Former champs inspire MacDougall
Young member of host club carries lead into final round of Glencoe Invitational
The glimmering Glencoe Invitational trophy — and an equally eyepopping list of past champions — is showcased in the hallway that leads to the pro shop at Glencoe Golf & Country Club.
A member at the 45-hole private hangout ever since he started swinging clubs, Brendan MacDougall must have strolled past that display hundreds, maybe thousands, of times.
In Saturday’s final round of the 2017 Glencoe Invitational, the 19-year-old will have an opportunity to add his name to the list.
“That would be awesome,” he said. “To walk by every day and see ‘Brendan MacDougall’ on the board, that would be pretty cool.”
Thanks to a second consecutive spin of 2-under 70, MacDougall owns a two-shot lead at the threeday amateur showdown, the highlight of the summer calendar at his home club.
He racked up seven birdies — including four in a row from Nos. 13-16 — during Friday’s second lap of the 7,505-yard Forest Course. If not for a pair of double bogeys, he would be sleeping on quite a cushion.
“It would have been three or four years ago when I last held a lead at a junior event, so it’s been awhile,” said MacDougall, who just completed his freshman campaign with the golf team at High Point University in North Carolina. “I’m expecting there to be nerves (Saturday) for the first few holes. But this is everything I’ve trained to do. If I wasn’t nervous, then something would be wrong.”
With the wind picking up, Glencoe’s Forest Course was firmer, faster and a little less forgiving for Friday’s action.
Pryce Beshoory of Pearland, Texas, lost some of his momentum after Thursday’s courserecord rip of 6-under 66, but the first-round leader rattled off four straight birdies on his way back to the clubhouse and is among those at 2-under for the tournament, a couple of strokes back of MacDougall.
Crossfield’s Patrick Murphy (Glencoe) and Chris Crisologo of Richmond, B.C., are also tied for second.
Calgary’s Emmett Oh ( Bearspaw/ Glencoe) and Sylvan Lake’s Jaxon Lynn are the only other guys in red numbers, each with a two-day tab of 1-under.
Continue to scan the leaderboard, and you’ll find the names of a lot of other locals that MacDougall has looked up to.
“When I was still a junior here, just kind of starting competitive golf, I always heard the names of these guys winning tournaments, and I was like, ‘ Wow, that’s cool. I want to be like them,’” MacDougall said. “Now that I can be out here and play with them … Luckily, I’m beating them today. If I can beat them tomorrow, that would be awesome. Knowing that I can compete with them is pretty cool.”