PGA TOUR Canada announces 2023 Qualifying Tournament information
Golf New Brunswick
PGA TOUR Canada announced it will hold six Qualifying Tournaments to determine Tour membership for the 2023 season – five in the U.S., beginning in late-February and concluding with a final qualifier in Canada a week before the Tour’s regular season begins.
PGA TOUR Canada completed its season in September, crowning the Fortinet Cup Points List leader – Edmonton’s Wil Bateman – as Player of the Year. Bateman became the inaugural winner of the Fortinet Cup after winning twice in 2022 and is now a fully exempt member of the Korn Ferry Tour for the 2023 season. Players hoping to follow in Bateman’s footsteps can begin by earning PGA TOUR Canada membership, with playing spots available at the six Qualifying Tournaments.
“We are coming off a remarkably successful season, and we will continue to build on that momentum in 2023. The first steps are at our Qualifying Tournaments, where players can get on the path that will take them to their ultimate destination, which is the PGA TOUR,” said PGA TOUR Canada Executive Director Scott Pritchard. “Through the years, we’ve been fortunate that so many players are interested in pursuing their professional dreams by playing on PGA TOUR Canada. We anticipate there will be strong demand by players to come to our Tour, as players know about the quality of courses, the cities we visit and the caliber of competition PGA TOUR Canada offers.”
The qualifiers begin with two tournaments in Florida (Weston and Howey-in-the-Hills) on consecutive weeks in late-February, early March. The action starts February 21-24 at The Club at Weston Hills’ Tour Course, as it hosts a Qualifying Tournament for a second consecutive year. The Howey-in-the-Hills tournament is at historic Mission Inn Resort and Club, a long-time host of both PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica tournaments. It has hosted six previous PGA TOUR Canada qualifiers. The following week, the RTJ Golf Trail at Highland Oaks in Dothan, Alabama, is the site for a third consecutive year.
A month later, the qualifiers move west, with events at Wigwam Golf Club in the Phoenix suburb of Litchfield Park, Arizona (April 4-7) and at Soboba Springs Golf Course in San Jacinto, California (April 11-14).
Notable PGA TOUR members to emerge from these sites in recent years include Cameron Young (medalist at Dothan in 2020), Will Zalatoris (runner-up at Wigwam Golf Club in 2019), Alex Smalley (T3 at Howey-in-the-Hills in 2020), Hayden Buckley (T4 at Wigwam Golf Club in 2019), Carson Young (T7 at Howey-in-the-Hills in 2020) and Philip Knowles (T9 at Howey-in the-Hills in 2019).
Bateman finished T5 at the Wigwam Golf Club site in 2021, retained membership for 2022 via the points list and won the Fortinet Cup with his two-win season.
The final Qualifying Tournament is set for June 6-9 in Courtenay, British Columbia. Crowne Isle Resort and Golf Club has previously hosted seven Qualifying Tournaments. PGA TOUR Canada’s season begins the week after this Q-School.
Here is a look at the six tournaments that will all be 72-hole, Tuesday-to-Friday, no-cut events:
Date
Course
Location
February 21-24
The Club at Weston Hills (Tour)
Weston, Florida
February 28-March 3
Mission Inn Resort and Club (El Campeon)
Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida
March 7-10
RTJ Golf Trail at Highland Oaks (Highlands/Marshwood)
Dothan, Alabama
April 4-7
Wigwam GC (Gold)
Litchfield Park, Arizona
April 11-14
Soboba Springs GC
San Jacinto, California
June 6-9
Crowne Isle Resort and GC
Courtenay, British Columbia
“This is a great lineup of tournaments that will test players’ skills and abilities. Those who emerge with Tour cards will have another strong PGA TOUR Canada schedule to play in 2023, with a chance to continue progressing in their professional careers,” Pritchard added.
Among player benefits available, a three-time winner on the Tour would earn automatic promotion to the Korn Ferry Tour. Additionally, the top five players on the 2023 Fortinet Cup Points List will receive 2024 Korn Ferry Tour membership, with the player finishing first earning fully exempt status. The top five players will also be exempt into the Final Stage of the 2023 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament, competing for a PGA TOUR card, which will be awarded to top-five finishers and ties. Those in the sixth-through-25th Fortinet Cup positions are exempt into the Second Stage of the 2023 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament. In addition, the top 60 players on the final Fortinet Cup standings will retain their PGA TOUR Canada playing privileges for 2024.
PGA TOUR Canada will announce its complete regular season schedule in early 2023.
Bateman wins Fortinet Cup and PGA TOUR Canada Player of the Year Award
WIL BATEMAN (CLAUS ANDERSEN/ PGA TOUR CANADA)
Golf New Brunswick
By: PGA TOUR Communications
KITCHENER, Ont.—Wil Bateman didn’t necessarily need to win the season-ending Fortinet Cup Championship in order to secure the Fortinet Cup title and Player of the Year honors. That’s exactly what he did, though, shooting a final-round 1-under 69 Sunday at Deer Ridge Golf Club to defeat Jeffrey Kang by two strokes. In the process, Bateman won the Fortinet Cup, finishing with 1,654 points and vaulting past Jake Knapp, who entered the week with the standings lead. It was quite the double dip.
With the victory, Bateman locked up his 2023 Korn Ferry Tour playing privileges, making him eligible to play in every open tournament on that Tour’s schedule. He is also the second Canadian—along with Mackenzie Hughes in 2013—to win PGA TOUR Canada Player of the Year honors. He pocketed a $25,000 bonus from Fortinet for winning the inaugural Fortinet Cup, and next summer Bateman is invited to play in the PGA TOUR’s RBC Canadian Open. By finishing second, Knapp will be conditionally exempt on next season’s Korn Ferry Tour. He tied for 34th at the closing tournament of the year.
After Bateman and Knapp, the third-, fourth- and fifth-place Fortinet Cup finishers were Americans Noah Goodwin, Scott Stevens and Ryan Gerard, respectively. The players received their membership cards during a ceremony following the end of play Sunday at Deer Ridge Golf Club.
Bateman, a native of Edmonton, played in his 59th career PGA TOUR Canada event with this appearance—this season easily his best. Before this year, Bateman had never recorded a top-three finish and only had one career top-10.
Exempt when the season began by virtue of his 21st-place finish on the 2021 Forme Tour Points List, Bateman was three strokes off the lead through 54 holes in the season-opening Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist. A final-round, 3-over 73 derailed his chances, but he put everybody on notice two weeks later when he chipped in to end the playoff and record an extremely popular win at his hometown ATB Classic presented by Volvo Edmonton. He put an exclamation mark on his season with his resounding victory Sunday, allowing him to join Noah Goodwin as the only two-time champions this season.
“I think setting some solid goals for myself and knowing that I can attain them was big. Coming into this week, I think I put more pressure on myself, more than the pressure I felt when I was out [on the course] just because I wanted to achieve some of my goals,” Bateman said. “I knocked off a few of those goals, so it was a lot of fun.
“I still have bigger goals and dreams that I want to accomplish,” Bateman continued, “but this is a really good start. Just knowing where I was four to five years ago, if someone would have told me that I would be here I would say they were insane.”
“What a fun season it was, and to come down to the Fortinet Cup Championship, our final event of the year, with so many players with still so much to play for has been incredible to watch,” said PGA TOUR Canada Executive Director Scott Pritchard. “Wil proved from start to finish that he was our best player against formidable competition, and his performance under pressure this week to win the tournament and the Fortinet Cup was impressive. He will always have the Fortinet Cup on his mantel to remind him of what a special season 2022 was. Congratulations to Wil on what is an outstanding accomplishment. I can’t wait to see what he can do next season the Korn Ferry Tour.”
The players who finished in the sixth-through-10th positions on the Fortinet Cup standings are exempt into the finals of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament in Savannah, Georgia. That 72-hole tournament is November 4-7. The five PGA TOUR Canada players exempt into the Qualifying Tournament, hoping to secure Korn Ferry Tour status via that route, are Thomas Walsh (No. 6), Jeffrey Kang (No. 7), Danny Walker (No. 8), Joe Highsmith (No. 9) and Ian Holt (No. 10).
The 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season, the 34th in its history, starts in mid-January, the full schedule still to be announced.
Beginning in 2013, the Korn Ferry Tour became The Path to the PGA TOUR by awarding all 50 membership cards to Korn Ferry Tour players for the following PGA TOUR season. Players can initially qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour through the Qualifying Tournament and by securing a top-five Fortinet Cup finish on PGA TOUR Canada or a top-five Totalplay Cup performance. PGA TOUR Canada sent its first five players to the Korn Ferry Tour following its inaugural season in 2013. They were Mackenzie Hughes (Canada), Riley Wheeldon (Canada), Mark Hubbard (U.S.), Hugo Leon (Chile) and Wil Collins (U.S.). This is the eighth group of PGA TOUR Canada players to move on to the Korn Ferry after the Tour did not contest tournaments in 2020 and 2021 due to the global pandemic.
Rhéaume’s final-round 66 leads to win at ORORO PGA Women’s Championship of Canada
Sarah-Eve Rhéaume
Captured at Legacy Golf Club on November, 29, 2019 by Tyler Costigan/ Golf Canada
Golf New Brunswick
(BROMONT, QC) – On Friday morning, ORORO PGA Women’s Championship of Canada at Bromont co-leaders Sarah-Eve Rhéaume, a 22-year-old amateur from Quebec City, and Min-G Kim, an Epson Tour veteran with nearly $120,000 in career earnings, battled back-and-forth with hopes of lifting the Lorie Kane trophy and assuring themselves a spot in August’s CP Women’s Open.
By late Friday afternoon, Rhéaume pulled away – making nine birdies over the course of her final 14 holes, including four in her last five holes – to win by three strokes with a tournament-best final-round 66. The winning margin would have been higher had Kim not dropped a 60-footer on the last hole for her second eagle of the day.
Shortly after Kim got the large Golf Chateau Bromont crowd warmed up, Rhéaume tapped in a short birdie look to set the crowd ablaze, with her mom waiting greenside to be the first one to give her daughter a bear hug.
“It feels great, I had a great day, and it feels good to get the win,” said Rhéaume. “I had a good birdie putt on 5 and had a good look at eagle on 6 but just tapped in for birdie. Then I birdied three in and row and back nine shot 31, that was solid.”
“My mom coming down was nice and fun, my friend Matt caddied for me this week, this was the second time we’ve worked together and both times we’ve won, so we have a pretty good thing going,” said Rhéaume.
The first event they won together was the Glencoe Invitational – also comprised of both amateurs and professionals. Today she bested Kim, who ended up going home with the low professional cheque, while the first time it was Caroline Ciot, who ended this week in a tie for fifth and earned low PGA of Canada member honours.
Somebody else holding the big cheque at Chateau Bromont didn’t bother Rhéaume, likely because she will make her LPGA debut in August in Ottawa alongside Brooke Henderson – the last amateur prior to Rhéaume to win the ORORO PGA Women’s Championship.
“Any time you can be compared to Brooke it’s a good thing,” said Rhéaume. “She has accomplished so many great things. I’m just lucky to have my name along with hers on this trophy.”
Members of the Golf Canada Amateur Squad, including Rhéaume, put on quite the show on Friday. In addition to Rhéaume’s 7-under par 66, Brooke Rivers shot 69 and Celeste Doa shot 68 – which would have been the low-round of the tournament if not for her teammate’s spectacular day.
Following Rhéaume’s LPGA debut in Ottawa, she says the plan is to return to Furham University for her fifth and final season.
The next PGA of Canada National Championship is the GOLFTEC Senior Men’s Championship of Canada, set for August 23-26 at Connaught Golf Club in Medicine Hat, AB.
Canada’s Myles Creighton hopes to end Latinoamerica season on top
MYLES CREIGHTON TEES OFF IN THE OPENING ROUND OF THE 2022 RBC CANADIAN OPEN ON JUNE 6 AT ST. GEORGES GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB. (BERNARD BRAULT/GOLF CANADA)
Golf New Brunswick
By: John Chidley-Hill/ Canadian Press
Myles Creighton has always wanted to wear the Maple Leaf on his golf gear. Now that he can as a member of Golf Canada’s young pro squad, he’s having a career season.
The product of Digby, N.S., was named to the national sports organization’s roster in mid-March and has proudly represented Canada on the PGA Tour _ Latinoamerica since. He’s the highest ranked Canadian heading into the third-tier tour’s championship tour this week and the highest ranked golfer from the Maritimes on any tour.
“I take huge pride in representing that part of the country and Canada in general,” said the 26-year-old Creighton. “I’ve always wanted to be on Team Canada’s growing up and I was just shy in junior golf and just left off the team in amateur golf.
“That’s something that’s been really cool for me this year just to have the Golf Canada logo on all my shirts and all my golf bag and stuff.”
MYLES CREIGHTON
Creighton is 32nd in the TotalPlay Cup rankings, dropping two spots after taking two weeks off Latinoamerica for the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto and a week of vacation. That ranking makes him the only Canadian in the field this week at the Bupa Tour Championship at PGA Riviera Maya in Tulum, Mexico.
“I love this golf course. I’ve been looking forward to playing it all year,” said Creighton, who noted that the fairway. “I’m just going to try and play my best but I feel like this is a great course for me.”
He’s had two top-10 finishes on tour this season, tying for ninth at the JHSF Aberto do Brasil on May 24 and then tying for third at the Jalisco Open on May 29. He also tied for 19th twice this season.
“I know that I can win on this tour,” said Creighton, who is targeting a card on the Korn Ferry Tour. “I would love to win this event it would do a lot for me because it’s an increased amount of points and 600 points. It could get me in the top 10.”
Creighton’s season won’t end at the Bupa Tour Championship, as he intends to return to the Maritimes and compete in the Prince Edward Island Open on the PGA Tour Canada. That event begins on June 30 at Dundarave Golf Club in Cardigan, P.E.I.
“I was really looking forward to it because my family is going to come up and I was going to get the chance to see them,” said Creighton. “I was able to see them at the Canadian Open, which was great, but they’re still going to come out so it’ll be a great week.’
PGA TOUR Canada announces 2022 Fortinet Cup schedule
Golf New Brunswick
TORONTO, Ont. — Featuring a regular season that begins in early June and ends in mid-September, PGA TOUR Canada announced its 2022 schedule Tuesday for the Fortinet Cup as part of the season-long competition. Fortinet announced it will be the Tour’s Cup sponsor as the Tour awards points based on player performance, with a $100,000 bonus pool up for grabs for the top competitors.
PGA TOUR Canada’s regular season is offering a return to full-action and Korn Ferry Tour membership to the top players, a summer lineup of 11 tournaments beginning in Victoria, British Columbia, and concluding in Kitchener, Ontario. The Tour also will hold an official event outside Canada for the first time when players travel to Brainerd, Minnesota, late in the summer.
PGA TOUR Canada did not play in 2020 due to issues surrounding the global pandemic, and it organized and hosted a scaled-down, eight-tournament Tour in 2021 mainly for players residing in Canada. This will be the first season since 2019 that features full fields and a path for players to reach the Korn Ferry Tour.
“This is a significant time in the history of PGA TOUR Canada as we begin the Fortinet Cup era. The Fortinet Cup offers players the ability to compete on some of the best golf courses in Canada—along with the added bonus of another tournament played in the U.S.,” said PGA TOUR Canada Executive Director Scott Pritchard. “Spanning coast to coast, the 2022 schedule is one we are proud to announce and is already setting up for a triumphant return of PGA TOUR Canada.”
“Fortinet is excited to partner with PGA TOUR Canada. The Tour delivers an amazing experience—in equal measure for its fans and golfers. As PGA TOUR Canada’s premier sponsor and the host of Fortinet Cup, our company will bring its deep expertise in cybersecurity innovation to the world of golf,” said Marc Asturias, Vice President of Marketing and Government Vertical at Fortinet Latin America and Canada. “Our partnership furthers Fortinet’s vision to make possible a digital world that we can always trust by securing people, devices, and data everywhere.”
The season gets underway June 2-5 at a familiar Tour site, Uplands Golf Course, for the newly named Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist. After a scheduled one-week break for the PGA TOUR’s RBC Canadian Open, players will tee it up three weeks in a row, starting the week of June 13-19, at the ATB Classic presented by Volvo Edmonton, followed by the Elk Ridge Open (June 23-26) in the Resort Village of Elk Ridge in Waskesiu, Saskatchewan, and the Prince Edward Island Open in Cardigan (June 30-July 3).
The Tour observes a two-week break to begin July before resuming action in Ontario, for the Osprey Valley Open presented by Voroantim Cimentos CBM Aggregates (July 21-24) in the Toronto suburb of Caledon. The Ontario Open (July 28-31) in Tottenham is the next week, bringing July to a close. The Quebec Open is scheduled for August 4-7 in Blainville, with another off week preceding the Manitoba Open (August 18-21).
The visit to Minnesota, for the CRMC Championship presented by Gertens (August 25-28), and the next week’s GolfBC Championship (September 1-4) in Kelowna, British Columbia, bring August to an end and takes the players into September. The season concludes September 12-18 at the Fortinet Cup Championship, the Tour’s best players from the Points List assembling for the first time at Deer Ridge Golf Club and the Fortinet Cup final positions decided, as well as the $100,000 bonus pool for the top-10 players. The overall Fortinet Cup champion will pocket $25,000.
“It’s exciting to think where we are beginning and culminating our season, along with the other nine cities and golf courses we’ll visit during the year. There is so much to look forward to, the ATB Classic returning to Edmonton, PGA TOUR player Graham DeLaet serving as the honorary chair at the Elk Ridge Open, having the Ontario Open and its storied history as part of our schedule and visiting TPC Toronto, one of the premier TPC facilities in the network,” Pritchard explained. “Traveling outside Canada to Minnesota for a tournament, with Tom Lehman significantly involved, spending a week in Quebec and moving the GolfBC Championship to a September date for the first time are all things we’re anxiously anticipating.
“In addition,” Pritchard continued, “Prince Edward Island has had to wait a year to make its official debut on our schedule, and Manitoba is also back after a two-year hiatus. It will be great to play our tournaments in those two regions. I simply can’t be more excited about what we will offer this year’s crop of players.”
PGA TOUR Canada began in 2013 as the PGA TOUR’s second International Tour. Since its inception, the Tour has seen 14 of its alums win 16 PGA TOUR titles, while 46 past PGA TOUR Canada players have collected 49 total Korn Ferry Tour victories.
The Tour has already held five of its seven Qualifying Tournaments to determine its complete 2022 player roster. This week the Tour is conducting its sixth qualifier, in the Tacoma, Washington, area, with the final Qualifying Tournament in Canada to follow. The first five medalists during this Qualifying Tournament season are Alex Herrmann and Austin Hitt (from the Florida tournaments), amateur Jacob Bridgeman (from the Alabama qualifier), Max Marsico (from the Arizona qualifier) and Jake Vincent (from the California qualifier).
2022 PGA TOUR Canada Schedule
Date
Tournament
Golf Course
Location
June 2-5
Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist
Uplands GC
Victoria, British Columbia
June 16-19
ATB Classic presented by Volvo Edmonton
Edmonton Petroleum Club
Edmonton, Alberta
June 23-26
Elk Ridge Open
Elk Ridge Resort
Resort Village of Elk Ridge, Waskesiu, Saskatchewan
June 30-July 3
Prince Edward Island Open
Dundarave GC
Cardigan, Prince Edward Island
July 21-24
Osprey Valley Open presented by Voroantim Cimentos CBM Aggregates
