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Victoria amateur Sihota shoots up Reliance Properties DCBank Open leaderboard

Three Island players attracting the largest gallery of the day at Uplands Golf Club wasn’t ­surprising for an early round. But the buzz went beyond just that. That’s because one of the trio is considered a rising teen star and showed why.
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Victoria amateur Jeevan Sihota climbed into second place at Uplands on Friday. TIMES COLONIST

Three Island players attracting the largest gallery of the day at Uplands Golf Club wasn’t ­surprising for an early round. But the buzz went beyond just that. That’s because one of the trio is considered a rising teen star and showed why.

Hometown amateur 17-year-old old Jeevan Sihota shot himself into second place in the Reliance Properties DCBank Open presented by the Times Colonist in only his third pro tournament on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada. He was top-six in his first Mackenzie Tour pro tournament two weeks ago in Calgary. No wonder the Grade 12 online-education student’s NCAA Div. 1 offers are piling higher than Mount Baker on a clear day.

“I can’t explain how much a gallery like that helps,” said Sihota, who made the rounds with fellow-Islanders Ben Griffin and Nate Ollis.

“You feed off that. Hopefully, I can finish it off this weekend.”

Sihota, who has been ­making the local sports pages and media reports since he was six years old, was at 7-under 133 after two rounds, one stroke behind leader Blair Bursey, who hails from that other rock on the other Canadian coast. Bursey, who played NCAA Div. 1 at Utah Valley University for the Wolverines, is from Gander, N.L., and has quite a backstory of his own surviving a life-threatening health scare in his rookie pro season of 2018 after going septic with a bowel knot and into emergency surgery.

It could be quite a race to the wire at Uplands between two compelling golfers from ­opposite ends of the country.

Sihota overcame a triple bogey in the first round.

“You just have to move on and learn from it. Golf is a very up and down sport,” he said.

“Golf is golf. You just have to perform your best.”

If pundits think Sihota made use of local knowledge, the Gorge Vale golfer said he hasn’t played Uplands in the four years before trying it out two weeks ago to prepare for this ­tournament.

“I was solid today and hit my irons well,” said Sihota, the Canadian U-18 team player.

Because of rain delays in the opening round Thursday, not all second rounds were finished Friday. They will be completed today, after which the cut will be made with the projected cut line sitting at 3-over par. The final round is Sunday.

The Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada leads to the Korn Ferry Tour, which leads to the PGA Tour. The Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada since 2013 has produced 56 PGA Tour players, who have won 11 PGA tournaments, and more than 300 players for the Korn Ferry Tour, who have produced 47 victories at that Tour level.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com