By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Delta resident Yi Cao earned his Korn Ferry Tour status the hard way. All Cao did was finish first and second in the final two events of the PGA Tour Canada season to grab the fifth and final graduating spot on the Fortinet Cup points list.

Cao closed the season-ending Fortinet Cup Championship at Country Hills Golf Club in Calgary with a five-under 66 that moved him into solo second place at 17-under par. He holed a chip for eagle on the par 5 17th hole to move into second place.

Cao had entered the tournament ninth on the points list and his big finish in Calgary, which came on his 32nd birthday, was enough to move him into fifth on the points list. The top five players all earned some status on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour and all get a pass through to the final stage of this fall’s PGA TOUR qualifying school, where the top five finishers will earn their PGA TOUR cards.

Cao was born in China, but moved to the Vancouver area when he was 15. This was his fifth season competing on PGA Tour Canada.

His great finish helped knock Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald out of the fifth spot. Macdonald had headed into Sunday’s final round in Canada still hanging on to that fifth spot, but he was hurt by a final-round 74 that dropped him into a tie for 46th in the Calgary event.

He ends the season seventh on the points list and will be exempt for the first half of the new 2024 PGA Tour Americas circuit, a merger of PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamerica. By finishing inside the top 25, Macdonald also gets to skip the first stage of PGA TOUR qualifying school this fall.

Kimberley’s Jared du Toit also had a tough final round in Calagry. Du Toit started the day in third place and a win likely would have moved him into the top five. But a final-round 75 dropped him into a tie for 14th. He finishes the season 28th on the points list.

HOLE-LY COW: Victoria’s Lawren Rowe won’t soon forget his third round at the Fortinet Championship. The former University of Victoria star holed consecutive shots late in that round. The fun started when Rowe holed a lob wedge from 100 yards on the par 4 15th hole at Country Hills Golf Club. He then stepped up to the tee and jarred his 8-iron for his first career hole-in one on the 181-yard par 3 16th hole. “It’s a lot of luck, that’s all I can say,” said Rowe, who went on to fire a 66. Rowe closed with a three-over 74 in the final round and finished tied for 46th at four-under par. That left him 54th on the points list. Like Macdonald and du Toit, he will have status through the Latin America portion of next year’s PGA Tour Americas circuit.

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT: Team Canada is going to have a distinct Metro Vancouver flavour at next month’s 2023 World Junior Girls Championship in Brampton, Ont. Anna Huang of Vancouver, Miranda Lu of Vancouver, Luna Lu of Burnaby and Vanessa Zhang of Vancouver all earned spots on Team Canada at a 54-hole qualifying tournament at Whistle Bear Golf Club in Cambridge, Ont.
Huang won the event with a score of 11-under par.

Miranda Lu was second at six-under, Luna Lu was third at five-under and Zhang beat two other girls in a playoff to claim the fourth spot after finishing three-under par. Those four players will join Vanessa Borovilos of Etiobicole, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., who both earned exemptions to Team Canada for the World Junior Girls Championship, which goes Oct. 2-7 at Brampton Golf Club.

For the final standings of the Team Canada World Junior Girls Championship qualifier and Team Canada – NextGen selection camp, please click here.

TOUGH TEST: Big Sky was a brute. Only four competitors at the Canadian Senior Men’s Championship finished the 72-hole event under par at the Pemberton layout. Doug Hanzel of Savannah, Ga., beat two-time champion Gene Elliott of West Des Moines, Iowa, on the first hole a sudden-death playoff to win the championship. Both players had finished the tournament at three-under par, one shot ahead of Ken Griffith of Red Deer, Alta., and Dave Bunker of Ridgeway, Ont. Longtime Big Sky member Lance Lundy of Pemberton and Mark Dupuy of Victoria were the low British Columbians.

Both players finished tied for seventh at three-over par. Lundy closed with a four-under 68. Neil MacLeod of Burnaby (15th), Steve Wheeler of Whistler (T17) and B.C. Senior Men’s champion Andrew Pinette of Surrey (T23) were other British Columbians who finished inside the top 25. Hanzel also won the Super Senior Championship for players aged 65 and older. Lundy was second in that competition.

ONE TO WATCH: Surrey’s Lauren Kim has been named as one of 15 freshmen to watch by Golfweek. Kim, who is about to begin her freshman season at the University of Texas, has risen to No. 61 on the world amateur rankings. That makes her the highest ranked Canadian woman. Kim is expected to make her collegiate debut at this week’s Annika Intercollegiate in Lake Elmo, Minn. She joins a Texas team that has made seven straight NCAA Championship appearances. The Longhorns begin the season ranked seventh nationally.

CLOSING TIMES: Sadly, we are approaching that time of year when some courses set their closing dates for the season. GolfBC has announced that Nicklaus North in Whistler will close on Oct. 8. The Bear and Quail courses at Okanagan Golf Club in Kelowna will close Oct. 22 and Gallagher’s Canyon in Kelowna will shut down for the season on Oct. 31.

CHIP SHOTS: Nanoose Bay’s Shelley Stouffer has advanced to match play at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship in Elverson, Pa. . .The second of four Korn Ferry Tour playoff events goes this week in College Grove, Tenn. Merritt’s Roger Sloan enters that event 35th on the points list and needs to move inside the top 30 to earn PGA TOUR status for 2024.