Golf bracing for Canadian invasion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/08/2009 (6203 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They’re inching closer to breaking down the gates, but have patience, Canadian golf fans, our next, young wave of top players musn’t be rushed.

Many think Canadian Tour Players Cup champ Graham DeLaet has seen his last days as a regular on home soil.

And this year, Canada has two of the world’s top four amateur players, Nick Taylor (No. 1) and Matt Hill (No. 4), and they’ve both made plenty of noise, including at this week’s Canadian Amateur in Quebec.

Taylor, 21, and Hill, 20, are the headliners on the men’s national team, which is fortunate to have Winnipeg’s Derek Ingram as one of its assistant coaches.

Ingram, a positive sort to start with, talks eagerly about the pair’s future and Canada’s golf future in general.

"I don’t think Canada has ever been in this position before, basically having the top two amateur players in the world and really are playing well," Ingram said earlier this week from just outside Montreal. "Both are incredible talents, and really primed to have an impact in professional golf. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say that, that we have guys ready to have an impact in a year or two."

Both Taylor, at the University of Washington, and Hill, at North Carolina State, return to school this fall.

That development, and also under Canada’s elite program, must be allowed to take its course, Ingram said.

"We just have to realize that it took Australia 25 years to become Australia," Ingram said, noting the development that led to a stream of elite Aussie players on the biggest stages of today’s game. Australia has 11 players in the top 100 of the World Golf Rankings, while Canada has just two.

"We’re really only into this eight or nine years," Ingram continued. "It took them 10-20 years at least for that to start to happen there. I have no doubt Nick and Matt will have excellent success on the big stage and we have others coming down pipeline, too."

 

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QUARRY Oaks member Bill Bumstead didn’t have any trophies — at least none that we know of — to show for a week of a lifetime, at least on the golf course.

Bumstead did not win the Manitoba senior championship, finishing in a tie for 32nd, but he aced the 16th hole at Bel Acres and shot 80 during Friday’s final round.

Playing a more regular gig Saturday morning back at his home course, Bumstead’s aim was still sharp. He canned his tee shot on the eighth hole of the Desert Nine.

Given that the odds of making a hole in one are estimated at anywhere between one in 12,500 and one in 33,000, it certainly puts Bumstead’s feat — aces on consecutive days — at somewhere in the one in 10 million range.

Not quite as impressive (or lucky), odds are that Southwood member Menno Zacharias’ wallet is a little lighter this month after scoring his second ace in a three-week span on Aug. 3.

 

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BRITISH Open winner Stewart Cink has certainly garnered plenty of attention since he started twittering regularly.

He’s reportedly got more than 500,000 followers but he more or less stiffed every one of them after winning at Turnberry, taking almost four hours after his victory to post… well, nothing. He posted a picture with the Claret Jug and had nothing to tell his followers.

Who’s the twit in this case?

 

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca