Sam Fidone left the Island $36,000 richer than the last time he visited. But more valued is the memory of his 2018 Bayview Place DCBank Open championship.
Golfers tend not to forget their pro victories. They remain emblazoned in the memory. Even $42-million PGA Tour career prize-money winner Steve Stricker says he still fondly recalls his first pro win in the Victoria Open in 1990.
鈥淚 still brag about it,鈥� said Fidone, of his five-stroke Bayview Place DCBank Open win last year at Uplands, with a 19-under-par 261.
All these aspiring golfers want to move on from those wins on Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour sa国际传媒 and get to the Web.com Tour, which is one step from the PGA Tour in the pro-golf ladder. That is the familiar trajectory taken by the 2017 Bayview Place Open champion at Uplands, as Max Rottluff of Dusseldorf, Germany, and out of Pac-12 Arizona State University, is now a regular on the Web.com Tour.
Since 2013, when the Canadian Tour became the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour sa国际传媒, 21 players from the Victoria tournament have gone on to the PGA Tour, including PGA Tour tournament winners Tony Finau, Mackenzie Hughes, Nick Taylor and Aaron Wise.
But there is no one timeline that fits all golfers. Fidone is 26 and not hitting any panic buttons that he is back on the Mackenzie Tour, out of which the top five in the season standings annually earn their Web.com tour cards for the following season. Those five Web.com spots for 2019 went to Tyler McCumber with $139,000 in 2018 winnings on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour sa国际传媒, George Cunningham with $102,167, Zach Wright with $88,605, Corey Pereira with $83,903 and Michael Gellerman with $68,649.
Fidone finished just out of the top five last season but made $66,742 on the Mackenzie Tour to earn a berth directly into the final round of the Web.com Tour qualifying school last December in Chandler, Arizona. But Fidone missed out making the top-40 cutline there that would have gained him exempt status into the higher-level tour.
鈥淭he Web.com Q-School cutoff line was 19-under-par, and the fact there were at least 40 guys ahead of me with that, shows how competitive it is getting.鈥�
Fidone remains unperturbed.
鈥淚鈥檒l keep trucking,鈥� he said.
Which is exactly what the determined native of Lufkin, Texas, has been doing since he came out of NCAA Div. 1 Southern Methodist University and began his pro career with two seasons on the PGA Tour Latinamerica, highlighted by winning the 2016 Honduras Open.
You absorb a lot of lessons along the way.
鈥淭his is my fifth year as a touring pro,鈥� said Fidone.
鈥淭his business is not about how good you are. Everybody is good in pro golf. It鈥檚 about how good you are on the weeks you can win.鈥�
Twice in his pro career, Honduras and Victoria, Fidone has displayed that ability to close it out when he put himself in position.
He hopes to be again in striking position at Uplands as Fidone looks to become the first back-to-back champion in the 37 years of the Victoria pro tournament.
The $200,000 Bayview Place DCBank Open presented by the sa国际传媒 runs Thursday to Sunday. The winner will gain a direct berth into the PGA Tour鈥檚 Canadian Open next week in Hamilton, Ont.
