Wes Heffernan comes back from 8 down to win PGA Assistants’ Championship of Canada presented by Callaway Golf for second time
By: Brendan Stasiewich, PGA of Canada
Full leaderboard can be found here.
Photos from the event can be found here.
More content can be found here.
There isn’t anything like a player coming back from behind to win a golf tournament.
Seriously, nothing compares.
In most sports, your competition is within eyesight. You can see the momentum they are gaining. If you are ahead, you can see the gap being narrowed.
In a golf tournament, though, you fear what you can’t see. The person that might stop you from winning could be a kilometer away.
This was especially true on Saturday at Redwoods Golf Course in Langley, BC, where Wes Heffernan won the 2024 PGA Assistants’ Championship of Canada presented by Callaway Golf after being down eight strokes entering the final round, and down six strokes entering the back nine.
The emotions that go along with this are unique to the sport.
For Heffernan, entering the day, he admitted he didn’t think he had a chance to win.
“At no point today did I think I’d have a chance to win this,” said Heffernan. “I was just trying to put the best score forward and it ended up being a winning score. It was one of those rounds where you are so far back you are just chasing… but around the turn I made three-straight birdies and shot 29 on the back and signed for a 62 and it just kind of happened.”
The odds-on favourites heading into Saturday, Maxwell Cohen and Beon Yeong Lee, began the day -11 and -10 respectively, three and two strokes clear of anybody else in the field.
Would they have played the front-nine differently knowing what Heffernan was about to do? Nobody will ever know. But, when they made the turn, both of their scores were identical to when they started.
This was around the same time Heffernan hit an 8-iron to five feet on the par-5 14th. The eagle, which followed a string of three birdies in-a-row from 9-11, and preceded a birdie on 15, was the turning point. A great run suddenly turned into, ‘wait, this could be within reach.’
“I knew I had to do something on 14 and luckily I made eagle and then I made a really long putt on 15 from, like, 40 feet,” said Heffernan, who also won the 2019 Assistants’ Championship at TPC Toronto, but, in different fashion, sustaining a lead to win rather than clawing back.
Heffernan made par on 16 and then hit his tee-shot on the 185-yard par-3 17th to 3 feet, leading to a birdie. On the slightly uphill 500-yard 18th, Heffernan hit the front of the green with his second and neatly two-putted to sign for a back-nine 29.
Those final two holes proved to be the difference. Players who followed with a chance were unable to birdie either hole.
While they tried to match him, Heffernan was on the range, loosening up in case of a playoff.
As stated in the first stanza; is there anything else like that in sports?
Fellow Albertan Mitchell Fox had a chance; in fact, he had a very similar day to Heffernan, clawing back to finish T2, shooting a 64. But his bogey on 17, as well as missing the fairway on 18, proved costly, as he played the final two holes +1 to miss out on a playoff.
Still, a closing 64 to finish in a tie for second is incredible work. Fox will likely be hearing praises from his students at Speargrass Golf Course for weeks to come.
Cohen also had a chance, needing a birdie on 18 to match Heffernan. However, missing the fairway on 18 led to an approach shot short of a green and a tough up-and-down.
Returning from the range to watch the final group finish, Heffernan saw his 12-under total, which he posted a full hour earlier, be just enough to win.
“This was definitely the lowest round I’ve shot in the final round of a tournament for sure,” said Heffernan. “This was more surprising than anything, I shot 62 but I didn’t know if it was good enough, it ended up being good enough, but to shoot that number was very fulfilling.”
With the win, Heffernan takes home $9,000, while Fox and Cohen take home $5000 each.
The 14th hole this week was selected as the E-Z-GO It’s Good to Go Hole of the Week. All players who make eagle on the hole are entered to win a $250 bonus. Six players made eagle on Thursday, including: Braden Chown, Beon Yeong Lee, John Shin, Luke Bogdan, Finlay Young and Jordan Ells, while four players made eagle on Friday: Sean Ko, Khan Lee, Jimmy Han and Craig Titterington. On Saturday, six more players made eagle: Heffernan, Caleb Gorbahn, Luke Brogdan, Craig Stefureak, Dillon Batsel and Carson Kallis.
In the largest E-Z-GO draw of the year, with 16 players, the winner was Dillon Batsel, taking home the $250 prize.
Full leaderboard can be found here.
Photos from the event can be found here.
More content can be found here.
There isn’t anything like a player coming back from behind to win a golf tournament.
Seriously, nothing compares.
In most sports, your competition is within eyesight. You can see the momentum they are gaining. If you are ahead, you can see the gap being narrowed.
In a golf tournament, though, you fear what you can’t see. The person that might stop you from winning could be a kilometer away.
This was especially true on Saturday at Redwoods Golf Course in Langley, BC, where Wes Heffernan won the 2024 PGA Assistants’ Championship of Canada presented by Callaway Golf after being down eight strokes entering the final round, and down six strokes entering the back nine.
The emotions that go along with this are unique to the sport.
For Heffernan, entering the day, he admitted he didn’t think he had a chance to win.
“At no point today did I think I’d have a chance to win this,” said Heffernan. “I was just trying to put the best score forward and it ended up being a winning score. It was one of those rounds where you are so far back you are just chasing… but around the turn I made three-straight birdies and shot 29 on the back and signed for a 62 and it just kind of happened.”
The odds-on favourites heading into Saturday, Maxwell Cohen and Beon Yeong Lee, began the day -11 and -10 respectively, three and two strokes clear of anybody else in the field.
Would they have played the front-nine differently knowing what Heffernan was about to do? Nobody will ever know. But, when they made the turn, both of their scores were identical to when they started.
This was around the same time Heffernan hit an 8-iron to five feet on the par-5 14th. The eagle, which followed a string of three birdies in-a-row from 9-11, and preceded a birdie on 15, was the turning point. A great run suddenly turned into, ‘wait, this could be within reach.’
“I knew I had to do something on 14 and luckily I made eagle and then I made a really long putt on 15 from, like, 40 feet,” said Heffernan, who also won the 2019 Assistants’ Championship at TPC Toronto, but, in different fashion, sustaining a lead to win rather than clawing back.
Heffernan made par on 16 and then hit his tee-shot on the 185-yard par-3 17th to 3 feet, leading to a birdie. On the slightly uphill 500-yard 18th, Heffernan hit the front of the green with his second and neatly two-putted to sign for a back-nine 29.
Those final two holes proved to be the difference. Players who followed with a chance were unable to birdie either hole.
While they tried to match him, Heffernan was on the range, loosening up in case of a playoff.
As stated in the first stanza; is there anything else like that in sports?
Fellow Albertan Mitchell Fox had a chance; in fact, he had a very similar day to Heffernan, clawing back to finish T2, shooting a 64. But his bogey on 17, as well as missing the fairway on 18, proved costly, as he played the final two holes +1 to miss out on a playoff.
Still, a closing 64 to finish in a tie for second is incredible work. Fox will likely be hearing praises from his students at Speargrass Golf Course for weeks to come.
Cohen also had a chance, needing a birdie on 18 to match Heffernan. However, missing the fairway on 18 led to an approach shot short of a green and a tough up-and-down.
Returning from the range to watch the final group finish, Heffernan saw his 12-under total, which he posted a full hour earlier, be just enough to win.
“This was definitely the lowest round I’ve shot in the final round of a tournament for sure,” said Heffernan. “This was more surprising than anything, I shot 62 but I didn’t know if it was good enough, it ended up being good enough, but to shoot that number was very fulfilling.”
With the win, Heffernan takes home $9,000, while Fox and Cohen take home $5000 each.
The 14th hole this week was selected as the E-Z-GO It’s Good to Go Hole of the Week. All players who make eagle on the hole are entered to win a $250 bonus. Six players made eagle on Thursday, including: Braden Chown, Beon Yeong Lee, John Shin, Luke Bogdan, Finlay Young and Jordan Ells, while four players made eagle on Friday: Sean Ko, Khan Lee, Jimmy Han and Craig Titterington. On Saturday, six more players made eagle: Heffernan, Caleb Gorbahn, Luke Brogdan, Craig Stefureak, Dillon Batsel and Carson Kallis.
In the largest E-Z-GO draw of the year, with 16 players, the winner was Dillon Batsel, taking home the $250 prize.