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TSN Senior Reporter

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If anyone needed a reminder that Canadian golf is in a good place, it came on Sunday, when the country’s top players shined on numerous tours. 

Leading the way was Adam Svensson, who won a two-hole playoff to capture the Club Car Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. The 27-year-old from Surrey, B.C., started the day four shots off the lead but made up ground with a solid 66. 

Birdies on the final two holes gave him the clubhouse lead with a half-dozen players still on the course. One by one they failed to match his score until the last golfer, Max McGreevy holed a birdie on the 72nd hole to send it into a playoff. 

It is the second Korn Ferry Tour victory for Svensson, his first coming in 2018. That helped him graduate to the PGA Tour in 2019 but he failed to retain his privileges after missing the cut in 14 of 25 events. 

“I made a commitment to myself about five months ago and I built a team, I have a serious team with me,” said Svensson, “and I said I’m either going at this 100 per cent or quitting. I was tired of playing well or not playing well. I lost my PGA Tour card because I wasn’t working hard enough.”

The win was worth $108,000 (US) for Svensson and should give him a solid chance to move up to the PGA Tour next season. 

Also showing form was Michael Gligic, who was in the hunt at the PGA Tour’s opposite field tournament to the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. 

The Burlington, Ont., product battled windy conditions and was tied for the lead after 15 holes on Sunday. But bogeys on the 16th and 18th holes at the course’s brutal finishing stretch, dropped him into a tie for fourth. That marked his career-best finish on the PGA Tour and came after he’d missed the cut in seven of his last eight starts. 

While it was difficult not to finish things off with a win, Gligic realized it was a step forward in his career. 

“Anytime you're in contention regardless of what Tour it's on, you can always use that and build off of it,” said Gligic. “Obviously with being on the PGA Tour for me now, I can definitely use this next time and hopefully I can finish a little stronger. Those finishing holes are pretty tough.”

Joel Dahmen, who cut his teeth playing the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada, was the winner of the event, logging his first PGA Tour title.

Maude-Aimee Leblanc, who retired from professional golf after the 2019 season, returned this year and came back in style, finishing tied for second at the IOA Championship, a stop on the Symetra Tour, the developmental circuit for women. The Sherbrooke, Que., native posted a final-round 72 to end up three shots behind the eventual winner Sophie Hausman of Germany. 

Brittany Marchand of Orangeville, Ont., finished tied for 17th. 

Earlier in the week at the Match Play in Austin, Texas, Mackenzie Hughes made it through a tough opening group that included Webb Simpson, Paul Casey and Talor Gooch, before dropping a round of 16 match against Sergio Garcia. 

Hughes will join Corey Conners and Mike Weir as Canadians in the Masters in two weeks.