The pros warmup before opening day at the Saskatchewan Open. (Photo by: Nick Nielsen)

By Nick Nielsen

Leg 13 of PGA Tour Americas' Fortinet Cup

Shipley, Anderson preparing for Saskatchewan Open at Elk Ridge

Aug 14, 2024 | 5:28 PM

For the fourth year in a row, Elk Ridge is playing host to the Saskatchewan Open as part of the PGA Tours Americas over the weekend. Golfers from around the world including Brazil, Costa Rica, and Australia traveled are in the Prince Albert area for the tournament that serves as part of the Fortinet Cup, a 16-event season of tournaments across North and Latin America that ends with the Fortinet Cup Championship played in Toronto, Ontario in the beginning of September.

Competing at the tournament is American Neal Shipley, who turned pro this year after earning the lowest amateur score at both the U.S. Open and the 2024 Masters Tournament. As part of the Fortinet Cup, Shipley has only been on the tournament for one leg where he finished –15 under par for a ninth place finish. A win for Shipley at Elk Ridge would do wonders for him to climb the standings during the late stages of the Fortinet Cup.

“The golf course gives you ample amount of space off the tee to hit your ball into, but if you get off the beaten path, you’re in some real trouble. So you’ve got to be really good off the tee, especially if you’re being aggressive, and then if you are aggressive, you’re going to give yourself some wedges. But if you are maybe a little bit more conservative, you have some longer irons, but you know probably avoid some bogeys. So just trying to figure out the balance of that this week is really important.”

Going from an amateur to now playing on the PGA Tour has been a crazy six months for Shipley. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native made his first trip up to Saskatchewan to play in the Saskatchewan Open, and he’s enjoying taking everything in as the attention starts to come in from the national stage.

“I went to Waskesiu yesterday and got to enjoy the town a little bit, and it’s actually junior golf tournament going on there, so I got recognized by some juniors which is pretty fun. But yeah, I mean it is off the beaten path, it’s hard to get to for where I’m coming from and had to come in on Tuesday because I had some stuff going on Monday, so it was tough to get to, but well worth it.”

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Canadian Matthew Anderson leads the field in points in the overall standings after finishing third at the BioSteel Championship in Windsor, Ontario. While he did play at the Saskatchewan Open last year, Anderson missed the cut after day two and is hoping to change that result this time around.

“Because of the fact that there’s less spots essentially at this level just makes the fields a bit deeper. The cuts from last year to this year are just maybe like one or two shots better, one or two shots lower, the winning score is one to two fewer shots or just depending on the week, but I can just tell just based on the scores that that the fields are deeper for sure.”

Anderson has been happy with his play over the course of the season, earning a victory in third stage of the season in Brazil and finishing in the top three of the tournament in three other legs. Anderson is one of many Canadians starting to make waves on the PGA Tour, and he believes that it has to do with the work Golf Canada has done to grow the game in our country.

“I think it’s partly due to kind of how Golf Canada has invested in their young players and in all their development systems. From their junior to their amateur programs to now their young pro programs, I’ve seen kind of the most positive change in over my past a couple of years, just putting a lot more resources and funding into that young pro program to help out guys who are just starting with, coaching, funding, places to practice, they’ve just been really good. So I think you’re maybe starting to see the fruits of that hopefully come in the next few years.”

The Saskatchewan Open tees off the first of four days on Thursday with the first group teeing off at 7:30 a.m. Shipley tees off for his first round at 9:20 a.m. from the first hole, while Anderson also tees off on the first hole at 12:40p.m.

nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com