Griffin makes move at top of Bayview Place golf tour

Lecuyer wins Arbutus Ridge Open in a playoff

Ben Griffin’s third-place finish at the Arbutus Ridge Open over the weekend leaves the Uplands Golf Club assistant atop the Bayview Place Performance Tour order of merit.

Steven Lecuyer (70-68) won the event in a playoff after finishing tied with Riley Wheeldon (72-66) with two-day totals of 138, one shot better than Griffin (71-68). Gordy Scutt (70-71) and Andrew Smeeth (71-70) were tied for fourth at the par-71 course.

Griffin leads the tour with 129 points, ahead of Isaac Weintraub of Gorge Vale with 118. Eric Wang of Victoria Academy of Golf is third with 82 points as the pros play for a single berth at the Bayview Place Cardtronics Open presented by the Times Colonist stop on Mackenzie TourPGA Tour Canada.

On the amateur side, Gorge Vale clubmates Brent Wilson (70-72) and Blair Sabiston (65-77) finished tied atop the leaderboard at Arburtus Ridge, along with Dallas Jones of Mt. Brenton (70-72). All three finished with 142 totals, one shot better than Daniel Fratczak (71-72).

Michael Griffin (72-73) was fifth and Tristan Mandur (77-70) and order of merit leader Keaton Gudz (74-73) were tied for sixth.

Gudz has a solid overall lead with 134.5 points, ahead of Wilson and Sabiston with 86 and 85.25 points, respectively.

Lucas Kulai, a 12-year-old member of the Bayview Place Vikes junior tour, finished 49th among the amateurs with rounds of 80-82 to finish fifth in the low net category.

A junior tour event was also recently held at the Bear Mountain Valley Course where 17-year-old Ryan Novecosky won in his junior tour debut with a 2-under 70. Nolan Thoroughgood, who has already claimed the exemption junior spot for the PGA Tour Canada event, was three shots back.