Schnell Goes Wire-To-Wire at the Canadian Tour's Spring Qualifying School

Submitted by CanTour Communications John Berkovich

PARKSVILLE, B.C., - Brady Schnell shot a final round 70 on Friday to complete a wire-to-wire victory at the Canadian Tour’s Spring Qualifying School. His four round score of 11 under par 277 earns him the title by one stroke over Matt Marshall who fired a tournament low 66.
Jordan Irwin bounced back from yesterday’s 76 with a closing 68 to grab solo third at four under 284 with Mike Rotors (76) and Dave Williamson (74) sharing fourth spot at 285.

Despite a final round 74, Jason D’Amore captured the sixth and final exempt spot at 286.
Finishing seventh, eighth, and ninth and earning non-exempt cards were Greg Machtaler (287), Jae Woo Im (288), and Todd Killingsworth (289) who fell to a final round 79.

Erik Olson was another stroke back at 290 while the final non-exempt cards at 292 went to Caesar Coello, Mitchell Fox, Brenton Fowler and Kory Storer.

Schnell, who pocketed $2,000 for the win, began his day with four consecutive pars before bogeying the fifth.

He then reeled off birdies at eight, nine, and ten before parring his way in. “It was a lot of fun,” said Schnell.

“I wanted to keep playing how I had been playing but when Todd (Killingsworth) and Mike (Roters) got into some trouble and went backwards, it took a lot of the pressure off.”

“I sort of put it on cruise control after those birdies. My goal was to shoot two under on the back side but then I saw Matt coming up fast and giving me a run,” he continued.

“I didn’t quite get to two (under) on the back but it was still enough to win. It’s always fun to win.”

Marshall’s final round charge included a bogey-free 32 on the front side to virtually guarantee a card by that point.

Coming home, the University of California-Davis alumnus made two more birdies for his flawless 66.

“I had a great warm-up session and had a great start,” said Marshall, who birdied the first, third, sixth and ninth holes.

“All week long I knew that I was capable of going low but I didn’t figure it all out until today.
“You can try to just play for a card or try to win the thing.

"I thought that if I got to ten under par, it could be enough to win. I got to that number and gave Brady a good chase, but it wasn’t quite enough to do the job.”

Still, he’s not complaining.

“I just finished school a couple of months ago and I figured that this is a great place to start my career,” he concluded. “I’m looking forward to the rest of the season out here.”
Rotors ran into trouble early with a double-bogey at the opening hole. Although he got one back at the third, four bogeys over his next five holes dropped him seven shots off the pace and in danger of losing his exempt spot.

Digging deep, the Washington native drained a key birdie at nine to rescue his wayward round before coming home in even par.

It didn’t work the same for Todd Killingsworth. Third at the start of the day, he opened with birdie but lost his game with a double-bogey at No. 4 followed by bogeys at seven, eight, and nine.

Still clinging to exempt status at the turn, he dropped three more on the inward nine to tumble down the leaderboard.

Irwin had just one bogey against five birdies to achieve his goal of moving from non-exempt to exempt status.

Unlike Irwin, Korey Storer was unable to improve on his non-exempt status after shooting 76.

PLAYERS EARNING EXEMPT CARDS:
Brady Schnell
Matt Marshall
Jordan Irwin
Mike Roters
David Williamson
Jason D’Amore

PLAYERS EARNING NON-EXEMPT CARDS IN ORDER OF RANK:
Greg Machtaler
Jae Woo Im
Todd Killingsworth
Erik Olson
Caesar Coello
Brenton Fowler
Kory Storer
Mitchell Fox