By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Osoyoos Golf Club is usually among the first of the Okanagan courses to emerge from winter hibernation. That won’t be the case this year...

“We’ve had some years when we opened in mid-February,’ says general manager Doug Robb.

“Historically, it’s normally March 1 or the last week of February. But that ain’t going to happen this year. We are going to threaten our latest opening ever because we’ve got snow all this week again, it’s cold, and I am trying to finish up some irrigation work. We are looking toward the end of the month. I don’t see any other way for us.”

March 29 is the latest Osoyoos has ever opened its season. “We’ll threaten that date for sure,” Robb says. It’s especially frustrating as there’s a huge pent-up demand from players wanting to stick a tee in the ground. Trouble is, right now they’d need a hammer.

“Oh my gosh, demand is off the charts,” Robb says. Both for pay for play and member play. I don’t see a lot of letup from the last three years, to be honest with you. I see us kind of continuing on.”
Penticton Golf Club could be the first of the south Okanagan courses to open. Penticton has received less recent snow than the Osoyoos area. General manager Guy Dow says he and his staff are just waiting for things to warm up a tad.

“We’re basically on a day to day,” Dow says. “We are ready to go, it’s just a matter of the weather improving.” It’s been an especially long winter for Okanagan golfers as many courses were forced to close early due to an early arrival of winter. “We closed about a month earlier than normal,” Dow says. “We shut down the first week of November and we often go into December.”

That early closure created a problem for courses. “None of us got anything done,” Robb says. “We didn’t get leaves picked up or any of that stuff. There will probably be more clean-up work to do before we can open.”

TOP-25 FINISH: After making the cut with a stroke to spare, Surrey’s Adam Svensson rallied to tie for 24th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla. Svensson shot weekend rounds of 69 and 72 to finish two-under par, seven shots behind winner Kurt Kitayama. He earned $163,000 and now sits 12th on the FedEx Cup points list. The Abbotsford duo of Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor both missed the cut. It was Hadwin’s first missed cut in the 2022-23 PGA Tour season.

Svensson, Taylor and Hadwin are all in the field for this week’s Players Championship in Ponte Vedro Beach, Fla., which boasts a $25-million purse. Svensson is making his Players Championship debut this week. Hadwin has made five cuts in seven Players Championships appearances. His best finish came last year when he was solo ninth. Taylor has made four of five cuts at the tournament. His best finish was a tie for 16th in 2019.

PARSONS FOURTH: Delta’s Mary Parsons finished solo fourth at a Cactus Tour event in Beaumont, Calif. The former B.C. Junior Girls champion completed the 36-hole event at one-under par, five shots behind winner Sarah-Eve Rheaume of Boischatel, Que. Parsons, who turned pro after graduating last year from Indiana University, earned $1,000. Kelowna’s Megan Osland finished 10th at five-over par.

TOP-20: Coquitlam’s Henry Lee and Ziggy Nathu of Richmond both finished inside the top 20 at the Asher Tour’s Oceanside Open in California. Lee tied for 12th at three-under and made $1,350. Nathu tied for 16th at two-under par and took home $1,100. Mason Glinski of Oxnard, Calif., won with a score of 13-under par. The event was shortened to 36 holes due to weather conditions.

SOLID DEBUT: Noah Goodwin, the Texan who won what was the final playing of the GolfBC Championship last summer at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club in Kelowna, tied for 33rd at the Puerto Rico Open in his first PGA Tour start of the season. It was not an exceptionally strong field. Evidence of that is that Guy Boros, the now 58-year-old who won the inaugural Greater Vancouver Open at Northview Golf Club in Surrey way back in 1996, drew into the field. Boros missed the cut and finished 113th in the 120-man field.

CHAMBERS CALLING: There figures to be a rush on entries to the 2023 Pacific Northwest Golf Association Men’s Amateur Championship. Chambers Bay in Washington state has been announced as the host course for this summer’s championship. Registration is now open for the event, which will be played July 17-22 at Chambers Bay which is located on the shores of Puget Sound in University Place, Wash. Chambers Bay has previously played host to the 2010 U.S. Amateur, the 2015 U.S. Open and the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur.