Five locals in field for qualifying tourney
Kawalec, Burke, Rank, Leonard, Ciesielski are in Caledon to try to make RBC Canadian Open
Twenty-five golfers from the Great White North are confirmed to compete in next week’s RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, and five players from Waterloo Region have an opportunity to join them.
Amateurs Adam Kawalec, Cam Burke and Garrett Rank, along with professionals Brendan Leonard and Victor Ciesielski, are in Monday’s final qualifier at TPC Toronto (North Course) in Caledon, where a minimum of four players will advance to Canada’s national championship.
The five locals advanced from Ontario qualifying tournaments at the Oshawa Golf and Curling Club and Tarandowah Golfers Club in Springfield.
Kawalec, 27, is the youngest of the five and the Whistle Bear regular is the only one without previous Canadian Open experience.
Best known in these parts as a former high-scoring forward with the Kitchener Dutchmen of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Kawalec has spent the past five seasons playing for the Mapleton-Minto 81’s of the Ontario Elite Hockey League.
Burke, 37, is trying to advance to his third Canadian Open.
The two-time Canadian amateur champion played in the 2009 and 2010 tournaments. He turned professional and reached the former Web.com Tour in 2014 before retiring. He regained his amateur status in 2017 and these days can be found working on his game at Rebel Creek.
Ciesielski, 39, is seeking his fourth Canadian Open appearance. A teaching professional at the Galt Country Club, his previous appearances at the national championship were in 2006, 2007 and 2012.
At his first Canadian Open, Ciesielski recorded a hole-in-one.
Leonard, who turns 33 on Saturday, previously played in the 2022 Canadian Open at Toronto’s St. George’s Golf and Country Club.
The Whistle Bear member is a former NCAA Division I standout at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Rank, 36, is a National Hockey League referee and three-time Canadian mid-amateur champion (2014-16) who played all four days at the 2016 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey.
The Elmira native represented Canada at the 2016 Pan-American Games and in 2019 won the prestigious Western Amateur championship in Michigan.
Those already in the Canadian Open field include Nick Taylor, the reigning champion from Abbotsford, B.C., and Corey Conners from Listowel.
Solid performances
In case you missed it, several local youngsters had solid performances at Ontario Spring Classic tournaments on the Victoria Day weekend.
At the boys’ under-19 tournament in Uxbridge, Rylan Hall of Whistle Bear shot a three-day total of 10under 206 (71-65-70) at Wooden Sticks to finish third.
Hall led going into the final round and finished four shots behind Matthew Javier (68-69-65) of the Scarboro Golf and Country Club.
Brayden Card of the Galt Country Club was sixth at 5-under 211 (71-6971).
This ranked him second in the U17 portion of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Alexis Card of Galt finished tied for seventh place at the girls’ U17 tournament in Komoka. Card finished with a two-day total of 5-over 151 (77-74) at FireRock Golf Club and was 12 behind Michelle Xing (68-71) of Maple Downs.
Chip shots The next event on the Golf Ontario schedule is the June 10 to 13 men’s and senior men’s matchplay championship at Tarandowah. Wellesley’s Rob Cowan (Westmount) and New Hamburg’s Charlie Burke (Innerkip) are in the senior field … The Ontario junior boys’ and girls’ match-play championships will be staged July 29 to 31 at Grey Silo … Rebel Creek hosts a qualifying tournament for the Ontario men’s amateur championship on Monday.