Champion of Champions tourney finally played — six months later
David Toulouse cards a 5-over-par 77 on his home course to top the open men’s flight
A gift that David Toulouse gave to himself recently — several rounds of golf in Columbia, S.C. — was the gift that kept on giving Saturday.
The Grand Niagara member, who corrected his chipping problems while getting an early start on the season playing in the southern United States, carded a 5-over-par 77 on his home course to top the open men’s flight at the Niagara District Champion of Champions.
“I had a lot of trouble chipping and it worked out great today,” he said. “I hit my driver really well today, not long, but I kept myself in play all day.”
He thinks playing on his home course helped, “especially around the greens.”
Toulouse, semi-retired after selling his land surveying business five years ago, doesn’t normally play from the gold tees at his home course, which are 6,800 yards. He usually plays the silvers, which are about 6,400 yards.
“It was playing very long today.” On the back nine, Toulouse felt there was a chance he might have a shot at winning.
“For the front nine, I shot 40, but on the back nine I was going good,” he said. “I was just keeping par, I made one bogey, then I just made a couple of pars, and I made a birdie on 15.”
Having to three-putt on the 17th jarred Toulouse out of that groove.
“That really upset me because I was only four over par at the time, but then I finished off with a nice par,” he said. “I was surprised that I won, to tell you the truth. I didn’t think 77 would win.”
Does experience knowing the lay of the land as a land surveyor help him read the greens, the 59-yearold was asked.
“You would think it would be easier, but I still have a lot of trouble,” he answered with a chuckle.
Derek Divok, who won the senior men’s division with a 76, the lowest score of the day, was glad the twicepostponed tournament was moved to Grand Niagara from Niagara National.
“I love this golf course,” the Rockway member said. “In my mind, this course is probably the best in the peninsula.”
What sets Grand Niagara apart are the course’s “fantastic greens.”
“You have to play it off the tee. If you can hit the fairway, I wouldn’t say the course is easy, but it’s very playable and gettable.”
Nothing about Divok’s game on Saturday was “great, but nothing was bad.”
“I didn’t drive it well today. For me, I normally hit fairways, but I had a pull hook going today for whatever reason,” he said. “I putted pretty well, even though I had a couple of three-putts.”
It was cool and, at times, windy, but Kennedy Bodfield, the open women’s champion, had no complaints about the weather Saturday.
“We got lucky with the weather, and the course was in really good shape for this time of year,” she said after her two-stroke victory over Stefi Markovich. “But considering we had snow last week I’m not going to complain.”
It was the first open women’s championship for Bodfield, who took three titles in the junior girls division.
On Saturday, the Rockway member’s game was “pretty consistent.”
“I hit a lot of greens. I think I hit 13 greens, so that was pretty good for this time of year.”
A hole-in-one is better than pretty good any time of the year, but it doesn’t always foreshadow a strong finish to a round.
Just ask Sarah-Anne Smurlick if the momentum from her ace of No. 2 was sustainable.
“Actually, it kind of went downhill. I kind of got on a bit of a bogey train after that,” the member of Freedom Oaks in Dunnville said with a laugh.
“I don’t think I had any doubles today, it was sort of pars or bogeys.”
Smurlick, whose ace was the seventh of her career, defeated Niagara National’s Theresa Holmes in a two-hole playoff to win her second Champions title and first since topping the leaderboard in the open women’s division in 2018.
This time out, Smurlick carded an 84.
“I’d like to be a little lower than
that, but it’s a good score for this time of the year on this course with the wind blowing.”
Twenty Valley’s Caleb Shorthouse won the junior boys division and Sawmill’s Casey Kenney topped a junior girls flight that only featured two competitors.
Tee Topics The 72nd Walt McCollum Niagara District Champion of Champions had initially been set for Niagara National last fall, but wet grounds cancelled the original date, Sept. 25, as well as the makeup date … 2022 Champions will be played at St. Catharines Golf and Country Club in September.