NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Brian Oliphant of Medicine Hat admires his opening drive Wednesday of the PGA Seniors' Championship of Canada hosted at Connaught Golf Club.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Canada’s top senior golfers kicked off their championship week on a “perfect day for golf.”
The PGA Seniors’ Championship of Canada hosted at Connaught Golf Club got underway Wednesday as golfers navigated the course while embracing the comfortable mid 20s weather.
Hatter Trevor Ellerman described the weather as perfect as he shot an opening round of 77. He said with it being a tournament day, nerves played a part as fairways tightened up and greens got a little trickier.
“It’s good to be nervous but where it plays is when you’re out of your comfort zone a bit,” Ellerman said. “It’s tricky, Connaught is tricky and I know that going in. So sometimes you’re overthinking a bit and try a little harder; overall, it wasn’t bad. I enjoyed it.”
Ellerman finished day 1 of the three-day tournament sitting in 25th. He says for him to shoot a better score today and Friday he just needs to relax and treat it like another round of golf.
Ellerman, who is a general manager/owner at Desert Blume Golf Course, wasn’t the only Hatter teeing off Tuesday as Connaught pro Brian Oliphant got his tournament started with a score of 81.
Oliphant cited putting as his weakness Tuesday and said he hadn’t played a competitive round of golf for quite a long time before he stepped up to the tournament tees.
“I’ll be fine tomorrow if I hit it the same, I hit it really good today,” Oliphant said. “I just didn’t look very good. So if I can clean up the putting, then I think I’ll be OK.”
Oliphant finished day 1 tied for 30th in the tournament. He said he was happy with how the Connaught staff got the job done for the opening day.
“Day one went really good, the weather was perfect. We were on time the whole time, I think the out-of-towners really enjoy our course and the layout of our course; you couldn’t ask for a better day to play a round of golf,” Oliphant said.
He said Connaught getting the chance to host a PGA Canada tournament is something its members should be proud of.
“It should be a big accomplishment hosting a Canadian professional golf event. They don’t come around and they don’t come out West very often, other than to maybe Vancouver,” Oliphant said. “It’s an honour being able to host an event like this, our members should be proud of their course holding up.”
Jim Rutledge, from Victoria held the lead after day 1 with an opening round of 64, good for eight under par. Rutledge entered the tournament as the favourite having won the PGA Seniors’ Championship of Canada six times. Since 2013, Rutledge has won this tournament every other year (2013, 15′, 17′ and 19′), with the 2020 edition of the event cancelled due to COVID-19.
Oliphant encourages anyone interested in watching to come out and watch some of the country’s top talent on display. He said roughly 30-40 people were out on Wednesday.
Day 2 of the tournament gets started at 8 a.m. with Oliphant teeing off at 8:40 a.m. and Ellerman getting his round going at 9 a.m.
