Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/80982
THE 1ST TEE BY BRYAN OUTRAM cry from our Olympic efforts, 'Go For The Bronze!' The Wait Continues Over the last few years a lot has been written with regard to when we are going to have another top flight Canadian golfer to root for on the world stage. Calgary's Stephen Ames, currently taking a break from the game, has admitted to fatigue of late and at age 48 is starting to seriously eye the Champions Tour. It's a bit early for Ontario's 42-year old Mike Weir to consider that option and unfortunately his problems with injury have led to a subsequent inability to compete any longer on the PGA Tour - at least in the foreseeable future. Another Ontario lad, David Hearn, has actually played pretty well on the PGA Tour the last couple of years – by Canadian standards. He has four top ten finishes to his credit since the start of last year. But once again that's considered a success if we allow ourselves to be captivated by the age-old Canadian rallying Of course we at Inside Golf have had a keen eye on Saskatchewan's Graham DeLaet, our cover story from 2009, who has been making a comeback from his own back injury woes. DeLaet has incredible potential and has been in contention a couple of times in his short PGA Tour career with 5 top tens already despite having to pull the plug early on his 2011 season to ultimately undergo back surgery. Last year at Vancouver's Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club the whole country was captivated by Abbotsford's Adam Hadwin as he tried to become the first Canadian to win our national open since the now seemingly immortal Pat Fletcher in 1954. Hadwin would finish in a T4th just two shots back of eventual winner Sean O'Hair. Chances are he'd like to have that 4-putt back on the 8th hole on Sunday – but we digress. The fact remained that Hadwin had captured the hearts and hopes of a nation's golf fans. We all wondered, is he the next one? Well, despite some promising results in a handful of PGA Tour events after that, Hadwin is still trying to gain his full-time membership card on the 'gold trail'. Yes, there are a number of very good Canadians playing on the Canadian Tour (Nick Taylor, Matt Hill, Cory Renfrew et al), some on the Web.com (formerly Nationwide) circuit and – lest we forget the excellent young women golfers coming up – the LPGA's Symetra developmental tour, where recently 5 Canadians finished in the top 7 of the Credit Union Classic. Many fans recall a few years ago, when another promising young player who graced the cover of iG, was squarely in our sights as the bright future of golf in Canada. James Lepp, yet another prodigy from Abbotsford's Ledgeview GC, was fresh off his unprecedented win in the 2005 NCAA championship – he was the first Canadian to accomplish the feat – when he was being pegged as Canada's next great hope for the PGA Tour. As it turns out Lepp may have had the game but decided for himself that he didn't have the mindset to go down that road. At least not at that point. Despite turning pro in 12 2006 Lepp soon realized that he wasn't fully committed to the pro game and indeed had other things he wanted to accomplish. Soon after stepping away from the game he launched his own golf shoe company, Kikkor Golf (see article on page 32). As perplexing as that might appear to all of the dreamers out there, (why in the world would you walk away from a life as a professional golfer - to sell shoes?)…it made perfect sense to the University of Washington grad with a Business Administration (Entrepreneurship) degree. However, now some 4 years after growing his business into an exciting, thriving entity, he's admitted feeling the urge to once again challenge himself at the professional level on the golf course. To that end the four-time B.C. Amateur champion and twice winner on the Canadian Tour accepted an invitation to compete on the Golf Channel's Big Break Series, with an opportunity to win a spot in the Greenbrier Invitational on the PGA Tour next year. Heck, he's even said he's considering having a go at the PGA Tour's Q-School. This recent admission has actually caused a bit of a stir and no doubt some finger crossing within the golf community in Canada. That is at once both encouraging and kind of sad. When asked in an interview with Canadian golf journalist Robert Thompson two years ago what advice he would give a top Canadian amateur making the transition to the pros, Lepp said, "Don't expect great things to happen; make great things happen. There's a lot of miracle wishers out there and while that mentality can work in the amateur ranks, it won't get you very far as a pro. The work that you put into it will directly correlate to the results you see as a pro." It will be intriguing to see if a 28-year old James Lepp, now with a few more years of life experience under his belt, can rediscover both the desire and the skills that at one point had him pegged as Canada's next 'can't miss' golf talent. In the meantime, we watch and wait. And hope. Still. Bryan Outram has been Senior Editor for iG for the past twleve years. He can be reached at editor@insidegolf.ca - PHOTO CREDIT BRYAN OUTRAM