Five to Watch: Q-School Canada

COURTENAY, British Columbia—Six Qualifying Tournaments down, one to go—and this one is a “home” game. 

Crowne Isle Resort and Golf Club returns as a host site as PGA TOUR Canada completes its membership roster this week at the conclusion of the 72-hole tournament that is offering exempt and conditional memberships to all the hopefuls in the field. 

Crowne Isle last hosted a Qualifying Tournament in 2019, when Andrew McCain captured medalist honors. Other medalists at the venue are David S. Bradshaw (2014), Eric Onesi (2015), Aaron Wise (2016), Horacio León (2017) and Jake Shuman (2018). 

The 72-hole event gets underway Tuesday and ends Friday. The medalist gains access to every 2022 PGA TOUR Canada tournament, with players finishing in the second-through-ninth positions earning status for the first half of the season. Those 10th through 30th on the scoreboard (plus ties) pick up conditional status. Here are five players to keep an eye on this week at Crowne Isle. 

William Buhl (Norway)

Buhl has already raised a trophy in Canada, winning the Canadian Men's Amateur Championship in 2019 at Glen Arbour Golf Club in Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia. He’s hoping to extend his Canadian success at the professional level after leaving the University of Arkansas as one of the most-decorated Razorbacks in school history. Buhl ranks second in most under-par rounds (76) and is the only Arkansas player to win the same tournament twice—the Gopher Invitational in 2019 and 2020.

Yi Cao (China)

A veteran among the PGA TOUR’s International Tours, Cao has had previous success in international competition on both PGA TOUR Series-China, winning the 2018 Chongqing Championship in 2018, playing in 30 career PGA TOUR Canada tournaments and capturing the Points List title at the 2020 series of events designed for Canada-based players conducted during the global pandemic. All Cao during that four-tournament stretch was play 12 rounds and fire 12 par-or-better rounds (10 of them under-par), while posting a win, a tie for second, a tie for third and a tie for eighth. That performance earned him an invitation to the 2021 RBC Canadian Open that he will use later this year after officials canceled the 2021 PGA TOUR tournament. 

Jared Du Toit (Canada)

Du Toit made national headlines as an amateur with a top-10 finish at the 2016 RBC Canadian Open. Since that memorable week at Glen Abbey, the Arizona State alum has experienced continued success on both PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR Canada, due in large part to his ability to excel in Qualifying Tournaments just like this week’s event at Crown Isle. In 2020, he won the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Q-School held in Mexico, and he finished second at the 2021 PGA TOUR Canada Q-School in DuPont Washington, which ultimately led to him playing on the Forme Tour. 

Angus Flanagan (England)

The University of Minnesota product earned first-team All-Big Ten during a senior season that saw him lead the Gophers in birdies (73), rounds under par (eight), best tournament score (9-under) and lowest 18-hole round (66). His senior season ranks 10th in school history in scoring average, and he ended the year 11th in the PGA TOUR University Rankings that awarded him 2021 Forme Tour status. His top performance a year ago came at the Birck Boilermaker Classic in West Lafayette, Indiana, a tie for 31st. 

Jeevan Sihota (Canada)

Although he’s the youngest player in this week’s field by three years, the 18-year-old (he turned last month) is a familiar name atop leaderboards on both the provincial and national levels. Sihota won the Golf Canada Junior Selection Camp in September 2021 in convincing, nine-stroke fashion. He followed that win with a sixth-place place finish at the ATB Financial Classic two weeks later, an event part of the Canada-players only circuit that PGA TOUR Canada conducted. He also played in front of hundreds of fans, friends, and family at the Royal Beach Victoria Open in his hometown of Victoria, British Columbia.  Sihota finished second.