Around Town: Ken Tarling, Fergus GC, Alena Sharp and our Question of the Week
Image: Duntroon Highlands Golf Club / P MUMFORD PHOTO
The fall colours are in full splendour this week and add one more reason to get out and smack the ball around. For my playing partners, the “leaf rule” is in effect from now until the end of the season. No questions, no penalty. It’s lost under a leaf somewhere.
Ken Tarling (1958-2023)
Sad to hear about Ken Tarling who died this week. Ken was a great supporter of Fairways Magazine and would often call or write a note about something he read or to suggest something I should write about. He was a lifelong competitor with a lengthy record of chasing his dream all over the world. In addition to numerous local PGA of Ontario victories, Ken also won events in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand and on the Canadian Tour. His service and accomplishments earned him a spot in the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame in 2017 and the PGA of Ontario Hall of Fame in 2020. You can view Ken’s list of accomplishments from his PGA of Ontario Hall of Fame induction HERE. His obituary is HERE.
Fergus Golf Club
An interesting note from GolfNorth Properties that the Fergus Golf Club (formerly Lake Belwood Golf Club) will be closing after completion of the 2023 season so that the entire course, clubhouse and facilities can be rebuilt. The heading in their press release said, “GolfNorth to re-imagine the golf experience at Fergus Golf Club.” I never played the old version but a re-imagining sounds intriguing and I look forward to what architect Doug Carrick can do with the project. You can read the press release HERE.
Fairways Wall of Fame
In the old print days, we often had season ending awards for players that excelled at the amateur and professional level, but we never had a complete collection of all the winners. This year we’re launching what will become an annual showcase of champions from the region. It includes amateurs competing in various Golf Canada and Golf Ontario tournaments plus pros in PGA of Ontario and PGA of Canada events and touring pros on recognized world tours. There are numerous multiple golfers with multiple wins, but two players stand above the rest for their consistency this year: Steven Ames notched four victories on the PGA Champions Tour while Shauna Liu, a junior golfer from Station Creek Golf Club, matched Ames’ output with four wins of her own. Congratulations to all the champions! You can view the complete list HERE.
Go Alena!
The Epson Tour Championship is on this weekend in Daytona Beach, Florida. Hamilton’s Alena Sharp is battling to get back to the LPGA Tour and heading into the final event on the developmental tour, she stood in 16th place on the money list where the Top 10 secure LPGA playing privileges for 2024. It’s estimated that she’ll need at least a seventh-place finish to crack the Top 10. After Thursday’s first round, she’s sitting at T5 so off to a great start. Go Alena!
World Junior Girls
Brampton Golf & Country Club is hosting the World Junior Girls Championship this week. Canada has two teams entered. Canada 1 consists of Anna Huang and Vanessa Zhang of Vancouver and Vanessa Borovilos of Toronto. They currently sit second, three strokes back of Team USA after two rounds of competition. Canada 2 (Luna Lu from Burnaby, BC, Eileen Park from Red Deer, AB and Miranda Lu of Vancouver) are 19th. There are 22 teams entered representing 21 countries and a total of 66 athletes. Canada has never won the team event but posted a third-place finish in 2014 and fourth in 2018. The tournament has often been a steppingstone for junior girls who have gone onto greater glory on the LPGA Tour including Brooke Henderson, Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand who won back-to-back individual titles in 2018 and 2019 as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines who won the 2016 World Junior title. GO CANADA!
Question of the Week
The Question of the Week is a new feature that I’ll post each Friday in the newsletter. The following week, I’ll post your replies. Replies can be sent via email and should be concise and include your full name and place of residence i.e. Bob Jones, Toronto, Ontario. We will not display your email address.
Here’s this week’s question:
What was your highlight from the 44th Ryder Cup won by Europe last week in Rome?
Replies can be sent to me HERE.
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Thanks for reading. Happy Thanksgiving!
Peter
