You can get there from here
The first thing Keith Dagg, director of the Bayview Place DC Bank Open presented by the Times Colonist, said to a sports writer as he entered a news conference last week was: “Did you see Corey Connors and Ben Silverman last week? They have played here.” So have many others. Dagg was referring to the emerging Canadian rookies on the PGA Tour as Connors broke through for his first top-10 finish in the PGA Tour in the recent Fort Worth Invitational while Silverman was tied for 11th. Mackenzie Hughes and Adam Hadwin are other Canadians in the PGA Tour and they also “played here,” as Dagg will proudly tell anybody like a proud poppa.
They join an illustrious list of players who have come through the Bayview Place DC Bank Open over the past 35 years and the pro Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada in general.
To mix sporting metaphors, think of the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada as the ECHL, the Web.com Tour as the AHL and the PGA Tour as the NHL. Or Double-A, Triple-A and the majors. You get the point. Steve Stricker was a rising, but otherwise little-known pro aspirant out of Wisconsin, when he won his first pro tournament in Victoria at age 23. The same with the likes of Craig Parry and Brandt Jobe, all three winning the Victoria tournament at Gorge Vale in the colourful 35-year history of the tournament, now headed into its 36th incarnation Thursday to next Sunday at Uplands.
Stricker went on to win $42 million US on the PGA Tour and Jobe more than $10 million. The rotund and affable Aussie Parry had 23 pro victories, including two on the PGA Tour, and three Presidents Cup appearances.
Stricker, who who held off eventual PGA Tour players Todd Hamilton and Stephen Ames for the 1990 title at Gorge Vale, has mentioned several times in media interviews he will never forget his first victory as a pro in Victoria.
“It was my first professional win, and I think about that tournament quite a bit. It was a special time,” said Stricker, in a statement.
“It was my first pro win in a pretty area, and I still hold the Tour and the Victoria area as a special place for [wife] Nicki and I. It still brings back great memories.” The dream starts here. This may be as good as it gets for most of the aspiring golfers arriving at Uplands for their swing at glory next week. But for the elite few, it is just another step to bigger things. Canadian Tour (now Mackenzie TourPGA Tour Canada) alumni to play on the PGA Tour include the likes of Stricker, Parry, Jobe, Hamilton, Ken Duke, Stuart Appleby, Mike Weir, Kirk Triplett, Chris DiMarco, Scott McCarron, Tim Clark, Tim Herron and, more recently, homegrown Canuck talent such as Connors, Silverman, Hughes, Hadwin and Nick Taylor.
Where will defending 2017 Victoria Bayview Place Open-champion Max Rottluff of Dusseldorf, Germany, out of NCAA Arizona State, fall on that spectrum? Only time will tell. The German is now on the Web.com Tour, so his trajectory is right.
As of 2016 statistics, Canadian tour alumni had amassed a combined 112 PGA Tour titles and more than $400 million US in earnings.
Three Canadian tour alumni have won majors — Weir, Hamilton and Michael Campbell.
That’s why the PGA Tour formalized the relationship in 2013, making it the (now Mackenize Tour) PGA Tour Canada and the official springboard to the Web.com Tour, which, in turn, is the portal to the PGA Tour.
The Canadian tour lists an average of 12 players annually since 2000 who have gone from the Canadian tour to the Web.com Tour and an average of three Canadian tour alumni get on the PGA Tour each year.
So let the dreams begin.