By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

At the beginning of this year, Chris Crisologo sat down and made a list of things he wanted to accomplish during 2022 in his journey as a young professional golfer. 

He just crossed off one very important goal from that list. 

By surviving the second stage of the Korn Ferry Tour qualifying school last week in Albuquerque, N.M., the Richmond resident has earned himself Korn Ferry Tour membership for 2023.

“One of my goals for the end of this year was to have a Korn Ferry card,” Crisologo said. “Q-school is not like a walk in the park. It is one of the more stressful times any golfer has. My game has felt good the whole year and it’s nice to kind of see it peak at the right time.”

Crisologo tied for 14th at four-under par at his second stage site, where the top 17 and ties advanced to the final stage of Q-school, which goes Nov. 4-7 in Savannah, Ga. He had to endure some stressful moments on the back nine in his final round after he bogeyed the 10th, 11th and 12th holes to fall out of the top 17. But the 26-year-old former Simon Fraser University standout remained calm, knowing he had two par 5s to come.

He birdied both of them, including the 18th hole, to finish at four-under par. “The last little bit was a little stressful at times,” Crisologo said. “But I kind of knew what the number was and if I could get to four-under par it would set me up. I probably hit my best tee shot of the week on 18 and that kind of helped me to make birdie. I think even with a par I would have got in because it was the top 17 and ties. But it was nice to make birdie on the last to make sure you kind of held your own destiny.”

Crisologo knows there’s still work to be done. Getting Korn Ferry Tour membership is one thing. Now he must try and earn starts. The better he plays in Savannah, the more starts he’ll get to begin the year. 

At last year’s final stage, the Q-school winner earned full status, nine players earned a guaranteed 12 starts and 39 others were awarded eight starts. Everyone else got conditional status. “Obviously, good play solves everything,” said Crisologo, who is back home for a few days before heading south to prep for the final stage.

He knows very little about the Landings Club in Savannah. Q-school will be held on the Marshwood and Magnolia courses at the Landings. “It’s nice to have two weeks to kind of get everything ready for the two golf courses,” Crisologo said. “I will do a little bit of scouting on-line, using Google Maps and stuff like that. The courses open up on Nov. 1 for us so I will probably head down somewhere in the states before that to get some prep work done.”

Crisologo could have some B.C. company in Savannah. Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald and Ziggy Nathu of Richmond will try to play their way into the final stage this week. Macdonald and Nathu are both playing their second-stage qualifier this week at Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, Calif.

Macdonald has also advanced to the second stage of the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) Q-school, which goes Nov. 3-6 in Spain. He’ll likely pass on that opportunity should he advance to the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-school.

TOP 10 FOR KIM: Surrey’s Lauren Kim was Canada’s best player at the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in Markham, Ont. Kim, a member of the Canada 1 squad at the event, tied for ninth at 11-over par. Her Canada 1 squad, which included fellow British Columbians Angela Arora of Surrey and Michelle Liu of Vancouver, finished alone in sixth place at 22-over par. Spain won the event, which was played in challenging weather conditions at Angus Glen Golf Club, with a score of one-under par. The Canada 2 squad of Anna Huang of Vancouver, Yeji Kwon of Port Coquitlam and Michelle Xing of Richmond Hill, Ont., finished eighth.

PREVAIL IN PLAYOFF: The University of B.C. women’s golf team, the defending NAIA champions, continued their strong start to the season with a playoff win at the Western Washington Invitational at Bellingham Golf & Country Club. UBC completed the 36-hole, 16-team event tied with Dominican University of California at 22-over par. UBC won the one-hole playoff with a four-player total of two-under par, while Dominican posted a one-under score in the playoff. UBC was led by second year player Bo Brown of Mississauga, Ont., who tied for fifth in individual scoring at four-over par. Una Chow, Elizabeth Labbe, Jessica Ng and Grace Bell also competed for UBC. UBC-Okanagan finished fourth in the team competition, Simon Fraser University was sixth, the University of Victoria was ninth and the University of the Fraser Valley placed 15th.

CLOSE SECOND: The Simon Fraser University men’s team posted some impressive numbers in placing second at the Chico State Wildcat Classic in Marysville, Calif. The Red Leafs finished the 54-hole event at 19-under par, just one shot behind the host team from Chico State. Their 845 total was the program’s fourth best 54-hole score since Golfstat statistics commenced at the start of the 1993-94 season. Sophomore Kyle Mayner tied for seventh at seven-under par and his first-round 65 was the program’s second best score since 1993-94.

CAROLINA CALLING: Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin is the lone British Columbian in the field at this week’s PGA TOUR stop, The CJ Cup in South Carolina. It’s a limited-field, no-cut event with 78 players competing. Rory McIlroy is the defending champion. Hadwin is returning after a week off. He tied for 10th in his last event, the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas. Ontario’s Corey Conners is the other Canadian in the field at the CJ Cup, which will feature 15 of the top 20 players in the Official World Golf Ranking. Surrey’s Adam Svensson played in last week’s Zozo Championship in Japan, where he tied for 59th and finished 15 shots behind winner Keegan Bradley. Svensson earned $21,340.

SUPER SOPHOMORE: Vancouver’s Victoria Liu has had a terrific start to her sophomore year at Princeton University in New Jersey. Liu recently became the first Princeton player to win the Princeton Invitational tourney since 2007 and followed that up with an impressive performance at the Ivy Intercollegiate at Baltusrol Golf Club, where she finished second in stroke play to North Carolina’s Krista Junkkari, but then beat Junkkari 3-up in match play.

MATCH PLAY CHAMPS: Max Cohen and Ian Kim registered a one-up victory over Yi Cao and Taylor Seidel to win the B.C. Match Play Championship at Mayfair Lakes in Richmond. Cohen and Kim rallied from being four-down through seven holes to get the win. They split $4,000. The team of Robin Fuller and Dan Bentley beat Dennis Thomas and Justin Lutz 2&1 to win the Net championship.