Have striped jersey and golf clubs, will travel.
Garrett Rank refereed in all 31 National Hockey League rinks last season. His summer golf tour hasn’t been bad, either. It has taken him from the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills to the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach and Canadian Amateur at Pheasant Glen in Qualicum Beach and Duncan Meadows to now the Canadian Mid-Amateur at Victoria Golf Club.
The Island, especially, has been kind to Rank. The native of Elmira, Ont., was sole third place, and top Canadian, this month in the Canadian Amateur at Pheasant Glen and Duncan Meadows and fired a blazing first-round 5-under 65 on Tuesday at Victoria Golf Club to lead the Canadian Mid-Amateur, the classification for amateurs 25 and older, a national title he has won on three previous occasions.
Jordan Caron of Victoria and Jay Snyder of Vancouver were two strokes back at 67, Saare Adams and Erik Swinburnson of Victoria, and Patrick Forbes of Toronto three back at 68 and 2012 and 2013 champion Kevin Carrigan of Victoria in a group four back at 69.
“It’s a shorter trip for Ontario golfers to golf in Florida than come to the West Coast of Canada, so is my first time on the Island, and it’s beautiful,” said Rank.
“It feels good coming here.”
From Qualicum to Duncan to Victoria, this guy is proving he is a seriously flat-out talented golfer.
That’s because it comes with no expectations, as a paying gig on the greens would, Rank said.
Rank’s livelihood is in the rink. The fairways are for fun.
“Here [golf course] there is no pressure,” he said. “Because I’ve got a full-time job.”
The 30-year-old can have the best of both worlds in both his sports.
“It provides me with a good mix,” said Rank.
“It’s a different dynamic in each sport.”
Rank is often asked which sport he prefers.
“Obviously, as a Canadian kid, you grow up with hockey as the No. 1 sport. But I’m in love with the game of golf and in love with playing it. I love both sports. I can’t [pick] one over the other.”
It helps immensely, of course, that they are played in opposite seasons.
“I play 12 golf events in the summer and try to get in 10 to 12 during the NHL season,” said Rank, who overcame testicular cancer at age 22, because it was caught early.
Rank was a member of Team Canada in golf and said the just-established Golf Canada national U-19 centralized training centre on Bear Mountain is a project whose time has come.
“It’s a great idea because we Canadian golfers would come into the start of the season far behind the 8-ball [because of cold weather in much of Canada compared with other golf-playing countries],” he said.
“Now we have the five best [male and female U-19] golfers in the country centralized and it’s a great advantage to have them out here.”
The start of NHL officials training camp looms large on Rank’s calendar Sept. 8 as he looks forward to his third full season in the NHL after moving up from the minor pros in 2016-17, and earning post-season work this spring in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
But he won’t break out the skates and whistle before taking care of business this week on the scenic fairways of Victoria Golf Club as Rank stalks his career fourth Canadian Mid-Amateur title.
He proved at Duncan Meadows, as top Canadian by seven strokes in the Canadian Amateur, he is right now the best Canadian amateur golfer regardless of age.
Despite having played in the Canadian Open three times, making the cut in 2016, Rank first came to folk-hero type attention south of the border this summer when he qualified for the U.S. Open. Despite missing the cut at Shinnecock Hills, Ranks’ occupation as an NHL referee earned him widespread media attention.
Rank and Carrigan, who plays out of Royal Colwood, are among six past champions looking for a return to glory in the 2018 Canadian Mid-Amateur. But nobody matches seven-time champion Graham Cooke of Hudson, Que., still going strong at age 71, and who matched his age with a 71 Monday. This week on the Island is special to him because Cooke gave the introductory address this summer when legendary course architect and Vimy Ridge veteran A.V. Macan of Victoria, who designed Royal Colwood and Gorge Vale, was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame with the Class of 2018.
“I can’t compete with this crowd,” said Cooke, of the field gathered at Victoria Club in the 2018 Canadian Mid-Amateur.
“The equipment has changed so much and these young guys can hit it 320 yards, and their [iron] shots stop on the toughest greens in the world. I’m on a cruise ship but I’m not in first class anymore.”
Island hopefuls vying for the crown include Swinburnson, Carrigan, Caron, Adams, Peter Jawl, Craig Doell, Ken Rowan, Paul Hansen, Phil Kondrak, Jonathan Siska, Mac Keats and Eric Smith, all of Victoria, veteran Sandy Harper of Nanaimo, Greg Koster of Courtenay, Brent Wilson of Cobble Hill and Kyler Bourgeault of Qualicum Beach.
The second round today begins at 7:30 a.m. with tee times to 2:42 p.m. The four-round tournament runs to Friday.
