Touhey in tune with top juniors
By CHRIS STEVENSON -- Ottawa Sun
Wendell Touhey picked the right time of the year to play his best golf.
The 17-year-old from Ottawa had his second runner-up finish in as many weeks yesterday as he finished second in the Mizuno Canadian Junior Golf Association National Championship at the tough St. Andrews Valley Golf and Country Club in Aurora.
"I'm very happy with my performance. For the last few years this is the time of the season when I start peaking," said Touhey. "My whole game is coming together."
Touhey had a 75 yesterday and finished three shots back of London's Will Cumberland in the Boys' 17-19 division on the St. Andrews layout that played at about 6,600 yards and a rating of 72.7. Cumberland had a 71 yesterday for a 72-hole total of 294.
Touhey lost in the final of the CJGA's PING Canadian Junior Match Play Championship at Horseshoe Valley in Barrie last week. He defeated Robert Mustard of Delta (near Brockville) in the semifinal of the PING tournament.
Mustard had a 77 yesterday for a 304 total.
Touhey is off next week to the CJGA's Lipton Brisk Canada Cup, a Ryder Cup format event that pits eight players from Western Canada against eight from the East. Touhey is representing the East in the 17-18 division.
The tournament is giving some of Canada's juniors the chance for some serious match play competition on some of Canada's best courses. This year's event is at Angus Glen, next year's is at the exclusive Magna Golf Club and the 2005 event will be played at St. George's Golf and Country Club. St. George's was ranked the top golf course in Canada by Score Magazine.
HEAR AND THERE: Bill and Steven Walsh won the OVGA's Father and Son tournament with a best-ball 71 at Poplar Grove. That was one stroke better than the Davidsons (Marc and Marc-Andre) from Outaouais ... The team from Hylands is this year's winner of the OVGA Junior Intersectionals at The Meadows. The team consisted of Andre Maillet, Marc Guimond, Cory Roque, Alex McDougall, Steven Knapp, Adam Highley, Greg Doucette, Jay Guimond, Craig Wilson, Matt Guimond and Kyle Wilson. Looks like that Guimond clan knows what it's doing.
CHIP-INS: The OVGA Senior Championship goes Monday at the Carleton Golf and Yacht Club. Last year's winner was Gatineau's Moe Proulx, who beat Gilles Collette of Tecumseh by three strokes ... The star of next week's Canadian Open could well be the golf course. The Hamilton Golf and Country Club is a classic test of golf in Ancaster, rolling up and down through well-treed terrain. Last week's PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester showed the old courses can still provide a brutal examination of golf skills when set up with some teeth. The Royal Canadian Golf Association should have a similar setup in Ancaster.
FROM THE FRINGE: One of the big equipment trends in golf is toward more versatile wedges with some players carrying up to four in their bags now. British Open champ Ben Curtis worked on fine-tuning his wedge arsenal before his win. He carries three with six-degree gaps between each: A 48-degree pitching wedge, a 54-degree sand wedge and a 60-degree lob wedge. Some players finetune it even more and carry four wedges with four-degree gaps (48, 52, 56 and 60).
19TH HOLE: Lanie Cahill of Brockville finished fourth at the BMO Financial Group Canadian Women's Tour event Tuesday at the Falcon Golf Club in Hudson, Que. She had rounds of 73-72, two shots behind winner Liz Earley. Gatineau's Claudia Beauchesne finished tied for 12th ... Camelot's Mark McBride and Scott Ray of Orleans are competing in the Canadian Mid-Amateur Championship being contested at the Royal Regina Golf Club which gets under way Monday ... Patrick Landriault, Joey Brown, Corey Ryan and Matt Washburn topped the Cisco Systems/Ottawa PGA points standings and will represent the tour at the Ontario Junior Tour Team Championship Monday and Tuesday in Hamilton. Landriault topped the standings. Brittany Henderson, Vanessa Stol, Alexandra Heyes and Brooke Mallory will represent the girls division.
