Eric Couture goes Wire-to-Wire to win the CPGA Assistants' Championship
Click here for Final Round Results
Couture won by four shots over Remi Bouchard of Le Mirage, Quebec to take home his first Canadian PGA National title, shooting rounds of 68-67-71 for a 206 tournament total earning him the $6, 500 first prize from the $45,000 purse.
“It is a great feeling to win a National title. While I was playing, I was just thinking of winning in general because I haven’t won a tournament since the Canadian Tour qualifier in 2005,” says Couture. “On the last few holes my legs were getting very tired and I was just focusing on trying to make pars,” says Couture who made three birdies, one bogey and one double-bogey in his final round.
Couture entered the final round at seven under par, putting him in first place and in the final pairing. “Today I struggled a little bit on the back nine, so I just tried to make a good swing and think about rhythm,” says Couture who has been working with his swing over the past few weeks. “I felt like I only lost focus for about two shots today, both with my driver. I tried not to think about my double bogey, as I was still four shots ahead, and felt comfortable with the lead. The conditions were great for us in the afternoon, the greens were a bit bumpy but it didn’t affect the line of the ball as much as it did the speed”.
After Couture made his first bogey on the tenth hole today, he turned to his father and caddie (Roch Couture) and asked when the last bogey was. “I asked my dad, and we both thought about it, and realized I hadn’t bogeyed a hole for 37 holes, the last one was in my first round in the first nine!” When Couture became an Assistant Professional at Val des Lacs two years ago, he won all four events on the Ben Hogan Tour (Quebec Assistants’ tour), and was rookie of the year as well as player of the year.
When asked what he will do with the prize money, Couture laughed. “I guess I will pay off my debts now. There is always something to pay off, credit card bills, Q-school, PGA TOUR Q-school, the list goes on,” said Couture, winner of the 1999 Quebec Junior and 2003 Quebec Amateur Championships. “And the caddie, my dad, will get ten percent of nothing unfortunately".
Couture, who is attending PGA TOUR Q-School in Lakeland, Florida at the end of October, is excited at the opportunity to play at the PGA of America Assistants’ Championship with the exemption that he receives with the win today. “I have to see if I can change my location of my first stage of Q-school because right now they are at the same time unfortunately,” says Couture. The decision to choose between playing in the PGA of America’s Championship and changing Q-School locations is a difficult one, because many players chose their initial stage location based on previous experiences at that course. This is the third time that Couture is going for his PGA TOUR card after missing the cut the first year after the first stage and missing the cut the second year after the second stage.
For Couture, his playing season in Quebec is over, and next week he plans on starting a new athletic training program to prepare himself for the qualifying events.
Andrew Smeeth of the Redwoods in British Columbia shot the low score of the day today at 65, tying the tournament low and soaring himself from 17th place to third in the final round. Finishing in second place, is Remi Bouchard with a total of 210 after shooting 70-69-71. John McCann (71-69-72) of Fairtree Golf Centre, Ontario, Andy Holborn (72-65-75) of Toronto, Ontario and Fraser Mulholland (71-71-70) of Seymour Creek, British Columbia tied for fourth place with a total score of 212.
Quebec won the InterZone team competition, after competing against six other zones in Canada. Going into the final round tied at 214 with Alberta, the Quebec team (Remi Bouchard, 70-69, Gregg Cuthill, 70-73, Luke Saunders, 76-76, Vincent Dumouchel, 74-75) arrived victorious with a final score of 431 over the Ontario Team with a total score of 435, and British Columbia at 442. The score is determined by the calculation of the best three scores in each four man team. The purse for the InterZone competition is $5000, with $500 going to each player on the winning team, $400 to each player on the second place team, and $350 going to each player on the third place team.
The final round of the championship will take place tomorrow, with the field cut from 120 players to 70, plus ties. The first tee time will commence at 8:00AM with the last group departing at 12:00 noon.
Val des Lacs was built and designed by architect Howard Watson in 1959. He designed many courses in the Montreal and Toronto region, like Lachute Golf Club (past host of the Canadian Open) in Montreal and the Board of Trade in Toronto.
Weather: 27 degrees, partly cloudy, chance of showers, winds gusting out of the west.
Erica Bury
Communications Coordinator
Canadian PGA
erica@cpga.com
800.782.5764
Brad Moyer
Manager of Events and Employment
Canadian PGA
brad@cpga.com
800.782.5764 (x227)
About the CPGA:
Established in 1911, the Canadian Professional Golfers’ Association is a non-profit association comprised of approximately 3,500 golf professionals across the country with a mandate to promote and advance the game of golf, serving the needs of both its membership and the golf public through professional and junior golf development programs and high-calibre competitive events. The National Office is located in Acton, Ontario with nine Zone Offices across the country. For more information, visit www.cpga.com