VICTORIA — The day after Stuart Anderson’s fourth lifetime win on the Canadian Tour, the 33-year-old Alberta native — who now calls Sooke, B.C., home — was driving by Augusta National Golf Club, only one of the most coveted pieces of golf property in North America, if not the world.
Anderson grabbed a shuttle from Windsor, Ont., where he had finished first at the Canadian Tour Championship at the Ambassador Golf Club, to the Detroit airport at 4:15 a.m. on Monday, caught a flight at 7:45 a.m. for Atlanta, arriving two hours later and waited a couple of hours for a friend to show up from Daphne, Georgia.
“We made our way out together,” said Anderson, hours after passing by Augusta National on route to playing in the next couple of NGA Hooters Tour stops in nearby North Augusta, South Carolina and then Columbia, South Carolina. “We just drove by. I can’t see a whole lot, but I know the golf course is there. I’m going to take a closer look later this week and drive up to it, along the side road.
“I’ll be a creeper,” said Anderson, one of the most likable players on the Canadian Tour, who enjoys a laugh. “I’ll be sneaking a look through all the trees and see if I can get a glimpse.”
His hearty laughter echoes across the phone line, but anyone who truly knows Anderson realizes he has dreams, goals and aspirations like any other human being — his happen to involve professional golf.
“It’s my dream course to play, be it in that tournament (The Masters) or just to be out there. The history of the course and the tournament . . .,” he said before catching himself. “I have to win my first Canadian Open before I win my first Masters, though, don’t I.”
The six-foot-four, 235-pound right-hander will attempt, again, to try and find his way onto the prestigious PGA Tour when qualifying school begins in October. This week he’ll play his 13th event on the NGA Hooters Tour as it stops at the Kandy Waters Memorial Classic at Mount Vintage Plantation and Golf Club, just a chip shot away from Augusta National. So far, Anderson sits 20th on the Hooters’ Tour money list having finished second twice and added a seventh-place finish for a $41,568 US total, making money in seven of 12 events.
Anderson has split the 2011 season between the mini American tour — in which 2011 PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley cut his teeth — and the Canadian Tour, where Anderson finished fifth overall on the Order of Merit with $46,234 Cdn.
His playoff victory Sunday over hometown favourite Richard Scott gave Anderson a $32,000 top prize, which couldn’t have come at a better time.
“It was definitely nice timing. A win at the end of the year always helps the cause, for sure. Whenever you get a win at the end of the year like that it pays for your expenses for the whole year and it’s always nice to have that. It usually clears off the Visa — $13,000 on Visa, taken care of, which feels great,” he admitted.
Once he finishes these next two stops on the Hooters Tour, Anderson will then return to the Toronto area for a charity event for the Trillium Hospital before flying back to Calgary, where he was born, to pick up his truck and belongings at his parents’ home in nearby Strathmore, Alta. From there, it’s a drive home to Sooke where his fiancee Crystol Cole and family reside.
For Anderson, it’s been an 11-year adventure as he attempts to make his living at professional golf.
Born in Calgary, he spent the first three years of his life there — living near the 10th tee at Redwood Meadows — before moving northward to Fort McMurray, Alta., for the next 13 years. He eventually ended up in Arizona and then attended Illinois State University.
“And ever since then I’ve been a Gypsy,” he said, with a chuckle.
He’s called Fort McMurray, Strathmore, Edmonton and Victoria home throughout his career, garnering whatever sponsorship he could attract to help offset exorbitant travel costs on the Canadian Tour.
“Now, I realize that to make money, I have to make my clubs do the talking.
I’ve always had some help, no big corporate deal, but there have always been close friends and people helping along the way,” said Anderson. “No, it’s not easy. This year has been a test to my relationship with Crystol, we’ve had our ups and downs through the season, but we’re working on it. It’s a lonely road, for both of us.”
In fact, he’s only been home in Sooke for six weeks since last October.
This October, he sets back out to Alabama where he hopes to get through the first stage of PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, which he truly believes he can achieve, hoping to land on the fledgling Nationwide Tour or illustrious PGA.
“Absolutely I do,” he said of believing in himself. “Every year I’m improving. Golf scores are golf scores, but I know in my heart and mind that I’m improving as a professional golfer. That fine line is getting finer every year. I really feel confident that this is the year that I’m going to blaze through Q-school and get my feet in ether the Nationwide or PGA Tour.”
Last year he missed out after the first stage. This year he attempts to qualify out of the Auburn University Club in Alabama, starting with practice rounds on Oct. 17-18, one of more than a dozen qualifying sites through the U.S.
“I know that site quite well. I finished second there in 2007 to a guy you might know,” said Anderson with a chuckle. “His name is Dustin Johnson.”
Johnson is a five-time winner and is recognized as the longest hitter on the PGA Tour, having finished tied for second at the 2011 British Open.
“I actually finished tied for second at 4-under (at the first stage of Q-school in 2007) and Dustin won at 12-under. It’s a course that suits my eye and my game,” Anderson said of Auburn University Club. “It’s a ball-striker’s course. You have to place the ball fairly well around there — it’s not a chipping and putting contest. I need some length where I can use my strengths.”
But in the meantime, he’ll savour his recent win, play these two Hooters Tour events, then head north, and eventually, home.
“The last couple of weeks have been tough,” admitted Anderson. “I had to pay my entry fees for the Hooters events and they’re fairly expense, $1,150 a pop, and I sent my $4,500 off for Q-school.”
He claimed the Canadian Tour Championship on Sunday on the second playoff hole with a 25-foot birdie, after missing a 15-incher for the win the previous hole.
“Fortunately I had that second life after I missed that short one,” he said.
Victoria Times Colonist
mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com
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