TAMARACK: McPhail, Pardy through to men’s final

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This article was published 26/08/2023 (942 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASAGAMING — There probably aren’t two players that want their name on the Tamarack golf tournament trophy more than Brad Pardy and Josh McPhail.

You see it in Pardy’s careful pre-shot routine and the way his mood can rise and fall with one shot. McPhail keeps it more subdued on the outside, giving just a small fist pump after a clutch putt late in a match. But he’s been so close, so often since reaching the final of the 90-year-old event in 2012.

Pardy, 30, made the final four that year but hasn’t been back since.

One of them will finally achieve their dream at Clear Lake Golf Course this afternoon. The match starts earlier than usual, at 10:30 a.m.

“It was tons of nerves standing over top of a putt to close it out. Knowing what was at stake and being able to get to the final, it was huge. To see it go in was a huge relief,” said Pardy, who defeated defending champ Jarod Crane 4 and 3.

“This is a fantastic feeling, it was great.”

“This is a big tournament,” added McPhail. “I’m a member at Clear Lake, I love this tournament, my brother’s the president and I’ve played in this tournament since I was a little kid. It’s really hard to get to the final. The field is so strong, even through the first flight.

“There’s so many good players and to win three matches to get to the final against the quality of players here, it’s really hard to do. Happy to get another shot at it.”

McPhail ended Mitch Foster’s run about 30 seconds earlier, winning 4 and 3.

It certainly wasn’t the firework show McPhail put on to win his quarterfinal on Thursday when he was about 6 under through 17 holes.

He said going in, he knew it’d be harder to make birdies on a cold, windy and at times rainy morning. He didn’t make one all front nine, save for one Foster conceded on the eighth hole, but took a 3-up lead on three Foster bogeys.

The Rivers product got one back with a long birdie on the 10th but coughed up a pair due to tree trouble on the par-5 13th and 14th.

“Mitchy doesn’t do that very often,” McPhail said.

“Him making birdie on 10 is more like the Fozzy that I’ve played with. I just tried to give myself looks for birdie on both those holes and keep the pressure on.”

He did that on the 15th, even after a poor left miss. McPhail slapped his ball off a cart path between some trees to 130 yards and stuffed a wedge shot, pouncing on one more Foster bogey to put it to rest.

“It wasn’t like ‘Oh, I can get it to three feet’ but if you can get it to 10 and try and make something happen,” McPhail said. “Fortunately, the last couple of days I’ve been able to convert, so it was nice.”

Pardy snuck ahead two when Crane bogeyed the first two holes, and after Crane birdied the third, he restored the 2-up advantage with a remarkable birdie on the fifth.

Pardy was in the right trees and struck one with his punch out, leaving about 65 yards to a flag sitting just at the top of the false front. He hit a low, spinning wedge that landed at the front and stopped on a dime less than a foot from the cup.

“It’s a lot of experience in knowing how that false front works. I knew if I landed into it with a lower-lofted wedge that it would skip once for me and I was lucky to get the grab off of it,” Pardy said.

Pardy got to 5 up when Crane dropped another shot on the eighth and gave it right back by three-putting from five feet the following hole.

Crane returned the favour with a hook on 10 and birdied 12 to stay alive.

Pardy put it just about out of reach on the following hole, calling his shot before draining a 30-foot birdie putt to go 5 up with five to go. He only needed two more holes to end it.

“There were a few uncharacteristic misses from him off the tees that I knew if I took advantage of, those would be some of my only chances,” Pardy said, adding his putter has finally started working.

“That’s all I’ve been missing this year. I’ve made a ton of pars, lots of boring golf. It’s nice to finally pop some birdies in there.”

As the group shook hands, Pardy made an unusual request to McPhail, hoping to start the title match earlier than the usual 1 p.m. slot.

He’s standing in his friend Travis Rolfe’s wedding in Brandon at 5:30 and isn’t expecting either player to walk over the other fast enough to make it.

McPhail agreed so they should have plenty of time to crown a new Tamarack champion.

However, what if it goes to a bunch of extra holes?

“I made the commitment and my buddy, he’s a huge supporter of my golf,” Pardy said. “So I think if I was to show up a little bit late, he might be all right knowing the happiness this is creating me here.”

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