HOMETOWN HEARTBREAK
Calgarian a shot short at ATB
By his own assessment, Calgary’s Wes Heffernan played three of the best rounds of his career this week at the 2017 ATB Financial Classic.
For a guy who has now teed off in at least one Canadian Tour/Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada event in 20 straight summers, not to mention a couple of U.S. Open appearances and six cracks at the RBC Canadian Open, that’s really saying something.
One bad hole, though, cost the 40-year-old a shot at winning his hometown tournament.
Heffernan, now through with the week-to-week rigours of tour golf and instead working as a teaching professional at Golf Canada Calgary Centre, was only one shot off the lead in Sunday’s final round at Country Hills Talons when he made a mess of No. 14, carding a triple-bogey six on the 212-yard challenge.
As it turned out, Heffernan would finish just one stroke back of tournament champion Chase Wright of Muncie, Ind.
“It’s kind of mixed emotions right now,” admitted Heffernan, who posted a four-day tally of 14-under 270 in his runner-up performance.
“At the start of the week, if you told me I was going to finish tied for second, I would have been like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty awesome.’ ”
Heffernan’s result — he shared the second slot on the overall leaderboard with South Korea’s Todd Baek and earned a $2,500 bonus as the top Canadian — is pretty awesome, but it could have been even better if he managed a par or even bogey on No. 14, a doozy downhiller that ranked Sunday as the hardest hole on the 7,209-yard layout.
“I was kind of pulling my shots all day, and I was getting away with it,” Heffernan said. “But on that hole, the wind was pumping 50 km/h right to left, so you had to start it over the water. I tugged it with the wind, and it got going over the back and got in a bad lie. And then another bad lie.
“It wasn’t even nerves, it just happened. It was a bad swing, but the wind accentuated it. That’s such a tough hole. It was definitely the hardest shot of the day, of all week. I played that hole 5-over this week and lost by one.
“So I’m not a big fan of No. 14 right now. I mean, it’s a spectacular Par 3, but I’m not very happy with it right now, because it cost me the tournament.”
After Sunday’s trophy presentation, Wright characterized his sand save on No. 14 — he drained a seven-foot putt after blasting out of the left greenside bunker — as a “pivotal moment” in his victory. The champion also delivered a clutch chip to salvage par on No. 13.
“I probably wouldn’t be here if I wouldn’t have gotten those up and down,” he said.
The 28-year-old Wright shaved five strokes off par on Sunday’s front nine, sizzling to the top of the leaderboard as Mother Nature’s mood worsened, with a steady breeze turning into wicked gusts, followed by some raindrops and, eventually, thunder and lightning.
Wright tapped in for bogey on No. 18 just minutes before the horn sounded to suspend play, claiming the clubhouse lead at 15-under 269. After a half-hour delay due to dangerous weather, Baek missed a birdie try that would have forced a playoff.
“Honestly, I felt really calm most of the day, which is kind of great,” Wright said. “That’s why I’m so proud of myself, I guess. Sometimes, you can’t miss the leaderboard, right? So I’ve seen my name up there all day and I never once thought I let that affect me. And if I did, I made sure that it didn’t affect me more than once.”
Back in his Canadian Tour heyday, Heffernan was a fixture on leaderboards.
He was a four-time winner on the minor-league loop between 200608. Playing the 2017 ATB Financial Classic on a sponsor exemption, he nearly added to his trophy collection Sunday at Country Hills.
“As happy as I was about those two other rounds (Thursday and Saturday), I was even more happy about today,” Heffernan said. “I played really well under the conditions. I didn’t hit a single shot where I thought my nerves cost me a shot, and that tends to happen usually.
“I gave myself a chance to win. I wanted to come up No. 18 with a chance to win, just to have that feeling again, but No. 14 kind of cost me that.”