Smithers’ Kaleb Gorbahn had the hot hand coming off his win at the Vancouver Open Aug 30 going into two appearances on the McKenzie Tour in back to back Canada Life series tournaments at the TPC Toronto Heathlands Course.
On the first day, Sept. 2, Gorbahn got into red numbers carding a two-under-par 69 on the par-71 track. The score would leave him tied for ninth, but kept him in touch with the leader of the pack, China’s Yi Cao who shot a seven-under 64.
In Round 2, Yi would get it to minus-9 at one point, but dropped back to the pack a bit by the end of the round to finish in a four-way tie for first with a par round.
Gorbahn, meanwhile, was also dropping back. The Smithers golfer had gotten to minus-four after 10 holes, but collapsed with four bogeys and a double-bogey on the home stretch.
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The bleeding continued on Friday for Gorbahn. After a birdie at the Par 5 first, he immediately bogeyed number 2 and would go on to make two more bogeys and a triple bogey for a frontside 41.
The backside was only slightly better to him, but five bogeys offset only by a single birdie at the par-3 15th left him with a final round 80 in third to last place among the 62 players who made the cut.
Meanwhile, Cao managed another par round, but was edged out by second-round co-leader Albert Pistorius, who shot 70.
Gorbahn would get his second crack at the TPC last week in the Canada Life Series Championship that ran Sept. 9 to 11.
Again, Gorbahn got off to a decent start with a first-round one-under-par 70 to be within reach of the leaders at the end of day one, but stumbled on day two with a six-over-par 77. His two-day plus-5 total was not good enough to make the cut, which fell at even par.
He told The Interior News it was a disappointing couple of weeks, but he took it in stride.
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“I didn’t really play my best, but it is what it is; that’s the way golf goes sometimes,” he said.
With the rest of the McKenzie tour events for the year cancelled, Gorbahn is headed back to Vancouver where he has a couple of one-day events lined up. After that, it will be home to Smithers for the remainder of 2020, where he may put in a few rounds at the Smithers Golf and Country Club, weather permitting. Mostly, though, he is just looking forward to having some down time and doing some fishing before heading back to Arizona for the Outlaw Tour in the new year.
Gorbahn has won four times since turning professional last fall. His biggest payday was the Vancouver Open where he won $10,000 Aug. 30.
editor@interior-news.com
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