As a talented all-rounder in sports, Roger Sloan was good enough in hockey at 16 to consider attending the junior camp of the Kamloops Blazers. But there was also another sport that captured his fancy, so he decided on that route instead.
It was a good choice.
Sloan is about to enter his rookie season on the PGA Tour. And Bear Mountain is going along for the ride as a sponsor. As part of the deal, Sloan will wear the Bear Mountain-Ecoasis logo on his left sleeve while playing on Tour and will also make three appearances each year at Bear Mountain for promotional events.
“Bear Mountain is at the point where they want to support Canadian golf while supporting their course,” said Sloan, who spent part of this week golfing Bear Mountain and partaking in other sporting activities around the course such as hiking.
He’s in demand now, and that rise from a small nine-hole course in Merritt to the PGA Tour is the stuff of dreams.
Originally, those aspirations involved the ice, not greens.
“I dreamed of playing in the NHL and lifting the Stanley Cup and winning an Olympic gold medal for Canada,” said Sloan, who will drop the ceremonial first puck in Kamloops tonight at the Blazers WHL game and in Merritt at the Centennials BCHL game Saturday.
He still dreams of the Olympics, only now it’s the Summer Games, in which golf will be re-introduced starting at Rio 2016.
“I’d be lying if I said that’s not on the radar [being one of two Canadians on the men’s team to the 2016 Summer Olympics,],” said Sloan.
Sloan is certainly in the hunt, along with David Hearn and the Abbotsford pair of Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor, to join lock Graham DeLaet on the Canadian team to Rio 2016.
But first things first. There is that looming 2015 PGA Tour rookie season to get ready for after a climb that included playing in three straight Times Colonist Island Savings Opens at Uplands, from 2010 to 2012, as part of the Canadian Tour (now PGA Tour Canada) after playing NCAA for the University of Texas-El Paso. The Canadian Tour led to the Web.com Tour, where Sloan finished 46th overall in 2014 to earn his PGA Tour card.
“Achieving the PGA Tour card was definitely something special,” said Sloan.
“I’ll be playing alongside guys I’ve watched all these years. Now I’m in the game beside them and in the same boat they are.”
But at 27, this is no awestruck kid.
“I’m going in with the attitude there is nothing stopping you from having the same success [as the PGA Tour stars],” said Sloan.
“You have to be even-keeled emotionally.”
As one of only seven Canadians currently eligible to play on the PGA Tour, Sloan has been exactly that as part of a unique and small circle. He is ranked No. 8 in the latest weekly Golf Canada top-10 national poll behind DeLaet, Hearn, Hadwin, Taylor, Mike Weir, Brad Fritsch and the Asian Tour’s Richard T. Lee.
“If you get to the top two in the rankings [over the next year and a half], you’ll be going to the Olympics,” noted Sloan.
The road to the PGA Tour has come through the Island through more than just the PGA Tour Canada stops at Uplands. With close family and friend connections to Sidney, Sloan has played nearly every Island course. Now he carries that on his sleeve — literally — to the PGA Tour.
