Blair Bursey saved his best for last.
The 22-year-old from Gander shot a five-under-par 67 Sunday giving him an eight-under-par 280 total at the conclusion of the MacKenzie Investments Open, a MacKenzie Tour (Canadian PGA) event at the Elm Ridge course on Ile Bizard, just outside of Montreal.
Bursey’s Sunday score was the lowest of his four rounds in the event and gave him a tie for 47th in the field of 144.
He was also tied for the third-best overall result of the 26 Canadians who started the event. And his score Sunday was among the 10 best in the final round of the 78 golfers who had made the cut after Day 2 Friday.
Canadian Taylor Pendrith was a runaway first-place finisher with a 29-under total, eight strokes ahead of the rest of the field. Pendrith took home $36,000 as a result.
This is Bursey’s first year as a professional and he already has a win, that coming in the spring in ihe Outlaw Tour, a regional circuit in the southwest United States. He also posted a fourth-place finish late last month in the Ontario Open, earning $3,000 in the process. However, even though he earned just over $700 this week, his performance in suburban Montreal could very well be considered the highlight of his season, considering the calibre of play and because it marked the first time he had made the cut in a MacKenzie Tour event.
In hockey terms, the MacKenzie Tour would be golf’s North American equivalent of the ECHL, the third level underneath the PGA Tour, and the Korn Ferry Tour (formerly Nationwide and web.com Tour), the PGA’s top developmental circuit.
Bursey has conditional status on the MacKenzie Tour, meaning he normally has to earn berths through qualifiers early in the week. Bursey had failed to qualify for three earlier events on the Tour, and while he did participate on a sponsor’s exemption in the Steele Jaguar Pro-Am, a MacKenzie Tour event in Halifax, he didn’t make the cut.
He gained his spot for the MacKenzie Investments Open by finishing tied for first in the event qualifier.
Twitter: @telysports
