Whitehorse’s Jeff Wiggins has never missed a cut at a tournament in his professional career.
The Mountain View Golf Club pro kept the string going at the PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada in Fountain Hills, Arizona, two weeks ago.
Wiggins was one of 70 golfers out of 108 to make the cut following two rounds. He finished tied for 58th.
“There were a lot of great players who didn’t even make the cut,” said Wiggins. “So I kind of changed my goals. After the first two practice rounds, when we knew how fast the greens were and how difficult it was going to play, my initial goal was to make the cut. And I accomplished that, which is great.”
“It was the most difficult golf course and conditions we’ve ever played the national championship on, and obviously the scores reflected it.”
The 37-year-old finished the three rounds 22-over. The winner, Matt Peavoy of Peterborough, Ont., finished with a two-over-par, winning a playoff with a par.
“That was the highest winning score ever in the championship,” said Wiggins.
“I don’t think anyone expected it to be that difficult. After we got a couple practice rounds in, it was unanimous among all the professionals, this was not going to be an easy task.
“It was one of those tournaments where you had to know pars and bogeys were going to be great scores.”
The club pro championships were held at Arizona’s Sunridge Canyon Golf Club, home of the “wicked six” - the nickname for the extremely challenging final six holes.
In his “go for broke” third round, Wiggins finished with three double bogeys on the last three holes. Had he pared the last three, like he did in his second round, he would have moved up to 35th.
“Coming into the last three holes I went, ‘I’m just going to fire at pins and see if I can get a few back here,’” said Wiggins. “I’m either going to strike it really good or I’m going to make some double bogeys, and it just so happened it was the latter.”
“I went out there and gave it my best, and what a great experience,” he added. “It was a great championship to play because now I have even more experience that I can pass down to the amateur golfers in the territory that represent us at national events.”
Wiggins placed 27th last year and tied for 20th in 2011 at the nationals, then held in Florida.
Following his stay in Arizona, Wiggins headed over to Las Vegas to meet up with a group of Mountain View golfers last week.
Wiggins, Glen Slonski, Gary Hewitt, Sean Campbell and former Yukon champ Landon Kulych took part in the 15th annual Vegas Baby Pro Am.
The Whitehorse team kicked off the four-day pro-am winning the first-day tournament with the low team score and Wiggins notched the low pro score of 73.
The team then placed 11th in the three-day Stableford format event held at the Las Vegas Country Club, Cascata Golf Course and the Rio Secco Golf Club.
“The courses were phenomenal,” said Wiggins. “We had a blast.
“They were long days. We’d get up a six in the morning, be on buses at eight, shotguns at 10. So you weren’t getting back until 5:30 at night. By that time you were a little tuckered out, so you’d take a nap and then get up and eat.
“So it wasn’t your typical Las Vegas trip: all shows and gambling.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com