Tyson Turchanski prevailed over both the wind and the field

Dylan Bercan and Tyson Turchanski holding Amateur and Mid-Amateur trophies respectively.

Tyson Turchanski isn’t a name most in B.C. are intimately familiar with. Not until recently, that is. In May the 27-year-old won the Marine Drive Amateur, and in June he followed up by taking our Zone 4 Mid-Amateur crown, pipped in the Amateur by Dylan Bercan, just one stroke ahead.

Clearly it’s time to find out something about Tyson Turchanski. A native Calgarian he starred on the University of Waterloo golf team, graduating in 2019 with the intention of turning pro. He played some tournaments on the Canadian Tour and over one winter relocated to Arizona to play in mini-tours and hone his game. “Just learning how to be a pro, and take golf seriously as a job,” he explains. “My game got a lot better.”

But Covid came along, and after he failed to progress through Canadian Tour Q-school, he entered a master’s program at the University of Calgary. “I’d given myself two years, and I was at peace with the decision,” he says. Or mostly at peace. “Funnily enough, that summer I played a couple of Canadian Tour events and had top 10 finishes.”

Over the winter Turchanski landed in Vancouver with a new job, and in March he got his amateur status back. With no club affiliation here, he’s joined the swelling ranks of golf nomads, hustling to find a tee time wherever one happens to be available. And perhaps luckily for him, one of his standbys, Kings Links By The Sea, was the site of the first 18 of our 36-hole championship. “I feel very comfortable there,” he says.

Comfortable enough that, despite the breezy conditions, he scorched the field with a 67, one of only four players under par. Overall, the field—all playing off an index of 2.7 or better—averaged 76.89.

Turchanski was particularly effective through the difficult closing stretch. “I’ve learned to have really good control of my ball in the wind,” he says. “And obviously it was windy out there.”

All in, he played the final six holes in four under par. “On 17, I had it eight feet below the hole and rolled in a birdie putt, and then on 18 I rolled in a four footer for another.”

Turchanski feels he plays his best when he can swing freely off the tee, and that is definitely not the case at ultra-tight Marine Drive Golf Club, site of the closing 18. “It’s one of those things that crept into my mind a bit,” he says. “I hit the driver good at the start of the day but had maybe only one good drive on the back nine.” Still, he tallied six birdies on the day and his one-under 70 kept him two strokes ahead of Mid-Am runner up Adam Karim.

- Jim Sutherland So that’s Tyson Turchanski. Somehow we suspect you’ll be hearing his name again.