Just got off the phone with Graham DeLaet, the fave son of Weyburn, Sask., who just made it through PGA Tour qualifying school this afternoon. Despite hitting a couple of balls in the water on the final 18 of the six rounds, he made it with a T8.
“Those were some of the worst shots I’ve hit in a long, long time,” he said, speaking on his phone. “Lot of things start running through your mind then.”
He credited his caddie Dave Clarke (who had caddied for Will MacKenzie, Justin Rose and Michelle Wie in the past) for keeping him together.
“Every time the fire would start rising in me, he’d say some goofy thing that would just get me cracking up,” DeLaet added.
As for the 18-month adventure that took him to Eastern Europe, South Africa three times, and all over Canada, I asked him if it was the end of an adventure.
“Or the start of an adventure,” he said.
Right.
Expect more on this tomorrow.
Four Canadians on tour! I don’t think there has been that many since the Dave Barr, Richard Zokol days. And, there will be a lot of Canadians on the Nationwide Tour again, including Justin Trudeau who finished one shot short of a PGA Tour card.
There were four when David Hearn and Jon Mills were on with Weir and Ames. That said I think this time both Baryla and DeLaet have that extra seasoning that might make them a success on tour…
Could we have news posted about the LPGA qualifying.
Hearn and Mills were never on tour at the same time.
After a little research, it looks as though Hearn and Glen Hnatiuk were both on tour in 2005. Ames became a Canadian citizen in 2004 so there would have been four Canadians then. Neither Hearn nor Hnatiuk retained their cards after 2005 and Mills didn’t make it until 2006.
I would have classified Ames as a Canadian in 2003, a year that would have included Zokol, Weir and Hnatiuk. And you’re right, Hearn was 2005 and Mills was 2006… so it has been a few years.