From the rock on the East Coast to the rock on the West Coast, it was all islanders all the time at the 2021 Reliance Properties DCBank Open presented by the Times Colonist.
Blair Bursey from Gander, Newfoundland, 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 7-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, Bursey and Noah Steele, Brendan Leonard and Michael Blair secure their Mackenzie Tour cards for next season.
Sihota, the amateur and online-schooled Grade 12 student whose NCAA Div. 1 athletic scholarship offers from big U.S. universities are piling high, will be an intriguing player 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.
“It was a mental battle. I just had to find a way to do it. This was the largest gallery I have ever 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.”
Bursey joined some heady company. The top two finishers from the last Victoria Open pre-pandemic in 2019, winner Paul Barjon and runner-up Doc Redman, are both now on the PGA Tour. There’s nothing unusual about that. Future PGA players from Steve Stricker to Tony Finau to Mackenzie Hughes have come through the Victoria tournament since 1981.
“I hope one day to be at the highest level, but I will never forget this,” said Bursey.
More than most of the golfers who performed at Uplands, he realized it’s just a game. Bursey, who played NCAA Div. 1 at Utah Valley University, survived a near-death health scare in his rookie pro season of 2018 after a bowel knot went septic and required emergency surgery to save his life.
“It’s a cliché, but it gives you a sense of perspective and orders the right priorities,” said Bursey. “It happened very quickly and was a difficult time in my life. I was lucky to be in Canada [hometown of Gander] at the time. I try to flip it around and use it as a positive. 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.
“I’m not doing it for the money. But it certainly helps,” said Bursey.
Sihota, meanwhile, could not accept a paycheque because he is an amateur. But he played the hometown hero to a tee, 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 is another young Islander on the rise.
“This gives me a boost of confidence into next year,” said the Cowichan Golf Club member.
Forced by the pandemic, this is the second to 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.
The Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada leads to the Korn Ferry Tour, which leads to the PGA Tour.
CHIP SHOTS: The Reliance Properties DCBank Open has a significant charity component and $100,000 was raised over the weekend for the Salvation Army in Victoria.
