Canuck comes through

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This article was published 20/07/2009 (6228 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The national anthem’s getting quite a workout at Pine Ridge.

Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., hoisted the Canadian Tour Players Cup there Sunday, making it three straight Canadians to capture the top prize in Manitoba.

The 27-year-old, who now makes his home in Boise, Idaho, fired a two-under-par 69 to win by a single stroke over Dauphin’s Ryan Horn, Californian Byron Smith and Brazilian-born Lucas Lee.

DeLaet’s been on fire so far this summer. In four starts on home soil, he’s got two wins (also in Calgary) and hasn’t been worse than fourth.

And it all fell right for him Sunday.

Starting three shots back of third-round leader Lee, who battled a balky putter, DeLaet was also the benefactor when Horn fell away from his share of the lead with a bogey at the par-4 17th and Smith three-putted the par-4 18th when he overcooked his birdie putt to win the title outright.

"It’s never the way you want to win," said DeLaet, who birdied Nos. 14 and 15 to reach the winning eight-under mark. "Byron’s a hell of a player. You’ve got to give the guy credit because he putted to make it."

DeLaet was the player who made the fewest mistakes under the gun.

He bogeyed two very difficult front-nine holes — No. 5 into the wind and No. 6 with its sucker pin placement — but made four birdies and no bogeys after that.

"I’m playing with a lot of confidence," he said. "I expect to play well. When you expect to, you tend to play better, too. I don’t know exactly what it is. I don’t feel like a different person or anything but I’m playing a lot better golf than last year."

With three wins to his credit since last August, he goes to the RBC Canadian Open this week with plenty of confidence.

"I’m going to go in there and play to win the golf tournament," said DeLaet, who has made $78,500 in his last four starts in Canada. "I’m looking forward to it, to test my game against the best players in the world."

DeLaet’s winning total of eight-under 276 is the highest winning total at the Tour’s Manitoba stop since Perry Parker won the initial MTS Classic in 1998 with seven-under at Elmhurst.

It was largely because the wind switched from the north, where it had been the entire week, to blowing from the course’s most difficult direction, south.

"It really changed the dynamic of the entire golf course," Smith said. "It was a grind-fest. I knew I wasn’t going to have to go on a crazy birdie run or anything like that."

Smith said he’ll learn from trying too hard to win the tournament on the 72nd hole.

"I was too aggressive with the putt," he said of his birdie try that sailed five feet past. "I completely eliminated from my mind the two-putt, playoff type deal and I’ll learn from that experience. You can’t force-feed it because it wasn’t my last chance."

Smith had several other costly mistakes before his final miscue. He chipped poorly from an easy spot and bogeyed the ninth. He sailed long and left and bogeyed No. 16 as well.

Horn’s undoing was his only bogey of the day.

After playing so steadily to gain a share of the lead at eight-under — he started at five-under — he drove left into the trees and had to take a penalty stroke en route to a bogey.

"That’s not a good wind for a lefty who likes to fade the ball sometimes," Horn said.

He admitted his nerves were present Sunday.

"You never get used to it," he said after his third career top-10 and best-ever finish. "I was a little nervous and didn’t look at a leader board until 15."

John Ellis, a runner-up last year, finished fifth yesterday, just two shots away, while three Canadians, Derek Gillespie, Mark Leon and Mitchell Gillis, were in a share of eighth at four-under with Luke Hickmott and Ryan Thornberry.

As for the coming week, DeLaet was already exempt to the Open but the Players Cup results tweaked the Canadian Tour’s money list to allow seven others to join him.

Mauricio Molina, Mike Grob, Andres Gonzales, Hugo Leon and Rafael Gomez are going off the list and the RGCA has added the next two best Canadians from the tour — Stuart Anderson and 2008 Players Cup champ Wes Heffernan.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

 

Players Cup leaderboard

Graham DeLaet 69-72-66-69 — 276 (-8)

Ryan Horn 68-72-68-69 — 277 (-7)

Byron Smith 71-64-70-72 — 277 (-7)

Lucas Lee 71-69-64-73 — 277 (-7)

John Ellis 69-71-67-71 — 278 (-6)

Derek Gillespie 70-70-68-71 — 279 (-5)

Mark Leon 74-65-67-73 — 279 (-5)

Mitchell Gillis 72-69-69-70 — 280 (-4)

Luke Hickmott 67-71-70-72 — 280 (-4)

Ryan Thornberry 68-68-73-71 — 280 (-4)

George Coetzee 72-67-69-73 — 281 (-3)

Rob Oppenheim 66-73-68-74 — 281 (-3)

Andy Walker 69-73-69-71 — 282 (-2)

Andres Gonzales 69-73-68-72 — 282 (-2)

Mark Warman 70-73-71-69 — 283 (-1)

Wes Heffernan 69-69-76-69 — 283 (-1)

Tyler Harris 70-71-70-72 — 283 (-1)

Barrett Jarosch 69-74-68-72 — 283 (-1)