Q school awaits former Mackenzie Tour champ
Riley Wheeldon is proof of just how difficult golf and the desire to reach the upper echelons of the professional ranks can be.
A winner of the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada’s 2013 Syncrude Boreal Open in Fort McMurray, Alta., Wheeldon went on to finish No. 2 on the Order of Merit (money list) that season, earning his Web.com Tour status to begin 2014.
That year, he placed right behind fellow Canadian Mackenzie Hughes, who is now a winner on the pinnacle PGA Tour.
Flip ahead to 2017 and Wheeldon is back in his home neighbourhood of the Comox Valley, battling to earn back his playing privileges on the Mackenzie Tour at Qualifying School, which begins today at Crown Isle Resort in Courtenay.
Having placed 67th on the money list on what was a difficult 2016, Wheeldon missed the top 60 players who all kept their cards for 2017. The 26-year-old now has to earn those playing privileges back as 120 players tee it up over the next four days.
The top finisher at Crown Isle will have privileges for the full year, while the next four finishers are exempt for the first eight events on tour and subject to a second reshuffle of top money earners. From sixth-16th place at Crown Isle earns exempt status for the first four tour stops and players are subject to the first reshuffle after that point.
Competitors rounding out the top 40 earn conditional status on the 2017 Mackenzie Tour.
“It’s been a humbling winter, going back to square one,” admitted Wheeldon. “It’s a familiar place, Crown Isle and Q School. Hopefully, it’s one step backwards and two steps forwards.
“I just have to go out there and play as well as I can and wherever that puts me afterwards, I will deal with it. My confidence is building. I’m not where I would like to be with my game, but it’s heading in the right direction. It is a course that is that familiar to me and that will be a good thing.”
Wheeldon, who teamed up with Keaton Gudz this weekend to win the Vancouver Island Open and finished tied for fourth at the Vancouver Golf Tour’s Masters event at Morgan Creek last week, is familiar with the territory at Crown Isle, having played there since age seven.
He also knows he’s in a battle to get back to the level he played at two or three years ago.
“I only had one good event last summer and if you don’t play well it’s easy to move backwards, that’s the way the tours work now,” he said. “I just have to play better.”
Wheeldon spent the winter in the Scotsdale, Arizona, area playing on mini tours.
“I was trying to work on my game and obviously pick myself up after last summer and get back to where I think I should be.”
He won an event on the Dreamchasers Tour and finished fifth on that money list, but also had a few bad events.
“I was inconsistent. When it’s good, it’s good and when it’s bad I’d like it to be a little better,” said Wheeldon, who is known for being hard on himself.
Injuries also didn’t help him in 2016, but Wheeldon will be among those to watch this week at Crown Isle along with fellow Canadian Blair Hamilton of Burlington, Ont., Americans Corey Pereira and Max McGreevy and Australian Brett Coletta.
Other B.C. residents teeing it up this week include Graeme Nelson of Courtenay; Brady Stead of Vernon, who played at Camosun College; Brendan Dillon of Port Moody; John Mlikotic and Keith Martin (Kelowna); Troy Bulmer (Vernon); Jonathan Wiegner (Vancouver); John McLellan and Garrett Kuchar (Chilliwack); Callum Robinson (Langley); Brett Stewart (Abbotsford); Andrew Rasmussen (Delta); Kevin Kwon (Pitt Meadows); and Christopher Ro (North Vancouver).
Eugene Wong, who like Wheeldon is a former winner on Mackenzie Tour, withdrew late last week.
Notables who have earned their cards previously at Crown Isle include J.J. Spaun, Aaron Wise, Adam Cornelson, C.T. Pan and Taylor Moore, who have moved on to the PGA Tour or Web.com Tour. Cornelson won the Bayview Place Cardtronics Open presented by Times Colonist last year in Victoria.