What is it about playing in the Nicola Valley that suits Kamloopsian golfers to a tee?
Just one month after Eagle Point’s Karen Mair-Valin pulled off a three-peat at the Merritt Golf and Country Club’s Coquihalla Ladies Open, defending champion Len Beauchamp from Sun Rivers made it two in a row at the Coyote Collision Men’s Open event on the weekend.
A scratch handicapper, Beauchamp now tops the list of all-time Merritt men’s open winners with five titles dating back to 2002. That’s one more than Penticton’s Ovi Lepine who won on four occasions (including three in succession) beginning in 1989.
In warm, humid conditions, the 50-year-old Beauchamp shot a solid second-round score of four-under-par 68 on Sunday to post a 36-hole low-gross total of 138 — good for a seven-stroke victory over David Coldwell from Lillooet, the net runnerup for the second time in as many years.
Beauchamp’s winning score this year was just one shy of his record-setting total of 137 — set last year when he opened with a blistering round of 66 on day one of the tournament.
Kamloops golfer Len Beauchamp was unbeatable again this year, winning the Coyote Collision Men’s Open at the Merritt Golf and Country Club on the weekend by a seven-shot margin. He has won the annual tournament a record five times. Ian Webster/Herald
“Things were a little different this time around,” Beauchamp said in comparing his most recent pair of victories. “Last year, I started strong and basically just played not to lose on the second day. This year was a struggle all the way. I didn’t feel comfortable all weekend. I haven’t been playing as much as I usually do, and my ball strike hasn’t been that good. My putter has really bailed me out.”
Beauchamp’s approach game was none too shabby at times on the weekend, too. On the final hole of the tournament, his drive clipped the trees on the right side of the fairway, leaving his ball in the rough. An exquisite iron shot that found the left side of the green was followed by an equally-impressive 15-foot putt for birdie and a lock on yet another men’s open title.
All in a day’s work for Beauchamp, an avid sportsman who prefers to wheel his golf bag around a course rather than drive a cart — even on the hottest of days.
In addition to finishing second low net for the second year in a row, Coldwell also had to settle for the runnerup position in the low gross competition, losing to Mission’s Kent Gibson on a complicated retrogression (count back).
Gibson, for his part, played out of his mind. The 12-handicapper shot rounds of 77 and 78 on a weekend that saw the greens run hard and fast.
“I was pretty happy with the result,” Gibson said. “It was the best two rounds I’ve played in probably four years.”
Gibson went on to explain that major back surgery in October of 2011 knocked him out of the game he loves for over 18 months.
“I couldn’t even walk for the first three months,” he said, “and couldn’t do anything for a year and a half.”
Merritt’s Jim Murdoch lines up a putt during final round action on Sunday. Ian Webster/Herald
Gibson is one of a strong contingent of golfers from Mission who make the MGCC men’s open a regular stop on their golfing schedule.
“I love the course in Merritt,” Gibson said. “The first four holes, you can just blast away. The next five, you really have to get down to business.”
Third low net on the weekend was Merritt’s Adrian Reynoldson with a 146 total, one better than club mate Curtis Sloan at 147.
“It was hard work out there,” Reynoldson said immediately following the conclusion of his round on Sunday.
The most-interesting-shot award of this year’s Coyote Collision men’s open almost certainly goes to Merritt’s own Rick Olsen.
The wily veteran ran his third shot on the par-five fourth hole across the golf course parking lot, past the gazebo and club house to a sliver of turf on the back side of the building.
Unsure whether to play his lie as a hazard or out-of-bounds, Olsen played both a drop and a provisional, eventually settling for a score of eight on the 529-yard, par-five hole.
The next scheduled events at the Merritt Golf and Country Club are the Challenge of the Decades on September 5, followed by the ladies’ and men’s Fall Scrambles on September 6 and 7 respectively.
