Horses for Courses

Horses for Courses

Five of the top-10 ranked players from the PGA of Canada Player Rankings presented by RBC won matches Wednesday at the PGA Championship of Canada sponsored by Mr. Lube and presented by TaylorMade-adidas Golf at Magna Golf Club in Aurora, Ont.

The No. 1-ranked Brian McCann (BraeBen Academy/Bradlee Ryall Golf), fourth ranked Dave Levesque (La Prairie Club de Golf), the fifth ranked seed Bryn Parry (Seymour Creek Golf Centre), No. 6 Brian Hutton and eighth seed Billy Walsh (Fairtree Golf Centre) all survived their second round matches and will now see more action come Thursday morning at Magna.

However, last year’s champion Eric Laporte (Club de Golf Montcalm) and Magna Golf Club’s own Danny King were ousted Wednesday.

“They were cheering for him and I can’t blame them for that,” said Louis Pierre Godin (Club de Golf Le Mirage) who battled not only King to a 2&1, but also his adoring fans. “If this championship ever came to my home course, then I would expect the members to do the same thing for me.”

With 60 points awarded to the winner of the PGA Championship of Canada, McCann, Levesque, Parry, Hutton and Walsh all have an opportunity to jump to the top of the rankings pile. The No. 1-ranked player at the end of this week earns an exemption into next month’s RBC Canadian Open.

“I wanted to get fit and maintain my competitive edge, so I worked hard at it over the winter and it’s paid off,” Parry said about this recent drive to get better and earn his first PGA Championship of Canada. “I’m looking forward to hopefully playing four more rounds of golf over the next two days.

Of the final 16 players remaining, seven are from Ontario and six are from the province of Quebec.

“We’re fortunate in Quebec to have two big match play events during the year,” Levesque said. “We also play in events with a lot of money on the line so maybe we’re used to handling the pressure.”

Thursday morning’s third round matches include Brian McCann versus Dean Brown (Royal Regina Golf Club); Dan Greenwood (Heron Point Golf Links versus John McCann (Fairtree Golf Centre); Kevin Senecal (Le Maitre Tremblant) versus Brian Hadley (Thames Valley Golf Club); Walsh versus Reg Millage (The Golf Lab); Godin versus Dave Zibrik (Seymour Creek Golf Centre); and Brian Hutton versus Daniel Talbot (Centre de Practique de Golf Sports Montreal).

To view all match results from Wednesday’s second and to view live scoring of Thursday’s third round and quarter-final matches, CLICK HERE.

Stay up-to-date with this year's PGA Championship of Canada sponsored by Mr. Lube and presented by TaylorMade-adidas Golf by visiting pgaofcanada.com, twitter.com/pgaofcanada, youtube.com/thepgaofcanada and facebook.com/pgaofcanada