Brendan Bottcher knew it would require a near-flawless performance to deny Kevin Koe a fifth career title at the Canadian men’s curling championship.
He was just about perfect Sunday night to finally end a three-year silver streak at the Tim Hortons Brier.
Bottcher shot 97 per cent to lead his Alberta side to a 4-2 victory. Koe’s Wild Card Two conceded in the 10th end with no options available to score a game-tying deuce.
“It’s just such a good feeling when you know you’ve worked so hard and then you come out and play your best at the biggest game there is,” Bottcher said. “That’s just really a cool and a special feeling.”
With about 30 seconds left on the clock, Koe and teammates John Morris, B.J. Neufeld and Ben Hebert briefly studied the house. Facing three stones and with no real chance at pulling even, they decided to call it.
Bottcher and teammates Darren Moulding, Brad Thiessen and Karrick Martin enjoyed a celebratory team hug by the side of the sheet in the odd silence of the spectator-free Markin MacPhail Centre.
“I don’t remember life ever not dreaming and wanting this,” Moulding said. “It’s my whole life’s work. It’s kind of overwhelming actually. But this is what I always pictured for sure.”
WATCH | Bottcher wins Brier:
Brendan Bottcher curled 97% and finally snapped his Brier losing streak, as his Alberta rink defeated Kevin Koe 4-2. 1:59
Stinging final losses
The Edmonton-based foursome made their Brier debut together in 2017 and remained intact through three stinging final losses.
“Losing in this game sucks, for lack of a better word,” Bottcher said. “It really sucks. It sucked the first time, it sucked the second time and it sucked just as much the third time.
“We all show it differently but (the win) just means so much to us and I think that was really on display here tonight when we closed it out.”
The teams blanked five of the first six ends, with Alberta forcing Wild Card Two to a single in the third.
The game finally opened up in the seventh end as Koe flashed a stone after it picked. He also missed a double-takeout to set up Bottcher for a draw for three.
Bottcher kept the pressure on by forcing Koe to make a tough double-takeout against five to salvage a single in the eighth. Bottcher missed a double for two in the ninth and settled for one.
“If there was ever going to be a guy that was going to catch you late, it was going to be Kevin,” Bottcher said. “I really thought we hung on, we did what we needed to do and we were able to capitalize on that.
“That’s something that we should be proud of.”
Down two with hammer, Koe was unable to build the end he wanted for the necessary pair to force an extra.
“We just didn’t take advantage,” he said. “They had two misses in 10 and we should have been able to come out of that with at least a deuce. Capitalizing on your opportunities when there isn’t many out there [is key].”
Koe finished at 74 per cent and his team shot 84 per cent overall. Alberta threw at 91 per cent.
The Brier was the second of seven competitions to be held in the Canada Olympic Park bubble. The Canadian women’s championship kicked things off last month.
Earlier in the day, Bottcher hit a game-winning angle-raise for a 6-5 semifinal win over Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone.
Bottcher removed the Saskatchewan stone from the button and stuck around to score two points for the victory.
“Obviously it was a super-difficult shot,” Bottcher said. “But those are the moments we’re playing for, for those kind of shots.”
Koe, from Calgary, defeated Bottcher in the 2019 final. He represented Alberta that year and Bottcher’s side was Team Wild Card.
Brier field expanded to 18 teams
The field was expanded from 16 to 18 teams for this season to accommodate teams that didn’t get a chance to compete in provincial/territorial playdowns due to the pandemic.
Bottcher was selected to represent Alberta and Koe got the second of three wild-card entries based on the Canadian rankings.
Koe finished first in the championship pool with a 10-2 record. Dunstone and Bottcher were next at 9-3.
Dunstone was hoping to reach his first career Brier final after winning bronze last year.
“There’s nothing to hang our heads about,” he said. “It was a world-class game. They played awesome and we played awesome.
“The curling gods were wearing a blue sweater today. That’s all there is to it. It totally stinks but this isn’t the end of us.”
The last Saskatchewan team to win the Brier was skipped by Rick Folk in 1980.
Koe continues to share the record of four Brier wins as a skip with Ernie Richardson, Randy Ferbey and Kevin Martin.
He was also trying to become the first hometown winner since Brad Gushue won in St. John’s, N.L., in 2017. Gushue defended his crown the following year and also won last season.
Bottcher will represent Canada at the April 2-11 world men’s curling championship in the same venue.
His team already has a berth in the Olympic Trials in November so the spot for the Brier win will be made available at a pre-trials event this fall.
Bottcher’s rink earned $100,000 of the $300,000 total purse. Koe’s team earned $60,000 for the silver.
Bottcher was named the winner of the Ross Harstone sportsmanship award earlier in the day. Thiessen was named a first-team all-star along with Gushue, Saskatchewan third Braeden Moskowy and Wild Card Two lead Ben Hebert.
Koe was named to the second-team all-star list with Neufeld at third, Canada second Brett Gallant and Northern Ontario lead Ryan Harnden.
Manitoba-based Kerri Einarson is the reigning Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion.
She’ll represent Canada at the April 30-May 9 world women’s curling championship. That event is slated to be the seventh and final event in the Calgary bubble.
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.
Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.
“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”
Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.
“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”
Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.
Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.
Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.
Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.
Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.
Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.
Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.
Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.
That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.
“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”
Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.
Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.
The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.
The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.
Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.
However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
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