Two of the world’s great sports collided Thursday in the opening round of the Beachlands Victoria Open presented by the Times Colonist at Uplands Golf Club, with several of the leaders citing inspiration from their national soccer teams in Euro 2024 or Copa America.
“The 1-1 was a good result for us against England and that made me pumped up for my round today,” said first-round leader Gustav Frimodt from Denmark, who shot an 8-under 62 in the PGA Tour Americas event.
“It was perfect to have a late tee time,” allowing him to watch Denmark’s early-morning draw against favoured England in the Euros.
“Seeing Denmark in that game gave me the energy and I performed well, and with energy, after seeing that,” added the rookie pro.
The Argentines who were lucky enough to get a morning start Thursday rushed in the afternoon to find TVs on which to watch world No. 1 and defending World Cup champion Argentina open the Copa America with a 2-0 win against Canada.
Martin Contini, the early clubhouse leader, shot a handy 6-under 64 and then went looking for a place to watch some soccer.
“All the morning Argentina guys were looking for a place to watch the game in the afternoon,” said Contini
“[Lionel] Messi means everything to them. We all love Messi. He’s The Man in Argentina.”
Contini was playing in a tournament in Chile when Argentina beat France in the 2022 World Cup final and was only able to catch the extra time and penalty-kick shootout, which turned out just fine for his nation. So did Thursday’s game against Canada, despite that Contini was worried about “the very dangerous Alphonso Davies.”
Tied for fourth with Contini at 64 was fellow-Argentine Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, who had an afternoon tee-off. Even before he answered any golf questions in his post-round media scrum, rookie-pro de Oliveira said: “We are up 1-0! I can’t wait to see the end of the game. Messi is an idol to everyone in Argentina our age. The day we won the World Cup was one of the best days of our lives.”
Adding to the international vibe of the day was Frederik Kjettrup of Denmark, who with John Marshall Butler of the U.S., was tied for second with 7-under 63s. Butler played for the 2024 NCAA-champion Auburn Tigers, who beat Kjettrup and the Florida State Seminoles in the final.
Butler described winning the NCAA team championship this spring as the “best day of my life” before making the jump from college to the pros through Q School: “It was a little wild going from the [NCAA] national championship to the Q School and I was lucky enough to get through and I’m just trying to do my best out here and enjoying my first day as a professional. These last three weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind.”
But the first-day pro with the biggest gallery following him was Neal Shipley out of the NCAA Ohio State Buckeyes, who went from low amateur this year in both the Masters in April at Augusta and the U.S. Open last weekend at Pinehurst, to making his pro debut Thursday at Uplands with a 4-under 66.
“It was nice to get people out and nice to get some applause. I used that to my advantage,” said the amiable 23-year-old, who could be one of the next big things in golf.
“It was super cool to have a crowd, especially seeing young kids, and being able to inspire.”
Ten years from now, on the PGA Tour, people may be looking back at this rookie pro class with the likes of Shipley, Butler, Frimodt, Kjettrup, de Oliveira and touted Thomas Ponder out of the NCAA Alabama Crimson Tide, who was in the group tied for fourth. Locals will be pointing to the weekend they all played at Uplands.
“It’s a really strong rookie pro class, one of the strongest, and a lot of that has to do with getting the extra year of college due to COVID and so it’s kind of a double class rolled into one,” said Shipley, who played the final round of the Masters in April with Tiger Woods.
The second round for the 156 golfers in the $225,000 US the Beachlands Victoria Open is today with 7:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. tee-offs from the first and 10th tees at Uplands. The cut will be made before the third round Saturday with the final round to go Sunday with the winner to earn $40,000 US. If the first-round performances by the rookie pros was any indication, there will be plenty of bigger paydays ahead for this class.
