(Kingsville, ON) – Golf is well known for its adages/figures of speech/euphemisms/cliches – whatever you want to call them.
While some (or many) of them would induce groans from even the most esteemed khaki-bearing New Balance-wearing dads, the phrase about having to keep your foot on the peddle when you have the lead in a golf tournament rings true. That is exactly what Alena Sharp did out of the gate today at the ORORO PGA Women’s Championship of Canada.
Entering the final round three strokes ahead of Min-G Kim, the now four-time champion made five birdies in her first seven holes to extend her lead to five at Kingsville Golf & Country Club. She never looked back, firing 69 to finish five ahead of runner-up, amateur Laren Zaretsky.
“This is an amazing feeling, coming here and playing Kingsville again after so long and having such a good two days,” said Sharp, who has found her form this year, currently sitting within the top-10 of the Epson Tour’s Player Rankings. “I had a good warmup; I feel like my win a month ago helped me be more relaxed coming into today.”
The win gives her the second-most ORORO PGA Women’s Championship titles in history. Lorie Kane, who the tournament trophy is named after, has won five times.
“Lorie (Kane) was an inspiration to all of us and it’s great to hold a trophy with her name on it,” said Sharp, who shot 66-69 to finish at 9-under par. “I still have a couple more years of playing full on, so if in the future there is an off week and I can make it, I would definitely love to come back and compete in this tournament again.”
Receiving an exemption into the LPGA Tour’s CPKC Women’s Open thanks to the win, Sharp will head to Vancouver August 24-27 following a stretch of four Epson Tour events.
Playing alongside Sharp was Caroline Ciot, the low PGA of Canada professional from 2022. Though a double bogey on the final hole took her out of sole possession of that spot this year, her rounds of 71-74 were good enough to give her co low PGA professional honours alongside Silver Springs Golf & Country Club Class “A” Professional Katy Rutherford.
“I know how hard it can be for PGA of Canada Professionals because a lot of their job (in the summer) is to teach or run a golf club and you rarely get to play, so it was awesome to see so many PGA pros play at a high level,” said Sharp. “It was nice to play with Caroline (Ciot), she has a good game and a great future so it’s great that she can (play and teach) at such a high level.”
Throughout the week, players raved about the course conditioning and how welcoming the golf course staff and members made everyone feel. The volunteers at the event were truly next level.
“Everybody here was so welcoming,” said Sharp, who picked up $7000 with the victory.” A lot of volunteers helped get this tournament off the ground and they were out watching, and it was so delightful. We can’t have tournaments without volunteers, so I’m thankful they showed up and helped Kingsville Golf and Country Club and the PGA of Canada.
“I love coming back home, everyone is so kind, so it was nice to be here,” she said.
ORORO Heated Apparel was a tremendous supporter of the event, giving away heated vests and jackets to top finishers of the championship.
Each day, a hole was deemed the NoSweat Hardest Hole of the Day, with the player who made the low score winning $150 courtesy of NoSweat. The 13th hole was the hardest hole on Wednesday, where three players managed to make birdie: Belinda Lin, Diana McDonald and Casey MacNeil.
After a random draw, Diana McDonald joined Valerie Tanguay as our NoSweat champions of the week.
Huge thank you to PGA of Canada professionals Katy Rutherford and Emma de Groot for being featured on our On The Bag content segments this week.
Photos from the tournament can be found on our Flickr page here.
Content from the event can be found on our Instagram page, here.