From the rock on the East Coast to the rock on the West Coast, it was all islanders all the time in the 2021 Reliance Properties DC Bank Victoria Open, presented by the Times Colonist.
Blair Bursey from Gander, N.L., won with a four-round total of 10-under-par 270 at Uplands Golf Club on Sunday. One stroke behind, in a four-way tie for second place, was emerging 17-year-old Victoria teenage amateur Jeevan Sihota.
Meanwhile, 21-year-old Callum Davison of Duncan finished at seven-under 273 to win the season points title on the eight-tournament Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada season.
Davison, who won two tournaments this year, and Sihota, an online-schooled Grade 12 student whose NCAA Div. 1 athletic scholarship offers from big U.S. universities are piling high, will be two players to watch for in the years ahead.
But this Sunday belonged to the tournament champion from the island on Canada’s other coast.
“I came from as far away as possible in Canada to here to do this,” said Bursey, noting it was the largest crowd he’s played in front of. “The gallery was very polite, even though you can tell they wanted hometown Jeevan [Sihota] to do well. Jeevan has a lot of talent and shows a lot of promise. Everybody can see his future is incredibly bright.”
The top-two finishers from the last Victoria Open in 2019, winner Paul Barjon and runner-up Doc Redman, are both now on the PGA Tour. In fact, future PGA players ranging from Steve Stricker to Tony Finau and Mackenzie Hughes have come through the Victoria tournament since 1981.
Bursey, who played NCAA Div. 1 at Utah Valley University, said while he hopes one day to play at the highest level, “I will never forget this.”
He said surviving a health scare in his rookie pro season of 2018, after a bowel knot went septic and he required emergency surgery to save his life, “gives you a sense of perspective and orders the right priorities.”
“It happened very quickly and was a difficult time in my life. I was lucky to be in Canada at the time,” he said. “I’m grateful every day and feel I got a second chance at life. Hopefully, I do something with the rest of my days.”
Bursey won $18,000 for the victory. The prize purse was reduced to $100,000 this year due to the pandemic. It will return to its normal $200,000 level next year, with $36,000 going to the winner.
Bursey said he’s not doing it for the money, “but it certainly helps.”
Sihota could not accept a paycheque because he is an amateur. But he played the hometown hero, even though falling one shot short.
“I can’t describe the gallery. It was awesome,” said Sihota, who tied for sixth place in his first golf tournament against professionals two weeks ago in Calgary.
“I will keep grinding away. I know now I’ve got the game to compete with the pros, and that’s nice to know.”
Season-champion Davison, a member of the Cowichan Golf Club, says his performance gave him a “boost of confidence.”
This is the second-latest date the Victoria Open has been held since its inception in 1981 and the latest since Craig Stadler won in October of 1984 at Uplands. The tournament will revert to its regular first-week-of-June time slot in 2022.
CHIP SHOTS: The Reliance Properties DCBank Open presented by the Times Colonist has a significant charity component and $100,000 was raised over the weekend for the Salvation Army in Victoria.
