By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The plan was to take a couple of weeks off, return to his Arizona home and rest after a gruelling four-week stretch that saw Jared du Toit tee it up in Malaysia, Oman, New Zealand and Chile.

But the Kimberley native had a change of heart. After tying for eighth at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Astara Chile Classic, he headed for the Santiago airport and instead boarded a flight to Hong Kong where he will play in this week’s International Series Macau event on the Asian Tour.

“There’s a big part of me that is still in the mindset of past years where you drive seven hours to play for purses that were five per cent of what these ones are,” du Toit said in a telephone interview with British Columbia Golf.

“You kind of just have to go. It’s fun playing in events that feel like they mean something every week. It’s maybe not life-changing, but it’s close. I am having a really tough time taking weeks off. But so far the energy is good, the golf is good and I am just excited for some more opportunities.”

Du Toit was first alternate into the Macau event when he boarded his flight to Hong Kong on Sunday night. He figured it was a gamble worth taking. Turns out he was right. While he was in the air, du Toit officially drew into the event.

“I looked at flights and they were pretty reasonable all things considered and I was just like, let’s go and see what happens,” he said. “I figured I would regret not getting in and going less than not going and then getting in.”

Du Toit was the 13th alternate into the Macau tourney when he arrived in Santiago last week. His fine play in Chile made his decision to go to Macau a little easier. A final-round 65 moved du Toit into a tie for eighth spot and earned him a nice payday of $27,500 US. It also earned him something even more valuable than that.

His Chile finish will get him into the next Korn Ferry Tour event, which goes April 4-7 in Savannah. Ga. It will also benefit him when the next reshuffle occurs later in April. Du Toit began the season with conditional status and really did not expect to draw into any Korn Ferry events. He is now confident he will rise high enough on the priority ranking list to get into several events after that next reshuffle.

So he now has three tours to play — the Korn Ferry Tour, the Asian Tour and the new PGA Tour Americas circuit. He will have to make some choices, but after scratching and clawing the past few years to find places to play it’s a nice problem to have.

“I am just thrilled to be playing well,” said du Toit, who won the B.C. Amateur Championship way back in 2015. “In years past I have just had a handful of PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry starts and you are squeezing the grip a little tighter than normal because you don’t know when your next start is going to be.

“Now, getting off to a good start this year, it’s like, hey, let’s just go play and free-wheel it. Now it sounds like I am going to have more opportunity on the Korn Ferry Tour. It feels really good to be playing well and it’s been years and years of hard work, to be honest, to get to this point. And now I am starting to see some of the fruits of that labour, so I am thrilled.”

Du Toit has logged some serious air miles over the last month and some of those flights have been particularly tough. Getting from Oman to Queenstown, New Zealand, for example, was no picnic. He had to fly to Dubai, where he faced a long layover before boarding a 14-hour flight to Brisbane, Australia, where he made another connection to get him to Queenstown.

“It’s been crazy,” du Toit said of the travel. “They all have been last-minute, one-way flights which aren’t the most fun to look at cost-wise. But they are just part of the deal and thankfully I am playing well, so they are hurting a little less.”

This week’s Macau tournament has a $2-million US purse and features a number of LIV players, including Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Patrick Reed, Sebastian Munoz and the newly signed Anthony Kim.

ROCK SOLID: Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor continued his solid play at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando. Taylor had a brilliant front nine, but stumbled slightly down the stretch and that cost him a top-10 finish. Taylor was four-under on the front nine in Sunday’s final round, but bogeyed his last two holes to finish the event at three-under par and tied for 12th. He earned $389,667.

Fellow Abbotsford native Adam Hadwin tied for 52nd at two-over par and made $49,000. Surrey’s Adam Svensson missed the cut at Bay Hill. Taylor, Hadwin and Svensson are all in the field for this week’s Players Championship in Ponte Vedra, Fla. Merritt’s Roger Sloan made his first cut of the season, tying for 55th at the Puerto Rico Open. Sloan made $9,400.

TARGET PRACTICE: There’s not a lot of Canadian content in Season 2 of Full Swing, the Netflix series on the PGA TOUR. But Adam Hadwin does make a humorous cameo appearance early in Episode 1, when Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler are shown peppering a tournament Porta-Potty with golf balls. Hadwin was on the inside and emerges to say, “I almost s*#t myself. No pun intended.”

UBC SWEEP: The University of British Columbia men’s and women’s teams swept the RMC Intercollegiate tourney at Reflection Bay Golf Club in Las Vegas. The UBC women, currently ranked first in the NAIA, made it look easy as they beat second-place Ottawa University of Arizona (OUAZ) by 36 strokes. UBC’s Bo Brown earned her first individual title as she finished the 54-hole event at even-par. UBC-Okanagan finished third, the University of Victoria was sixth and the University of the Fraser Valley was eighth.

The UBC men had to work overtime to earn their victory. They finished the event tied with OUAZ at eight-over par, but won the tournament after a playoff that saw all five players from each team replay the tough 18th hole at Reflection Bay. UBC captain Mackenzie Bickell led the T-Birds with a second-place finish at six-under par. The University of Victoria finished fourth, while UBC-Okanagan was eighth.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Penticton Golf Club prides itself on being the first Okanagan course to open for the new golf season and they did it again this year. Penticton opened on Leap Day (Feb. 29). “We like to be the first in the Valley,” Penticton head pro Kris Paul-Clark told the Penticton Western News. “We were hoping to open (last weekend) but thought why not do it early and take advantage of the Leap Year.”

Osoyoos Golf Club was the next 18-hole Okanagan course out of the gates, beginning its new season on March 8. That’s more than two weeks earlier than Osoyoos opened last year. “This is more traditional for us, the first part of March is normally our opening time,” said general manager Doug Robb.” Last year, we didn’t open until March 24.”

ROXBURGH HONOURED: Golf Canada announced at its recent annual general meeting that Vancouver’s Doug Roxburgh has been named an honorary life governor in recognition of his longstanding contribution to the association and the sport.

Two other Vancouver residents were also honoured by Golf Canada. Cheryl Lee and Carolyn Naylor were recognized as the 2023 recipients of the Bruce Mitchell Volunteer of the Year Award. Lee and Naylor served as chair and vice-chair of the player services committee for the 2023 CPKC Women’s Open at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.

EWART FOURTH: Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart finished fourth at the Asher Tour’s Pasadera Cup in Monterey, Calif., which was cut to 45 holes due to weather. Ewart’s score of nine-under par was four shots behind winner Nicolo Galletti of Phoenix. Ewart earned $5,200.