Appleton, Ontario – The Mississippi Golf Club hosted PGA of Canada – Ottawa Zone Golf Professionals July 22 on the Flagstick.com Players Tour under great weather and course conditions.
The Senior Championships for the pros has been held here annually for many years and this year Ottawa Zone Women and Assistants were added to the competition.
Alison Timlin of the Kevin Haime Golf Centre was the winner in the Women’s Championship, Royal Ottawa’s JC Beecroft in the Assistant’s Championship, and Graham Gunn from the Graham Gunn Golf Academy was the winner in the Seniors Championship for the eighth time.
Flagstick congratulates all competitors in the various championships at the Mississippi Golf Club.
Ladies Championship
For the first time since 1991, two professionals from the Ottawa Zone played in the Ladies Championship and Alison Timlin, with her score of 79, narrowly defeated Addi Nicole McLaren from the OAC, who posted a score of 81.
Flagstick Golf Magazine caught up with the newly crowned PGA of Ottawa Women’s Champion and asked her about her winning round at the Mississippi Golf Club.
“1991. That was the year I was born. I’m happy that Addi came out to compete with me and I encourage all the local lady golf professionals to come out and play in our competitions. Its great experience for me, being local, and I don’t have to spend 10 hours driving to one or two-day competitions. My distance control was working today, but sometimes I ended up on the wrong side of the hole. At least I ended up with a lot of pars.”
Alison also thanked Mississippi Golf Club Assistant Professional Terry Kolar for the tips he gave her on their practice round last week. As she said, “It certainly helped.”
Assistants Championship
The Assistant Professionals in the Ottawa Zone have not held a Championship since 2007 and many turned out for today’s event.
At the conclusion of regulation play, JC Beecroft from the Royal Ottawa Golf Club and Shawn Banfield from the Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club were tied with scores of even par, 72.
A sudden-win playoff took place and on the fifth playoff hole, JC Beecroft scored his fifth consecutive par and was declared the Assistant’s Champion. After matching JC par for par on the first four playoff holes, Shawn Banfield bogied the fifth playoff hole.
Alone in 3rd place with his score of 73 was Club EG’s Andy Rajhathy. Tied for 4th place with scores of 74 were PGA of Canada’s Brad Smith and Dave McDonald from the Royal Ottawa Golf Club.
Flagstick Golf Magazine talked to the Ottawa Zone’s Assistants Champion about his win.
“It’s pretty cool being my first win as a PGA Professional,” shared Beecroft. “It took five extra holes to do it and I’m pretty excited about the win. It’s nice to actually play well and be at the top of the leaderboard. I didn’t putt very well today but I was fortunate to get lucky a few times with tee shots. This is a tough golf course off the tee if you’ve never played here before. There were a few holes that got me today but I was still fortunate to come through with a good round. The golf course was in great shape.”
Senior Championship
The PGA of Ottawa Senior Championship has been a fixture at the Mississippi Golf Club for many years and PGA of Ottawa Senior Professionals crowned Graham Gunn from the GUNNGOLF as their Champion for the 8th time .
Graham posted a score of 4 under par 68 for the win. He earned his first Senior Championship in 2005 when he was the golf professional at the Carleton Golf & Yacht Club.
Alone in 2nd place with his score of 73 was Juniper Fairway’s Scott MacDonald. Tied for 3rd place with scores of 74 were Colin Orr from the Ottawa Athletic Club, Chris Learmonth from the Gananoque Golf Club, Darrell Buchanan from The Meadows and Steve Hall from the Canadian Golf Club.
Winning their age divisions were Greg White (With a score of 71) and Barry Laphen from the Cedarhill Golf & Country Club.
Flagstick Golf Magazine talked to Graham Gunn about his Championship win.
“My putting was great today. I made 226 feet of putts today. It was crazy. I made 147 feet of putts on the front nine. I had a shank and I hit some weird shots, but obviously I made a lot of putts. The golf course was really in good shape. I wouldn’t have guessed that they had experienced problems earlier in the year.”
Many of the PGA of Canada – Ottawa Zone Senior Golf Professionals will be playing at Carleton Golf & Yacht Club, August 6-9 in the PGA of Canada Seniors Championship. Flagstick wishes all of our local Senior Professional Competitors well in their Canadian Championship.
