By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

They each began their week with a double-bogey and that seemed to set the tone for British Columbians Jared du Toit and Stuart Macdonald at the final stage of the PGA/Korn Ferry Tour qualifying school.

Both had headed to Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., full of optimism after surviving the second stage of qualifying and dreaming about securing one of the PGA TOUR cards that were handed out to the top five and ties.

But after Macdonald tied for 102nd at seven-over par and du Toit tied for 119th at 10-over, they departed with nothing but poor conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour that leaves them so far down the priority list neither figure to get any 2024 starts.

Conditions were difficult at Sawgrass Country Club and the Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass, where a field of 165 had gathered. Players not only had to battle those Q-school nerves, they had to deal with cool temperatures and lots of rain and wind. Sunday’s final round was postponed until Monday because of torrential rain that pounded the area early Sunday.

It took a 72-hole score of eight-under to finish among the top five and ties who earned 2024 PGA TOUR cards. The next 40 players and ties (scores of even-par or better) all earned starts on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour. That group included Ontario’s Sudarshan Yellamaraju (T14), Quebec’s Etienne Papineau (T38) and Myles Creighton (T45).

Papineau, who won the season-opening event of the PGA Tour Canada season at Uplands Golf Club in Victoria and finished fourth on that tour’s points list, is now guaranteed eight starts on the Korn Ferry tour next season. That’s likely four or five more than he would have received by finishing top-five on the PGA Tour Canada circuit.

Thanks to their solid play on PGA Tour Canada this summer, Vancouver’s Macdonald and Kimberley’s du Toit are both exempt through the Latin America portion of the new PGA Tour Americas circuit, which begins in late March in Tulum, Mexico. Both also have earned exemptions into the final stage of next month’s Asian Tour Q-school in Thailand. Macdonald has said he’s unlikely to use that exemption, while du Toit seemed more open about the possibility.

JOE COOL: Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin is about to begin his 10th season as a full-time member of the PGA TOUR and caddie Joe Cruz has been by his side every step of the way. Hadwin hired Cruz to work with him in his final season on what was then the Web.com Tour (now Korn Ferry Tour) in 2014. Hadwin won twice that year, finished fourth on the points list and earned a promotion to the PGA TOUR. He took Cruz with him. “I think the biggest thing with Joe is that he is about as cool a customer as it gets,” Hadwin said of Cruz in a recent interview with British Columbia Golf.

“Emotionally, I can be a little bit of a roller-coaster at times and I have never seen him in any different state on the golf course, which is great. It is good for me. I never really think of it as a calming influence, but I think it is a calming influence just simply because you never know what he is thinking. He is just so straight-faced, he lets me do my thing. Hadwin said having a caddie he can trust is important and noted that the stability of their relationship has been important. “I think what we have developed now over all these years is I don’t think Joe is afraid to tell me what he thinks, which is a really good thing. He is also not afraid to just let me go for it, either.

“There are certain times between a player and caddie where a good caddie just knows to stay out of the way. So after all these years, I think Joe knows when he needs to step in a little bit more. That just comes with time. But it’s been great having stability. That is a huge thing, not bouncing back and forth, not seeing different faces every year. It has been good.”

AWARD FINALIST: Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor was one of five finalists for the Northern Star Award as Canada’s athlete of the year in 2023. Taylor, who made history by winning this year’s RBC Canadian Open, lost out to basketball star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The other three finalists were Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, swimmer Summer McIntosh and hammer-thrower Camryn Rogers.

THIRD IN SPAIN: Parksville’s Aidan Goodfellow finished solo third at a Toro Tour event in Malaga, Spain. The former Simon Fraser University standout shot rounds of 69, 67 and 70 to finish the 54-hole event at seven-under par. Finland’s Oliver Lindell won by 10 shots with a score of 18-under.

KWON THIRD: Port Coquitlam’s Yeji Kwon finished solo third at the prestigious Dixie Amateur in South Florida. Kwon, the 2022 Canadian Junior Girls champion who recently committed to Baylor University in Texas, fired rounds of 74, 75, 73, and 72 to finish at 10-over par. That was six shots behind winner Molly Brown Davidson of Springville, Alabama. White Rock’s Clara Ding tied for 58th.