Kurtis Barkley Captures Flagstick Shootout

Kurtis Barkley started the golf season just like he ended the last one.  With a victory.

The 2014 Ottawa Valley Golf Association Tournament of Champions winner survived the test of difficult playing conditions and a talented field of competitors to win the 2015 Flagstick Shootout on May 24th.

Barkley, 27, fashioned an amazing start in round one of the tournament, posting a sparkling score of 69 (-3) when only one other player in the elite invited field managed to break par.  A Smuggler’s Glen Golf course playing hard and fast and swept by constant winds of over 40 km/h had competitors noting that the tournament might end up being nicknamed “the slaughter at Smugglers”.

With calmer winds for the final round, a slough of players were looking to chase down Barkley, particularly those joining him in the last group on Sunday, past champion Dwight Reinhart and talented teen, Noah Steele.

In the end though it was Barkley, a member of Cedar Glen Golf Club in Williamsburg, Ontario who bested the slate of players that included top amateurs and many talented collegians.  The new champion sealed off the victory with a closing birdie on the 18th hole, for a final round of 74.  His successful 30 foot putt ensured that Dwight Reinhart, looking at a 12 footer of his own for birdie, could not sink it to force a playoff.

Reinhart had closed to within a stroke of Barkley with just one hole to play but it was something the champion was not even aware of.

“I had no idea, I was just playing my own game,” said Barkley. “Fairways and greens was all I wanted and that’s what I tried to do. I had a few drives that got away and cost me but I tried to make up for them.”

In earning his 143 (-1) total Barkley made just five bogies over the two rounds, remarkable considering that a litany of experience players who endured one disaster after another on the technically difficult Smuggler’s Glen course.  “It’s definitely challenging; you have to play smart.  You have to hit a lot of fairways and greens to even have a chance to play well,” Barkley commented on the layout.

As for the win the new champion was both surprised and elated at the success.,

“It’s great. I can’t believe I did it,” said an elated Barkley after he accepted the trophy.  “Playing against all those guys in there (the clubhouse) it means all that more. They are the best that I know of in Ontario; to come out on top is mind blowing.”

“I had a couple tough rounds before here so it’s great to always play a good course well.”

Barkley says he plans to play the final two events in the BMG Cup Series, the Flagstick Open at eQuinelle in July and the Flagstick BCC Open at Brockville Country Club in September.

He concluded, “I can’t wait for eQuinelle to start.”

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The round of the day Sunday at the Flagstick Shootout came from Ryan Sevigny of Ottawa.  Sevigny posted a closing 69.  That earned him a share of third place with two-time past champion of the Flagstick Shootout, Clayton Presant, and ex Olympic and professional hockey player, Carter Trevisani.

There were just four rounds under par recorded over the two rounds of play.