Happenstance placed Eric Wang at the right tee box at just the right time.
Wang is on the verge of returning to the professional golf tournament that changed his life on so many levels. The visiting Californian was on a tee box for the 2006 Victoria Open — now the Bayview Place DC Bank Open presented by the Times Colonist — when he noticed an event volunteer stationed to that tee box and was smitten. She became his wife and Wang relocated to Victoria. Eric and Melissa Wang now have two children.
Wang, a teaching professional at the Blenkinsop Golf Centre, leads the Bayview Place Vikes Performance Tour heading into the closing 11th and 12th stops Saturday and Sunday at Cordova Bay.
The top three finishers in the Vikes Performance Tour Order of Merit will earn exemptions into the pro Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada’s Bayview Place DC Bank Open tournament June 7-10 at Uplands.
Wang has an exemption all but locked up with 3,050 points in the Order of Merit, while Kevin Carrigan of Royal Colwood holds down the second position with 2,815 points and Brent Wilson of Gorge Vale the third berth with 2,470.
Still in with a shot are former PGA Tour Champions pro Jim Rutledge, in fourth place with 2,325 points, Robbie Greeenwell of North Halton, Ont., in fifth spot with 2,085, and sixth-place Ben Griffin of Uplands with 2,040.
“This Performance Tour is a great opportunity for the local players to get in the [Bayview] tournament. It’s really exciting because it’s been a few years since I’ve played at the pro Tour level,” said Wang.
Wang grew up just two minutes from Tiger Woods’ house in Cypress, California, and the two often practised together and hit balls at the local course.
“I was always in awe of Tiger,” said Wang, who went to UC-Irvine to play NCAA Div. 1 golf, while Woods went off to Stanford.
“He is one of around 12 guys I played with in junior, college and the Canadian and Asian tours who went on to the PGA Tour.”
Wang’s own pro career turned out more modestly, but he knows the game well, and is among the most popular Island teaching pros. As a touring pro, he played on the Canadian Tour from 2004 to 2010, and also got in tournaments on the Asian Tour and Nationwide Tour, the latter of which is now the Web.com Tour.
His golf life, on and off the course, will come full circle next week in his adopted hometown pro tournament that changed his life in so many ways.
Second-place Carrigan, meanwhile, also looks secure to advance to the 36th Bayview Place Open next week. Wilson’s position is more tenuous in third place with the likes of fourth-place veteran Rutledge ready to take a run at him this weekend at Cordova Bay.
“[Wang and Carrigan] are safe, but not me,” said Wilson.
The former NCAA Arkansas Tech golfer-turned banker, originally out of Arbutus Ridge and now at Gorge Vale, knows he must be consistent over the final two of the 12 Performance Tour events this weekend.
“We have such a competitive golf scene on the Island, with so much talent, and this is a big opportunity for us,” said Wilson.
As amateurs, Carrigan and Wilson can’t partake of the $200,000 prize purse in the Bayview Place DC Bank Open, should they qualify.
“Brent and I have nothing to lose,” said Carrigan, who played his NCAA golf at Texas-Arlington.
As amateurs, that is literal.
“Pros love it when guys like us take up spots in pro tournaments [because it means more money available with less competition for the pros].”
Carrigan said he appreciates the opportunity provided by the Vikes Performance Tour, and said something like this could happen only on the Island in early spring.
Nowhere else in the country could you have gotten 12 rounds of tour golf already in,” said Carrigan.
“We know 20 pros who have moved here just because of that [ability to start the golf season in Canada so early].”
There are six sponsor exemptions for the Bayview Place DC Bank Open. The Vikes Performance Tour top-three will take up half of those. Darren Day has been given the fourth exemption and Uplands club champion Jake DuVall the fifth. The sixth and final sponsor’s exemption has yet to be announced.
Another 10 spots into the 156-player field will be available through the Monday qualifier at Gorge Vale.
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