Monday qualifying is about the hairiest way to try to squeeze out a living in pro sports.
You just never know what will come out of it. On Monday at Gorge Vale, it produced an eclectic top eight who advanced to fill out the field for this week’s $200,000 Bayview Place DCBank Victoria Open stop on the Mackenzie Tour PGA Tour Canada.
Advancing to tee-off in the first round Thursday at Uplands were former University of Victoria Vikes golfer Lawren Rowe, 14-year-old amateur prodigy Abhay Gupta, Brett Hogan of Calgary and a young man from Appalachian State.
“I’m willing to ride this [dream of a pro career] out for a bit and see how it goes,” said Rowe, who turned pro last fall after his Vikes career.
“You take it day by day. And today was a good day at Gorge Vale,” added the Mount Douglas Secondary graduate, who qualified for his first Mackenzie Tour PGA Tour Canada tournament.
“My game is progressing. Today was nothing crazy. I hit the ball well and a few putts fell. I was waiting for something like this to happen. But it’s only one round.”
Along with Rowe and Hogan, Rockville, Maryland, native Patrick Moriarty — who graduated last year from the NCAA Div. 1 Appalachian State Mountaineers — shot six-under 66s to top the leader board at Gorge Vale, a former Victoria Open venue where Steve Stricker and Craig Parry won titles.
Moriarty also Monday-qualified for the Canada Life Open last week at Point Grey, which opened the 2019 Mackenzie Tour PGA Tour Canada season. Despite shooting two even rounds, Moriarty failed to make the cut.
“I just needed a couple of putts to fall in Vancouver and they didn’t. They did today in Victoria. The golf gods owed me a few.”
Every aspiring young pro gathered here this week for the Bayview Place DCBank Open presented by the Times Colonist has the same goal. If you don’t, what are you even doing here?
“I want to win majors,” Moriarty said.
“I can’t see myself doing anything else. [Four-time majors champion] Brooks Koepka also grinded it out on minor-pro tours before making it to the PGA. As he said: ‘Golf was Plan A and Plan B.’ ”
In hockey terms, the Canadian Tour is like the ECHL, which feeds into the AHL-level Web.com Tour, which feeds the big-league PGA Tour.
The story of the qualifying round Monday at Gorge Vale, however, was 14-year-old Abhay, from North Carolina, shooting a four-under 68 to qualify as an amateur. Abhay birdied the first playoff hole to win a five-man playoff.
Abhay has played Augusta National as a Drive, Chip and Putt youth finalist.
“This is what he wants to do with his life,” said his dad, Kapil Gupta, a mental-performance coach, whose clients have included Canadian athletes such as former Masters champion Mike Weir and four-time Olympic gold-medallist hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser.
The Guptas are aware of 15-year-old Jeevan Sihota of Victoria, who is the youngest member of the Canadian national golf team based at Bear Mountain.
Tiger Woods, as a 12-year-old playing Olympic View, has become part of Island golfing lore. So, who knows where this could all lead?
At least part of that story, from Appalachia to Uplands, begins unfolding this week.
