By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

It was a five-foot putt, the kind Delta’s Jace Minni has spent countless hours practising on the putting green while imagining he needed to sink each one for a big win.

This time it was for real and Minni rolled it in to win the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open. “It was probably half a ball outside right,” Minni said of his winning birdie putt on Fraserview Golf Course’s 18th green.

“I have practised my putting so much this past year. I’d be on the putting green going, ‘this is a putt to win, this is a putt to do it,’ and now it finally came to fruition.”

Minni’s winning putt capped a dramatic final round of the Vancouver Open and gave him a one-shot victory over 2022 champion Ilirain Zalli of Vancouver.

It came after Zalli had missed an eight-foot birdie attempt of his own. And it came after the 22-year-old Minni had almost botched his layup on the par 5 18th hole at Fraserview.

His second shot rolled perilously close to the penalty area fronting the 18th green. “I got the wrong number on the range-finder,” Minni said with a smile.

Minni, who graduated this past spring from Gonzaga University in Spokane, had to contend with a bit of an awkward lie and had a wooden cross-fence right in front of him for his third shot on the 18th hole. “My left foot was a couple of inches below my right foot so I had a downhill lie,” he said. “I opened the face a little bit just to make sure (he cleared the fence) and I swung pretty hard at it. I had 88 to the pin and it went the perfect yardage.”

The only downer for Minni, who is planning to turn pro soon, is that the win came while he was an amateur. Instead of the $12,000 winner’s cheque, Minni received $1,200, the most an amateur can earn. “Now I wish I had turned pro before this event, but I had decided I just wanted a safer route to slowly transition into pro golf and this is a great stepping stone,” he said.

“This is pretty special. I have really wanted to play this event the last two years and I haven’t had the opportunity because school was always starting. I haven’t played the Vancouver Open since 2019, so now to be part of the list of champions is great. It’s a big step in my pro golf journey which I plan to take on soon.”

Minni closed the 54-hole tournament with a four-under 68 to finish at 13-under par. He is the second amateur to win the Vancouver Open in its 18-year history.

Zalli was left lamenting the missed birdie putt on the 18th green and a two-footer he lipped out for par on the par 4 17th hole that allowed Minni to pull even. “I hit a good putt,” he said of the short miss on 17. “Not sure what happened. I think it just broke a little bit more on me.”

Zalli was not taking much consolation from the fact he got the $12,000 winner’s cheque. “Maybe in the coming days it will feel like that,” he said. “But even when I wasn’t making any money as a junior I was always trying to win, so that is usually my priority.”

Andrew Harrison of Camrose, Alta., was third at eight-under, while Jackson Jacob of Langley and American David Hansen tied for fourth at seven-under.

Christine Wong of Richmond beat Sonja Tang of Victoria on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the women’s title. Both had finished at six-under par.

MASTER MOMENT: Brooks Lancaster of Kaleden won the Canadian Men’s Mid-Master Championship at Carleton Golf & Yacht Club in Manotick, Ont. Lancster’s one-under total edged Christopher Thayer of Golden, Col., by one shot. Victoria’s Gary Pike finished third at one-over par. The Mid-Master championship is open to players aged 40 and over and was played concurrently with the Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship for players aged 25 and older.

Lancaster tied for fourth in the Mid-Amateur, while Pike tied for eighth. B.C Mid-Amateur champion Wyatt Brook of Heffley Creek tied for 15th at three-over. Cam Burke of Kitchener, Ont., won the Mid-Am by nine shots with a 72-hole total of 14-under par. The British Columbia team of Brook, Andy Robb of Vancouver and Stephen Connor of Kamloops finished third in the two-round Inter-provincial team competition that was won by Ontario.

PLAYOFF EXIT: Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin didn’t get the top-five finish he needed to have any chance of advancing to this week’s Tour Championship. Hadwin struggled at the PGA TOUR’s second playoff event, the BMW Championship, finishing tied for 41st in the 50-player field at Castle Pines Golf Club in Colorado. Hadwin had entered the week 42nd on the FedEx Cup points list and dropped five spots to finish 47th. Ontario’s Taylor Pendrith will be the lone Canadian in the Tour Championship. He moved up two spots to stand 25th on the points list.

CRUNCH TIME: The PGA Tour Americas circuit is down to its final two events and Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald is clinging to the ninth spot on the points list. The top 10 players on the season-ending points list earn exempt status on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour. Macdonald tied for 60th at last week’s CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open in Winnipeg and remained ninth on the points list.

Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart, a winner the previous week in Saskatchewan, missed the cut in Winnipeg and fell two spots to 16th on the points list. Lawren Rowe of Victoria tied for 53rd in Winnipeg and now stands 95th on the points list. The PGA Tour Americas circuit makes its only U.S. stop this week in Brainerd, Minn., for the CRMC Championship. The top 120 players on the points list are eligible to play in the season-ending Fortinet Cup Championship the following week in Toronto.

HOPING FOR HAT TRICK: Two-time winner Shelly Stouffer of Nanoose Bay will be one of six past champions in the field for this week’s Canadian Senior Women’s Championship. The 54-hole event is being played at The Club at North Halton in Georgetown, Ont. Stouffer, a five-time B.C. Senior Women’s champion, won the Canadian championship in 2021 and 2022.

TOUGH FINISH: Jared du Toit’s Korn Ferry Tour season ended with a missed cut at the Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho. The Kimberley native was done in by a costly triple-bogey late in his second round that dropped him two strokes below the cutline. He fell three spots to 145th on the points list and only the top 144 players moved on to the second Korn Ferry Tour Finals event, which goes Sept. 12-15 in Tennessee. Du Toit still has status on the Asian Tour and could choose to play some events there this fall.

OPENING ON HOLD: Bald Eagle Golf Course in Point Roberts has delayed its re-opening until next spring. The course had announced late this past spring that it planned to re-open sometime this summer. “We have pushed our re-opening date to April 1, 2025, with a soft re-opening date of March 1,” says an update posted on the club’s website. “We want the course to be in the best shape possible for our guests. We look forward to seeing you in the Spring 2025. Thank you all very much for your continued patience.”

CLASS IN SESSION: The LPGA Tour’s qualifying school began last week with its first stage, now known as the Pre-Qualifying Stage, played in the Palm Springs area of southern California. Kelowna’s Megan Osland failed to advance from a massive field of more than 300 players. The second stage goes Oct. 15-18 in Venice, Fla. British Columbians Mary Parsons of Delta and Yeji Kwon of Port Coquitlam are exempt into second stage as a result of their strong play on the Annika Women’s All Pro Tour.

CHIP SHOTS: Lydia Ko’s win at the AIG Women’s Open on the Old Course at St Andrews came 12 years to the day after she won her first LPGA Tour event, as a 15-year-old amateur, at Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam. . .The Vernon-area course formerly known as The Rise has a new name. It’s now called the Signature Golf Course @ The Rise Resort.