2012 Winner: Michael Gligic 

 

 

Country Hills Golf Club – Talons Course

Calgary, Alberta

Par 72 – 36/36 – 7,209 yards

Designed: 2010 - Tom McBroom

Course Record: 67 – Mike Belbin (2010)

Website: www.countryhills.ab.ca

 

 

With one event down and eight to go, the race for the top five spots on the Order of Merit is underway. Times Colonist Island Savings Open winner Stephen Gangluff leads the way after his week one victory, putting himself in solid position to contend for one of the five Web.com Tour cards in 2014. The current standings are as follows:

 

1. Stephen Gangluff - $27,000

2. Tyler Aldridge - $16,500

3. Riley Wheeldon - $9,000

T-4. Nick Taylor - $5,906.25

T-4. Devin Carrey - $5,906.25

T-4. Matt Marshall - $5,906.25

T-4. David Skinns - $5,906.25

 

 

Calgary’s own James Love leads a strong contingent of Calgary natives to be competing this week at Country Hills, joining fellow former PGA TOUR Canada winners Ryan Yip and Wes Heffernan as well as Craig Gibson and Riley Fleming. 

 

Love, the 2009 TOUR Championship winner, is looking to get into contention for one of the five cards for 2014 on the Web.com Tour, where he spent 2012, making five cuts including a T-9 finish at the Utah Championship. 

 

 

Four players in this week’s field will be coming into the event with some major experience under their belts, with Calgary’s own Ryan Yip, Jesse Smith, Wil Collins and Mackenzie Hughes all teeing it up at the US Open last week. All four made it through local and sectional qualifying, earning their way into their first major championships and competing alongside the world’s best players at Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Yip shot 76-77, Smith 73-81, Collins 76-79 and Hughes 75-78 on the tough Merion layout.

 

Former Golf Canada stars lead sponsor’s exemptions 

 

As part of PGA TOUR Canada’s ongoing relationship with Golf Canada to develop elite-level players, two members or recent graduates of Golf Canada’s National Amateur Team will tee it up in each of the first seven PGA TOUR Canada events. 2011 and 2012 Canadian Amateur champ Mackenzie Hughes will follow up his US Open appearance at Country Hills this week along with 2010 Ontario Amateur champion and Kent State star Corey Conners. 

 

Albin Choi, who played the Times Colonist Island Savings Open under one of the Golf Canada exemptions, earned his way into the ATB Financial Classic presented by TELUS field via his top-20 finish in Victoria. 

 

Also teeing it up this week are 2012 US Public Links champion TJ Vogel, who played in this year’s Masters Tournament, 2012 Alberta and British Columbia Amateur Champion Riley Fleming, former PGA TOUR Canada standout Andrew Parr and Country Hills head professional Brett Burgeson, a former PGA Championship of Canada winner. 

 

 

After winning his first professional event last week at the Massachusetts Open, PGA TOUR Canada member Evan Harmeling donated his $15,000 first place check to One Fund Boston, supporting victims of April’s Boston Marathon Bombings. Harmeling, an Andover, Massachusetts resident who went to Princeton, won the event in a playoff over Chris Fitzpatrick. 

 

The gesture was reminiscent of a donation made by fellow PGA TOUR Canada member Conrad Shindler, who donated his own $15,000 first place check from an Adams Tour win to a tornado relief fund in Oklahoma last month. Both players will be in the field at this week’s ATB Financial Classic presented by TELUS.  

 

 

After switching back and forth between Calgary and Edmonton for its first six years, the ATB Financial Classic presented by TELUS will now make Calgary its permanent home. The third oldest event on the PGA TOUR Canada schedule will be played in Calgary long term, quickly becoming one of the Tour's marquee events. 

 

 

Mike Grob* - 66

Thomas Schupp - 67

Thomas Hay - 67

Kevin McAlpine* - 68

Ben Briscoe - 69

Josh Creel* - 69

John Kelly - 69

Michael Knight - 69

Ryan Werre - 69

Brett Nymeyer* - 70

 

 (* denotes PGA TOUR Canada member)

Bold denotes Canadian

 

 

With an off week on the PGA TOUR Canada schedule, 69 TOUR members stayed competitive at the Vancouver Golf Tour’s 108-player Saputo Vancouver Open last week. PGA TOUR Canada rookie Chris Epperson nabbed a victory in a playoff over Abbotsford, British Columbia’s Nick Taylor and Comox, British Columbia’s Riley Wheeldon, making birdie on the first playoff hole.

 

All three players finished in the top-10 at the season-opening Times Colonist Island Savings Open, with Wheeldon finishing third, Taylor tied for fourth and Epperson tied for eighth.

 

 

The field at the PGA TOUR’s Travellers Championship this week features 21 PGA TOUR Canada alumni. Last week, Steve Stricker led a list of alumni at the US Open, finishing tied for eighth. 

 

 

This week’s field includes 65 Canadians, 73 Americans and players from 18 countries including Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, England, Scotland, Wales, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Past ATB Financial Classic presented by TELUS champions in the field:

 

Michael Gligic (2012)

Hugo Leon (2011)

Mike Grob (2007)