Winning a shot at PGA

It’s minor league golf. The Canadian Tour, which brings its most prestigious tournament to the GTA beginning Thursday, feels a long way from the PGA Tour. No electronic scoreboards, no network TV coverage. Prize money for the entire tournament is a couple hundred dollars more than what the 14th-place finisher won at last month’s Canadian Open.

But as a field of 153 professionals from 10 countries takes to the Scarboro Golf & Country Club for the $100,000 Canadian Tour Championship, there’s a lot at stake. For some, it’s making enough to keep their playing privileges for next season. But for those at the top of the Tour’s Order of Merits, sights are set much higher.

The top two finishers on the money list this season, which wraps up with the final tournament in Gananoque in two weeks, will earn exemptions to the second stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School. Saskatchewan’s Graham DeLaet took advantage of that in 2009 by going on to earn his card on the world’s most prestigious golf circuit and then winning nearly $1 million (U.S.) as a rookie in the 2010 season.

In the Tour’s nearly 20 years, 172 Canadian Tour players have gone on to earn PGA Tour playing privileges.

Going into this week’s penultimate tournament of the 2012 season, Matt Hill of Forest, Ont., leads with $47,350, nearly $6,000 up on Michael Gligic of Burlington. Cory Renfrew of Victoria is in third place with $39,191. The only one not teeing it up is recently married No. 5 Chris Killmer, who is still on his honeymoon.