Will this be the year an Islander wins?
Renfrew, Wheeldon are heating up at the right time
With all the successes and goodnews stories to come out of the Bayview Place Islands Savings Open presented by Times Colonist over the years, there has never been a conclusion in which a local or Island golfer has carted off the trophy at week’s end. Maybe this will be the year. Cory Renfrew and Riley Wheeldon would love nothing more.
Victoria’s Renfrew and Wheeldon, of Comox (who has since moved to Bear Mountain Golf Resort, which sponsors the pro), are considered among the many talented Canadians heading into the 2015 tournament, which begins Thursday at Uplands Golf Club.
Both have won on mini tours this past winter and both have come close at Uplands before. Renfrew was a runner-up in 2012 after a final-round 68, three shots shy of Andrew Roque, who remarkably birdied his final seven holes to win. Wheeldon finished third in 2013.
Both have also won the Syncrude Boreal Open in Fort McMurray, Alta., a part of the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada circuit.
“It’s always nice to win, no matter what the level is. When you can close it out you draw confidence from that,” said Wheeldon, who has claimed the last two majors on the Vancouver Golf Tour — the Battle at the Bear a few weeks ago and the Sandpiper Open just last week.
The 24-year-old also claimed victory at the Orlando Open on the Fore The Players Tour this past winter. “I feel ready, I’m anxious and I want it to start,” Wheeldon said of preparation for PGA Tour Canada, which began this week with the PC Financial Open at the Point Grey Golf and Country Club in Vancouver, prior to moving to the Island.
“I hope so,” he said of the expectations of having another solid year, like he did two years ago when he finished second on the Order of Merit (money list). “Last year, bouncing between [PGA Tour Canada] and the Web.com Tour, it was a tough year.
“There was a lot of travel, I wasn’t healthy and I wasn’t playing good. It was a tough year, but I learned a lot from it and going into this year I feel like I can take what I learned last year — and hopefully, what I learned two years ago when I finished second on the Order of Merit — and compile it all into another good year. I want to get back on the Web.com Tour next year.”
The 2015 Order of Merit winner will earn full exemption on the Web.com Tour and the next four will receive conditional status, as Wheeldon did after his 2013 campaign when he finished third at the formerly named Times Colonist Island Savings Open in Victoria.
Renfrew, too, has accomplished much over his stretch.
Like Wheeldon, Renfrew has won on PGA Tour Canada, taking the 2012 Syncrude Boreal Open title in a playoff after shooting a course-record 63 on the final day. Wheeldon won the same event a year later.
Renfrew, 29, also placed third on the PGA Tour Canada Order of Merit in 2012, prior to the top five exemptions on Web.com Tour kicking in the following year.
“I’m excited to get going,” Renfrew said previous to this week’s event at Point Grey. “Getting a win at home would be exciting. Being from the west coast [he also played at UBC], these first two events are very important for me.
“I definitely think one of us can win either of these two events in B.C. or win on any given week. I don’t think anyone [from the Island] has ever won it in Victoria, so that would be cool in that sense.”
Victoria’s Jim Rutledge bogeyed his final hole one year to just miss a playoff and Paul Devenport won the event in 2001 at Gorge Vale, but he hailed from New Zealand before eventually moving to Victoria, where he still resides.
Go one step further and you’ll find out a Canadian has not won the event since 2004 when David Hearn won at Gorge Vale.
Renfrew also has victories on the Gateway Tour and Pepsi Tour and was runner-up on the Dreamchaser Pro Golf Tour, but his biggest accomplishment was Monday qualifying for the PGA Tour’s Waste Management Phoenix Open this year.
Not only did he make the cut, but he received excellent TV value when he chipped in on the rowdy 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale, which whipped the alcoholfuelled fans into a frenzy — broadcast to the world.
“It was probably the best golf experience of my life so far,” he said of finishing 59th that week. “Getting to the weekend, then playing well at that point in front of all those people was an unbelievable experience.”
Since then, Renfrew also got through initial regional stages of qualifying for the upcoming U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. He was the low medallist after a 66 at Duke University Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina, on May 12 and will play the second and final stage at sectionals.
He’s set to tee it up at that sectional at Tumble Creek Club in Cle Elum, Washington, the day after the Victoria tournament ends. He’d love nothing more than to head south with the Bayview Place Island Savings Open crown under his belt.