC program by 2023 at courses across Canada.
“This is going to create affordable access and get kids involved in a game that has done so much for me,” Varner tweeted.
The American, who joined the PGA Tour in 2015, signed on this year to be a sponsored player of the Royal Bank of Canada. The RBC junior program extends the work he does through his own charity foundation and Youth on Course to give underrepresented groups access to golf.
The launch last Monday took place at Humber Valley, a municipal course in northwest Toronto.
Readers of Hemispheres magazine have chosen Cabot Cape Breton and Fairmont Banff Springs as co-winners in the best Canadian hotel category.
Ten-year-old Cabot in Nova Scotia has about 70 lodge and villa rooms that look onto the Atlantic Ocean. Historic Banff Springs, which opened in 1888 in the Scottish baronial style, has more than 700 guest rooms and is set in the Rocky Mountains. Both hotels also have golf courses that consistently rank among Canada’s top five.
Hemispheres is the in-flight magazine of United Airlines. Its second annual reader awards were revealed in the magazine’s September issue.
Christina Spence Proteau triumphed at the Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur this month for the fifth time in her career – ending a long drought along with her own doubts about winning again.
“I’ve had a few years – seven specifically – since my last win at the national level, and I’ve definitely had some doubts for the last few years if it would happen again,” said Proteau, of Port Alberni, British Columbia. “So this one, by far, is the most meaningful.”
Proteau won the championship, which is for amateurs 25 and older, four consecutive years beginning in 2011. She grabbed the fifth mid-amateur title at Golf Château Bromont in Quebec this month by beating Vancouver’s Nonie Marler in a playoff.
Ian Leggatt has taken his talents to South Beach. The Canadian, a high-profile golf club executive and broadcaster since his PGA Tour playing days ended, is the new general manager and director of golf at La Gorce Country Club, one of the toniest private clubs in Miami Beach, Florida.
He made the move less than a year after taking the helm at St. George’s, a private Toronto club and occasional host venue for the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open, including the next one in 2022.
Leggatt, 55, winner of the 2002 Tucson Open, told golfnewsnow.com he had intended to stay at St. George’s until his retirement but the unexpected opportunity to lead La Gorce was “impossible to pass up.”
He added the move brings him closer to his two children, who live in the United States and haven’t seen him much in the past 18 months because of the pandemic-related travel restrictions at the U.S.-Canada border.
His relocation makes visits easier. “That is without doubt the biggest upside to this move for me,” he said.
At La Gorce, he joins a club considered one of Florida’s most exclusive, with membership, as it notes, “by invitation only.” It is a southern home for many U.S. northeastern golfers who play out of such prestigious courses as Shinnecock and Sebonack, Leggatt said.
It dates to 1927, and its professional staff through the years has included Jack Grout, the life-long teacher of Jack Nicklaus.
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