Sihota ready for ATB Classic in Edmonton

SPRUCE GROVE, Alberta—Jeevan Sihota had several offers to play collegiate golf in the United States. However, the 18-year-old from Victoria, British Columbia, opted to pursue a different path. He chose to turn professional instead and made his PGA TOUR Canada debut earlier this month.

Sihota made the cut at the Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist after shooting a 64 in the second round. He wound up shooting 6-under in the tournament, tying for 31st overall and collecting 21 points in the Fortinet Cup standings. His first payday $1,160.

Now comes the encore. Sihota’s second tournament as a pro is this week’s ATB Classic presented by Volvo Edmonton. He’s part of a field that includes Victoria Open champion Scott Stevens, runner-up Jake Knapp, third-place finisher Cooper Dossey and top Canadian Joey Savoie, who finished fourth.

The 72-hole event at the Edmonton Petroleum Golf and Country Club begins Thursday and continues through Sunday.

“I’m really excited to be here. The course is in wonderful shape. The rough is nice and thick, which I love. It’s an awesome course. I love the layout of the course,” said Sihota, who also noted that the three-hole practice facility is one of the best he’s seen.

Sihota acknowledged using the latter a ton as he prepares for his second Tour start. Using such facilities at a sanctioned event, he said, has led to improvement every day.

“It’s helping my game out no matter how it goes,” Sihota explained. “And that's just a nice feeling to have.”

Make no mistake, though, Sihota still has high expectations.

“I always come to a tournament to win,” he said. “So, I mean, I want to win. But I’m just going to go out there and try to hit the best shots I can, commit to every shot and see what happens.”

Entering the season-opening tournament, Sihota had been working on a lot of his knock-down shots and releasing the club a little earlier, something he especially focused on in the first round. He had a 72 on the opening day in Victoria before settling in with rounds of 64-70-68 the rest of the way.

“So, I’ve just been working on that and just getting it a little better,” said Sihota, who had a few shots go off to the right by holding the club face off. “I feel in a comfortable state where I’m just being able to swing and hit good shots.”

After taking last week off for the PGA TOUR’s RBC Canadian Open, PGA TOUR Canada’s ATB Classic presented by Edmonton Volvo is the second stop in an 11-event circuit that follows a thrilling season opener in Victoria. Stevens defeated Knapp in a playoff that took three extra holes to decide. The winner needed to make a birdie putt on No.18 to pull even with Knapp and move one shot ahead of Dossey in a tightly contested quest for the crown and 500 Fortinet Cup points.

The Rundown

DATES: June 16-19, 2022

OFFICIAL NAME: ATB Classic presented by Volvo Edmonton

HASHTAGS: #FortinetCup

SCHEDULE: Second of 11 official events of the 2022 PGA TOUR Canada season

VENUE: Edmonton Petroleum Golf and Country Club

PAR/YARDS: 71 (36-35), 7,036 yards

POINTS LIST: Winner earns 500 points

PURSE MONEY: (Canadian) $200,000 (winner claims Canadian $36,000)

CUT: Top 60 professional (and ties, plus any amateurs inside the top-60)

FORTINET CUP: The season-long points chase mirrors the competitive structure of the points-based competitions on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica. Through the sponsorship, the Fortinet Cup offers a new $100,000 player bonus pool—with $25,000 to the winner—to the top Fortinet Cup points-winners. The top-five Fortinet Cup points-earners gain membership to the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour, while Korn Ferry Tour benefits are available to those finishing sixth through 10th. In addition, the Fortinet Cup winner will also be exempt into the PGA TOUR’s 2023 RBC Canadian Open.

TITLE SPONSOR: ATB Financial began in 1938. Since then, it changed from one small Treasury Branch to the largest Alberta-based financial institution, with assets of $57.1 billion. The company employs more than 5,000 team members serving more than 800,000 clients.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE:

Thursday, June 16       First Round

Friday, June 17            Second Round

Saturday, June 18       Third Round

Sunday, June 19          Final Round

FIELD OVERVIEW:

SIZE: 156 players from 12 countries and territories

COUNTRY BREAKDOWN: Australia (3), Canada (37), China (4), Chinese Taipei (1), France (2), Germany (2), Hong Kong (1), Ireland (1), Mexico (2), Switzerland (1), United States (101) and Zimbabwe (1).

OPEN-QUALIFYING: Earlier this week, the tournament conducted a Monday qualifier, with seven playing spots available for the best-performing players in the 18-hole event. The following qualified:

Brayden Garrison (U.S.)          67

Nick Cantlay (U.S.)                  67

Kyle Mitsunaga (U.S.)             67

Daniel Kim (Canada)               67

Kade Johnson (U.S.)                67

Matt Kreutz (Canada)             68                   

Spencer Cross (U.S.)*              68                   

Blake Tomlinson (U.S.)           68

GOLF COURSE: In 1989, Edmonton’s downtown Petroleum club extended membership privileges to members of the Edmonton Country Club during clubhouse renovations at the course. It caused the Petroleum Club to consider building a golf course of its own, which it did, hiring PGA TOUR professional and course architect Mark McCumber to design and construct the 18-hole course that opened for play in 1993. The course will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year.

Past PGA TOUR-Affiliated Tour Tournaments at

Edmonton Petroleum Golf and Country Club

PGA TOUR CANADA ALUMNI: Since 2013, more than 250 players have graduated to the Korn Ferry Tour, with 46 players accounting for 50 wins. From there, 54 players have moved on to the PGA TOUR, with 14 players accounting for 16 wins. They are Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes, Joel Dahmen, J.J. Spaun, Nick Taylor, Tony Finau, C.T. Pan, Talor Gooch, Adam Long, Aaron Wise, Cam Davis, Ryan Brehm, Chad Ramey and Sepp Straka. There are currently 10 Canadians on the PGA TOUR.