21-year-old Victoria player lit up the Vancouver Golf Tour — the province’s biggest early-season circuit — with six tournament victories over the spring.
Jeevan Sihota’s promise, which has been touted since he was just a kid on the golf course, seems to be coming to the fore.
The 21-year-old Victoria player lit up the Vancouver Golf Tour — the province’s biggest early-season circuit — with six tournament victories over the spring. That included a course-record 59 shot at Tsawwassen Springs.
Sihota turned down numerous U.S. collegiate NCAA offers to turn pro at 18 and it’s been a grind with highs and lows but it could be falling into place as he looks forward to the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School in the fall.
“I had a good off-season in terms of training and also mentally. My body stayed healthy and I was able to get a lot of reps in,” said Sihota.”
Sihota followed his course-chewing run through the Vancouver Tour by taking the $150,000 Mickelson National Invitational in Calgary to a playoff on Sunday before settling for the runner-up slot and $25,000 prize that went with it. Brady McKinlay of Lacombe, Alta., won the playoff to claim the championship and $50,000 first-prize purse on the layout that was the first Canadian course to be designed by PGA great Phil Mickelson.
Gorge Vale’s Sihota was philosophic about missing out on doubling his money by just a shot: “I put myself in good position to reach the playoff and play for the title. Playoffs can be full of pressure, but in the end, it’s still just golf.”
Sihota will likely receive a sponsor’s exemption into the $225,000 PGA Tour America’s Times Colonist Victoria Open from Sept. 18-21 at Uplands. He has entered the Chilliwack Open this week.
“I just have to keep doing what I’m doing and working hard and putting in the reps each day at Gorge Vale,” said Sihota.
CHIP SHOTS:Another Island golfer played in a playoff Sunday in the Mickelson National Invitational with Gavyn Knight of Parksville earning runner-up honours in the amateur division at Calgary.
Knight, the 2021 B.C. junior champion and former Canada junior national team player out of the Morningstar Club, will be entering his NCAA Div. 1 senior season at Boise State in September.
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