The Mackenzie Tour completed its first tournament of 2015 on Sunday, the PC Financial Open, in dramatic fashion. It took a five-man playoff to determine the winner, and three of the five were Canadians under 25.
The tournament gave us a strong glimpse into the future of Canadian golf. And, to borrow a phrase used countless times before: the future is now.
Take Taylor Pendrith for example. The long-hitting Pendrith, who finished as low-Amateur at last year’s RBC Canadian Open, earned his spot in the playoff after torching Point Grey Golf and Country Club with an 8-under-par 64 — the round of the week — which included a 366-yard drive on the par-5 18th, followed by a chip-in eagle.
“I wasn’t playing particularly well the first two days, so it was nice to post a low round today, give myself a chance,” Pendrith said after his round.
Then there’s Adam Svensson. Not afraid to say he’s always thinking “victory” when he plays tournament golf, he doesn’t come across as arrogant. In fact, it just sounds like winning is what he was born to do.
While at Barry University, a NCAA DII school in Florida, he won nine tournaments, including seven in his sophomore season. He turned professional in March, and captured three straight victories on the SwingThought.com Tour, a mini-tour in the U.S.
“Golf is a marathon, I know that. You have your good days and bad. But overall, yeah, I’m trying to win,” he said. Had Svensson not made a double-bogey late Sunday, he would have found the winner’s circle again. He came up just short in the playoff, like Pendrith.
Further down the leaderboard, there was Albin Choi. The 23-year-old is a former Canadian Amateur champion. He too captured multiple events on the SwingThought.com Tour early in the year. He rode that wave of success to the Mackenzie Tour qualifying school tournament in Florida in March. He handily won that.
“It’s always nice to win, whenever you can,” explained Choi, who finished T10 this week. “I haven’t had the best year-and-a-half, two years, but winning those two events and winning Q-School was big for me. It gave me some momentum.”
And finally, there’s Corey Conners. Thanks to a runner-up finish at the 2014 U.S. Amateur, Conners got to play in the Masters. It was his amateur swan song, as he turned professional the following week.
Conners, 23, will play in the FedEx St. Jude Classic on the PGA Tour next week on a sponsor’s exemption.
But everyone was interested in hearing about Augusta.
“Yeah, they were pretty excited for me,” he said. “It was hard to describe though, how amazing it is and how amazing the experience was. They all had lots of questions.”
Svensson, Conners, Pendrith and Choi are part of Golf Canada’s Young Pro Program, an initiative that began in 2014 after Golf Canada realized a need to help members of its national team bridge the gap from amateur to professional golf.
“To have, in general, the level of play out here that will eventually move on to the Web.com Tour and eventually the PGA Tour is one thing, but when the level of talent includes (those guys), it’s a tribute to Golf Canada’s development of elite players,” explained Jeff Monday, president of the Mackenzie Tour. “The future bodes pretty well for the number of players who are going to gain good experience on our Tour.”
Starting their careers together has increased their bond. The fact that they’re all friends might be the most exiting part for Canadian golf fans.
“All the guys are doing the same thing I’m doing, it makes it fun,” Svensson said.
“We’re friends, but they’re also competitors,” continued Choi. “We take what we do very seriously. We’re all trying to beat each other, but it’s in a friendly way.”
Canada’s only coast-to-coast professional sports league — let alone golf tour — is home to the future and present of the sport. And with the path being paved by someone like Nick Taylor, the next wave of youngsters knows it’s possible.
“We work very hard to give players the platform to not only compete, but to learn what it’s like to be a professional,” Monday added. “We hear a lot from the players about how deep the levels of play are. It makes them work harder to get to the next level.”
The first step towards that next level concluded Sunday. Stay tuned for more.