A round away
Four local golfers closer to earning spots in Canadian Open
One outstanding round of golf is all that separates four local players from a spot in next week’s RBC Canadian Open.
Waterloo amateurs Matt LeMay and Waterloo Collegiate student Bennett Ruby, along with Kitchener professionals Chris Hemmerich and Michael Gligic, will compete in the Monday qualifying event at Heron Point Golf Links in Ancaster with hopes of competing at Oakville’s Glen Abbey Golf Club.
Seventy players are slated to compete in the Monday qualifier and the top four players will advance.
In total, 156 players will compete for the US$6.2-million purse when the tournament returns to Glen Abbey for a record 30th time.
The list includes Listowel’s Corey Conners, who will be making his first appearance in the tournament as a full-time member of the PGA Tour and will attempt to become the first Canadian to win the tournament since Pat Fletcher in 1954.
Speaking of Conners
The pride of the Listowel Golf Club is playing the Barbasol Championship in Lexington, Ky., this week with hopes of climbing the PGA Tour money list and FedEx Cup rankings. Conners currently sits 126th in earnings with $711,781 in prize money and 123rd in the FedEx Cup rankings.
The four-event FedEx Cup playoffs begin in late August with The Northern Trust in New Jersey and the top 125 players on the FedEx list will be there. In other words, Conners needs all the points he can muster in the coming weeks.
The summer of Garrett
Elmira’s Garrett Rank, a wireto-wire winner at last week’s Ontario amateur championship in St. Thomas, continues his hectic schedule this week at the 60th Porter Cup in Lewiston, N.Y. The tournament started Wednesday at Niagara Falls Country Club and wraps up Saturday.
The National Hockey League referee, who earlier this summer won the Ontario mid-amateur championship after competing at the U.S. Open, is also in the 312player field for the Aug. 13-19 U.S. amateur championship at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill in California.
In addition to all that, he’s qualified to play at the Aug. 6-9 Canadian men’s amateur championship in Duncan, B.C., and the Aug. 21-24 Canadian mid-amateur championship in Victoria, B.C.
The Osprey Valley Open
The Mackenzie Tour — PGA Tour Canada is in the area this week for the Osprey Valley Open in Caledon.
Michael Gligic, a Burlington native who now calls Kitchener home, is the only local player in the event. Gligic sits 12th on the tour’s order of merit with the goal of being in the top five at season’s end.
The Five, as they’re called, will earn status on the Web.com Tour
for 2019.
Go to ospreyvalleyopen.com for additional information on the first-year tournament.
Chip shots: Brendan Leonard of Cambridge and Luke Moser of Kitchener finished in a tie for second at the recent Great Lakes Tour Collingwood Classic ... Kitchener’s Xavier Ayora reached the round of 16 at the Ontario junior boys match play championship at Tangle Creek ... Manuela Rincon Torres, a Colombian who calls Kitchener home during the summer months, was a finalist at the Ontario junior girls match play championship ... The first event of the Tee-It-Up junior tour is in the books, with Waterloo’s Nolan Hesson winning the bantam division, Graem Costigan of Cambridge taking the junior boys category and Kyra Vandervoort of Cambridge topping the junior girls class.