Classy shooters swinging in Players

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This article was published 15/07/2010 (5796 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There is no shortage of guys with great credentials trying to put fingerprints on the Players Cup this week.

That grab on Sunday afternoon, after 72 holes, will be a record haul for a Canadian Tour event in Manitoba. The first prize is $48,000 and with it goes a lucrative invitation to next week’s RBC Canadian Open at St. George’s in Toronto.

This week’s $300,000 championship begins this morning at Pine Ridge Golf Club with 48 of the Canadian Tour’s top 50 money-winners present. American Brock Mackenzie, who won in Victoria, B.C., last month, leads the way.

The field of 158 also includes six past champions — Wes Heffernan (2008), Mike Mezei (2007), Josh Habig (2006), Lee Williamson (2005), Alex Quiroz (2002) and Ben Ferguson (2000).

And joining the fray is longtime Canadian Tour fixture Jim Rutledge, 50, a six-time Canadian Tour winner now playing on the Champions Tour.

Rutledge, even when he’s been playing the PGA Tour or Nationwide Tour, has usually found time to play an event or two near his Victoria, B.C., home. He hasn’t played in Winnipeg since 1996.

"I just enjoy seeing the young guys, playing with them," Rutledge said before some practice Wednesday. "I played with (defending champ) Graham DeLaet a couple of times last year, Byron Smith. I enjoyed their company and I enjoyed the competition.

"Some guys wonder what I’m doing playing here. But I enjoy it; otherwise, I wouldn’t come. It’s great to see the young guys coming up that are hot, especially a new group of young Canadian players doing really well. That’s especially encouraging."

Pine Ridge, at 6,600 yards and par of 71, is short by any tour’s standards, but sloping, old greens will keep the players honest.

"It’s just a good old golf course," Rutledge said. "There are no real tricks to it. It’s all right in front of you and it’s only gotten better over the years.

"You’d just better be careful on the greens."

Smith, the tour’s money leader in 2007, and John Ellis, No. 1 in 2008, are also in the field.

Ellis has had two straight close calls at the Players Cup — tied for second, just one shot back, in 2008 and fifth last year, two back of DeLaet.

"I’ve been close," Ellis said Wednesday. "I’m looking forward to it. It’s one of my favourite courses that we play and I’ve had some success."

Does he analyze the close calls?

"Last year, I did," he said. "As well as Graham played, I kind of gave him that one. I made some mistakes, three-putted a couple of times,

"A couple of years ago, Wes played real well and just beat me. That year, I won three times, and it was probably the best I played all year here and didn’t win."

Another player who figures to be somewhere in the mix this week is Manotick, Ont.’s Brad Fritsch, who’s 14th on the money list ($14,660) and has been in the top 10 in both the last two events, Saskatoon and Edmonton.

He was also in the hunt here last year until a final-day 79.

"I think when it came down to it, I had to shoot one-under to get into a playoff," Fritsch said.

"I’ve been here enough to know what kind of punishment the course can mete out. You have to be patient and stay below the hole, things I didn’t do very well that day."

Fritsch has been to the Nationwide Tour for a couple of seasons, and it has helped him with confidence, he said.

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"Playing the way I played there, good at times, I feel like when I had some good tournaments, I could see I could play with these guys, even with some PGA Tour players in the field," he said.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca