The elite talent hits the greens today

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2011 (5499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The grounds of Pine Ridge Golf Club have seen some exceptional athletic talent this week.

The Players Cup hosted by Jonathan Toews has seen the Winnipegger and Chicago Blackhawks captain lend his name to the event title as well as key early-week fundraisers that included some fellow NHL stars, past and present, on Tuesday.

Today, the real golf talent takes over as the Canadian Tour once again marches an elite field out to tackle the strategic, old 6,600-yard course for $200,000 in prize money.

Major perks await the winner of the ninth tour event of the season, the sixth in Canada. A cheque for $32,000 goes with finishing first, as does an invite to next week’s RBC Canadian Open in Vancouver.

For its fourth playing under the Players Cup brand and format, the tour’s best are here again in full force. Seventeen of the top 18 and 37 of the top 40 from the money list are at Pine Ridge.

Really, the only things missing are recent defending champions. Winner from 2010 Aaron Goldberg, who beat Canadian Jim Rutledge by a shot, is in a Nationwide Tour event this week; 2009 champ Graham DeLaet is a PGA Tour member and 2008 winner Wes Heffernan is taking a week off.

Five former champions of the Winnipeg stop are present, however, including Mike Mezei (2007), Josh Habig (2006), Lee Williamson (2005), Alex Quiroz (2002) and Rob McMillan (1996), who won the first of his three tour titles as an amateur.

Also present are the winners of all eight tournaments played so far in 2011, including Americans Cody Slover and Joe Panzeri, Canadians Danny Sahl, Roger Sloan and Adam Hadwin, Chile’s Hugo Leon and Mexico’s Jose de Jesus Rodriguez, who has won twice and leads the year’s money list.

And the first female anywhere to hold membership on a major men’s tour is at Pine Ridge. Izzy Beisiegel of Quebec earned a Canadian Tour card in March and is playing her third event this week.

Rodriguez, who first played here last year and finished in a tie for 13th, said his hot season — especially victories at the Mexican PGA and at Victoria — comes down to just one thing.

“This year I have practised very much on the short game,” said the 30-year-old from Irapuato, Mexico. “Sometimes the whole day. I think this is the difference from last year.”

That’s key to the game needed at Pine Ridge.

“Short game is important here, very important,” he said. “One hundred yards (and in) and the putter, too. The putter is different here with the slopes, too. Very important for scores.”

Hadwin, the 23-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C., who won his second career tournament in March in Colombia and sits ninth on the 2011 money list, was in a tie with Rodriguez for 13th here a year ago.

“The course seems very good and the greens are rolling very good,” he said Wednesday. “The rough’s up in some places, and it’s going to be a test, though they can’t get too crazy with some pins on these greens.

“It’s always a great event here. You never see anybody go too, too low.”

The average winning score here in the last six years is -11. The expected hot weather for the weekend could make treacherous greens dangerous. And lack of course length combined with performance on the greens, Hadwin said, are going to be factors.

“It’s less of an advantage for the good ball-strikers,” he said. “Here, you can just keep it in play and make some putts and you’ll be good.”

This week’s field of 156 also includes several players who could classify themselves as way overdue at Pine Ridge.

One is American Byron Smith, who has been first and second on the money list in the last four Canadian seasons and was 2007 player of the year. Another is fellow American John Ellis, the 2008 money leader and player of the year who has just missed winning this title twice in the last three years.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

The Players Cup

WHEN: Today through Sunday.

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WHERE: Pine Ridge Golf Club.

WHAT: Canadian Tour regular event.

WHO: 156 players; the elite tour field includes 16 Manitobans this year, seven of whom are amateurs.

PRIZE: $36,000 to the winner, along with an invite to next week’s RBC Canadian Open.

TICKETS: Available online at www.theplayerscup.ca or at the Pine Ridge gate.