March 11, 2010

The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame announced three new inductees last week and former Vancouver resident Brent Franklin, Graham Cooke and the late Ben Kern are all deserving of the honour.

But what about Dick Zokol?

Zokol is in that very select club of Canadian males who have won on the PGA Tour. He captured the 1992 Greater Milwaukee Open as well as the '92 Deposit Guaranty Classic in Hattiesburg, Miss.

He also won on the Nationwide Tour in 2001, captured the Canadian Amateur in 1981 and that same year captained his Brigham Young University golf team to the NCAA Championship.

Zokol, who has drawn reviews for his co-design of Sagebrush Golf and Sporting Club near Merritt, deserves to be in the Hall sooner rather than later.

A source close to the Royal Canadian Golf Association explained to me that it may just be a matter of someone stepping forward to nominate Zokol to the Hall of Fame's selection committee. Hopefully, that happens in 2011.

TALE OF TWO COLLEGIANS: Many of B.C.'s best junior golfers dream of earning a scholarship to an American school and Langley's Sue Kim and Richmond's Christine Wong were no different.

Both realized that goal, with Kim heading last fall to the University of Denver and Wong accepting a scholarship offer from San Diego State University.

For Wong, big-time collegiate golf has been everything she had imagined and then some. She has flourished at San Diego State, where under the tutelage of coach and former LPGA Tour winner Emilee Klein, Wong has won two tournament in her freshman year.

For Kim, that dream became something of a nightmare. The 2008 B.C. Junior Girls champion, who had been highly recruited by nearly 20 U.S. schools, didn't play particularly well last fall. But her real struggles came in the classroom. She failed to complete her fall semester and didn't return to Denver for the spring semester.

The 19-year-old Walnut Grove secondary graduate, who remains a member of Canada's national amateur team, is now working on her game in the Palm Springs area of Southern California and hopes to attend the Duramed Futures Tour and LPGA Tour qualifying school tournaments this fall.

Wong, who works locally with another former LPGA Tour winner - Jennifer Wyatt of Savage Creek golf centre in Richmond -finished tied for 11th at this week's Juli Inkster Spartan Invitational near San Jose.

CLOSE CALL: North Vancouver's Eugene Wong, no relation to Christine, almost pulled off a California double this week.

The Handsworth secondary grad and University of Oregon sophomore finished third at this week's Fresno St. Lexus Golf Classic in central California. Last week, Wong won his first collegiate event at the USC Invitational in suburban Los Angeles. That event boasts past champions such as Tiger Woods, Corey Pavin and Paul Casey.

Wong, the 2008 B.C. Amateur and B.C. Junior winner, finished the 54-hole event at two-under par. That was three shots behind co-medallists John Chin of University of California-Irvine and Robbie Filmore of Brigham Young University.

BYU senior Brady Johnson of Mill Bay tied for fifth. Abbotsford's Nick Taylor, who is completing his senior year at the University of Washington, finished tied for 11th at the Fresno tourney.

GUEST SPEAKER: Ken Venturi, the 1964 U.S. Open champion and retired CBS golf analyst, will be the guest speaker at the University of B.C. Thunderbirds' annual Telus Millenium Breakfast on April 1 at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre.

Tickets are $200 each or $2,000 a table and can be purchased at www.gothunderbirds.ca.

bziemer@vancouversun.com