FROM THE HOCKEY RINK TO THE GOLF COURSE
Canadian NHL referee Garrett Rank proves he’s a pretty competitive athlete in his own right when he steps out of the rink with his recent feat south of the border, while national superstar Brooke Henderson prepares to defend her title at the Meijer Classic in this week’s look at the wide world of golf by John Grainger.
1 — One of the coolest stories coming out of the U.S. Open this week belongs to Canadian Garrett Rank. After recently concluding his day job as an NHL referee for the season, Rank went out and qualified for the U.S. Open. How many people can say that? He’s definitely no slouch on the course — he is a three-time Canadian mid-amateur champion. Rank is paired with fellow Canadian Mackenzie Hughes and Aussie Aaron Baddeley for the first two rounds at Shinnecock Hills, in New York state. They go off the 10th tee Thursday at 7:18 a.m. The only other Canadian in the field is Adam Hadwin. He’s out at 1:58 p.m. with American Kevin Kisner and England’s Ross Fisher. 2 — Brooke Henderson is returning champion at the Meijer Classic in Grand Rapids, Mich. Henderson’s game has been pretty solid lately, including a tie for 28th last week at the Shoprite Classic in New Jersey. As defending champ, she has even more incentive to keep her game strong. Other Canadians include Brittany Marchand, who has been playing very well during the last month, Anne-catherine Tanguay, Alena Sharp and Maude-aimee Leblanc as well as Canadian amateur Jaclyn Lee.
3 — Canadian Justin Shin has been playing well recently on the PGA China Tour. He finished third at an event last week, two shots behind winner Charlie Saxon of the United States. Fellow Canadian Peter Campbell finished tied for 26th. Shin, who calls the Lower Mainland home, is now sixth on the tour’s order of merit after earning about Cdn$51,000 in five events. Saxon is the runaway leader on that tour with three wins and about $140,000 thus far. The top five after the season concludes get a pass to next year’s Web.com Tour. 4 — The Mackenzie Tour Canada rolls into Kelowna, B.C., this week for an event at the fun Gallagher’s Canyon for the Golfbc Championship. This is the third event of the young season for the Mackenzie Tour. Former PGA Tour regular Andres Gonzalez, one of the most popular players in the golfing world and a former winner on the Mackenzie Tour, is scheduled to play this event. His results this year have been poor with only one cut made on the PGA Tour, a T63 finish at the Nashville Golf Open. Gonzales is a former winner of the SIGA Dakota Dunes Open. Also of note from Kelowna is that Saskatoon’s Hugh Vassos, a veteran of running Mackenzie Tour golf tournaments, is the man in charge of the event.
5 — Ryan Yip seems to be in a good groove as of late on the Web.com Tour. Last week at the Rust- Oleum Championship outside Chicago, Yip finished tied for 18th after stumbling a little with a 74 on the final day. Yip is still in a good spot to earn his PGA Tour card as one of the top 25. Yip, a Calgary golfer who went to Kent State, is in 44th place with earnings of about US$70,000. He’s about $30,000 out of the top 25, but with continued solid play, Yip could make up the ground with about half the season still to go.