Teams or players can have home court, field, ice or course advantage, but it only matters what you do with it. Riley Wheeldon used it to absolutely destroy the field to win the PGA Tour Canada qualifying tournament on his home Crown Isle course in Courtenay.
The Comox native and former B.C. junior champion, who came out of Highland Secondary to golf in NCAA Div. 1 for the University of Louisville Cardinals, finished at 20-under 268 after four rounds to win by five strokes over Yi Cao of China.
“Home course was certainly an advantage and was a factor in how well I played this week,” said Wheeldon, now based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“It was a great way to reunite myself with Crown Isle. I played my entire childhood here from age seven to 18, and spent a lot of my life here, but I have not played the course in four years.”
He didn’t forget a thing.
“I have a lot of good memories of shots I have hit over the years here and I can draw back on those,” said the 31-year-old veteran pro.
Having his dad Bill, who still resides in the Comox Valley, and mom Leah from Port Alice there to watch the victory made it all the sweeter. The win gives Wheeldon full exemption on the PGA Tour Canada for the 2022 season, beginning with the Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by the Times Colonist from June 2-5 at Uplands.
“Victoria is my favourite tournament on the Tour,” said Wheeldon.
Crown Isle was the final, and only Canadian stop, among the seven PGA Tour Canada qualifying tournaments held this spring.
Wheeldon joins the six previous medallists in this qualifying tournament season to earn full-season exemptions — Alex Herrmann and Austin Hitt from the two Florida tournaments, amateur Jacob Bridgeman from the Alabama tournament, Max Marsico from the Arizona qualifier, Jake Vincent from the California qualifier and Taylor Funk from last week on The Home Course in Tacoma, Washington.
The potential rewards are great if the qualifying tournament medallists can get off to good starts at Uplands. They include a full-season exemption into the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour for the 2022 PGA Tour Canada Fortinet Cup season champion with other selected 2023 Korn Ferry Tour exemptions for the top-five finishers in the Fortinet Cup season standings.
The Korn Ferry Tour is one step from the PGA Tour. The top-two season finishers, and top Canadian, on the PGA Tour Canada will also earn exemptions into the PGA Tour’s 2023 RBC Canadian Open, an event Wheeldon has twice played in during his career.
“That stuff is certainly all on my mind. I proved to myself I can still get the job done,” said Wheeldon, whose name was once mentioned alongside that of Canadian golfers such as Corey Connors, Mackenzie Hughes and Adam Hadwin.
A total of 54 PGA Tour Canada alumni have advanced to play on the PGA Tour since 2013 with 16 PGA Tour victories between them. More than 300 PGA Tour Canada alumni have gone onto play on the Korn Ferry Tour since 2013 with 49 victories between them.
Positions two through nine in the Crown Isle qualifier earned exemptions into the first five PGA Tour Canada events or to the first reshuffle. Canadian veteran pro Jared du Toit was third at 13-under 275, Max Sear from Royal Colwood fourth at 12-under and Canadian Andrew Harrison fifth at 10-under.
Other than Cao, all the second-to-ninth-place qualifiers from Crown Isle for the first five PGA Tour Canada tournaments were Canadians — Brendan MacDougall sixth at 9-under, Jimmy Jones and Austin Ryan tied for seventh at 5-under. Jeevan Sihota of Gorge Vale, Tony Gil and Marc Bourgeois tied for ninth at 4-under with Bourgeois winning the playoff to claim the ninth spot and final card for the first-five Tour stops.
The 10th through 30th finishers and ties are conditional with no guaranteed Tour starts, although 18-year-old Canadian junior national team member Sihota has a sponsor’s exemption into the Royal Beach Victoria Open.
A total of 95 players entered the qualifier in Courtenay.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
