With most eyes on the CP Women’s Open in Ottawa, a group of local players quietly turned in strong performances at the Canadian men’s mid-amateur championship in Thornhill.
The tournament ended Friday at The Thornhill Club with Charles Fitzsimmons of London repeating as champion with a four-day total of 5-under 275 (68-67-70-70). Fitzsimmons, who played on the Western University men’s golf team between the 2006 and the 2018 seasons, won last year’s event in Fort MacMurray, Alta.
Elmira’s Garrett Rank, an NHL referee who plays out of the Westmount Golf and Country Club, led the local contingent by finishing in a tie for sixth at 5-over 285 (70-73-69-73). Rank is a three-time Canadian mid-amateur champion, having won the tournament in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Rank is currently 132nd on the World Amateur Golf Rankings and has played most of his events in the United States this summer. In June, he finished in 10th place in the Dogwood Invitational in Atlanta and in July finished in a tie for sixth at the Porter Cup in Lewiston, NY
Rank has exempt status for the Sept. 10-15 US men’s mid-amateur championship in Erin, Wis.
Cam Burke, a two-time Canadian amateur champion from Kitchener, finished in a tie for 12th at 8-over 288 (74-69-71-73). Burke won his national championships in 2008 and 2009 and went on to play in the former Web.com Tour in 2014, one notch below the PGA Tour.
Galt Country Club member Brett Mitchell of Waterloo finished in a tie for 26th at 13-over 293, Galt’s Derek McGrath of Cambridge finished in a tie for 31st at 299, and Elmira’s Kyle Rank wound up in a tie for 54th at 301.
Women in Winnipeg
Next up on the Golf Canada calendar is the Canadian women’s mid-amateur and senior championship at Breezy Bend Country Club in Winnipeg.
The 54-hole championship starts Tuesday and includes Brooke Sharpe of Kitchener, a teacher at Laurel Heights Secondary School and Elmira Golf Club member who made the cut at the recent Canadian women’s amateur championship at Westmount.
Former Canadian university champion Sarah Dunning is also in the mid-amateur field. The Waterloo resident plays out of Westmount and won her national title in 2019 while attending the University of Guelph.
Rosemary Wysocki from the Galt Country Club will also compete.
Locals shine at the U17 championships
Whistle Bear golfer Rylan Hall of Stratford finished in a tie for sixth at the Golf Ontario juvenile (U17) championship that concluded Thursday at Smuggler’s Glen in Lansdowne.
Hall led the 54-tournament after the opening round with a 6-under 66 but went 77-75 in the next two rounds to finish eight shots behind champion Matthew Javier of North York (72-70-68).
Cambridge’s Brayden Card (75-73-73) of the Galt Country Club finished in a tie for eighth and Kitchener’s Xavier Bernier, also of Galt, finished in a tie for 36th (74-80-82).
In the girls tournament, Guelph resident Tara O’Connor of Guelph finished in a tie for ninth with a three-day total of 14-over 230 (73-80-77).
Alissa Xu of Richmond Hill claimed the championship at even-par 216 (69-74-73).
Chip shots: Eleven-year-old Alexis Card of the Galt Country Club won the U15 girls division at last weekend’s Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour stop at the Carlisle Golf and Country Club. Card, who leads the U15 order of merit, shot a two-day total of 2-under 142 (71-71). … For those who might have forgotten, the Fortinet Cup Championship comes to Deer Ridge starting Thursday, Sept. 15. The event features 60 players from PGA Tour Canada, with top-10 point-earners off the season-long points list at the tournament’s conclusion earning 2023 Korn Ferry Tour membership.
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