The reigning Canadian Amateur champion signed a card of three-over-par 74 and, in his mind, it was full of mistakes.
“The wind was tough today,” acknowledged the 20-year-old whiz from Abbotsford, B.C., “but I threw away a few shots . . . made a bunch of stupid little bogeys from the middle of the fairway. I probably could have been four or five shots lower if I’d played a little smarter and hit some shots that didn’t get me shortsided.”
Taylor could have used every one of those “throwaways” as he found himself trailing fellow and first year Canadian team member Graham Baillargeon of Mississauga, Ont., and 2003 Canadian Mid-Am champion Garth Collings of Winnipeg by seven shots.
The 19-year-old Baillargeon, who won the Canadian Junior Men’s title last year, and the 50-year-old Collings each fashioned five-under 67s on the afternoon shift when the wind dropped noticeably.
Their closest pursuers are Lindsay Renolds of Christina Lake, B.C. and Texan Trent Leon, who both shot 69s on the wicked morning shift when the wind blew steadily around 50 km/h before dropping off noticeably later in the afternoon. Six other players, including Edmonton’s Darren Hupfer and 17-year-old world junior champion Eugene Wong of North Vancouver, are at 70.
Collings’ heroics, a bogey-free round with birdies at the four par 5s, helped Manitoba take a one-shot lead over British Columbia in the Willingdon Cup inter-provincial match. Alberta, which has won the last three Willingdon Cups, is five shots off the pace in third place.
Alberta Amateur champion Scott Stiles of Calgary Bearspaw led Alberta with a 72, one shot less than recently-crowned Pacific Coast Amateur champion Jordan Irwin of Redwood Meadows needed after he started off with a triple bogey.
Taylor, who played in the U.S. Open and was one of only two Canadians to make the cut at the recent Canadian Open, won last year’s national title under the match play format when he took out Calgary’s Michael Knight on the 38th hole.
This year’s tournament has returned to 72 holes of stroke play and Taylor was ready for just about anything but the wind.
“It’s been awhile since I played in a wind that strong . . . 10, 11, 12 were pretty much ridiculous,” he said. “You couldn’t ground your club on the greens because the ball is shaking and moving. You’re standing over your ball watching it shake . . . you don’t want to rush your putt but you almost had to and that’s hard because you’re not really focused on what you’re doing.”
The trio of holes pointed out by Taylor, who is tied for 39th, are at the top of the 6,840-yard course and wide open to the wind. The 124-yard, par 3 12th played into the teeth of the breeze with the morning players hitting anything from 6-irons to 4-irons instead of a nice wedge
And if they did hit the ball on the green, there was a good chance it’d start rolling after it’d stopped.
“Those three greens were borderline unplayable,” submitted 36-year-old Craig Doell of Victoria, who is playing in his 17th national jig. “The balls were moving on the green on their own so you really had to be careful.
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