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Golfer battles back from stroke, wins B.C.’s senior men’s championship

Sandy Harper, two years after a stroke, celebrates meaningful victory
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Nanaimo’s Sandy Harper won B.C. Golf’s senior men’s and super-senior men’s championships in Victoria in late July. (News Bulletin file photo)

A Nanaimo golfer is B.C. champion again in what he said might have been the most meaningful win in his career.

Sandy Harper, 65, won B.C. Golf’s senior men’s and super-senior men’s amateur championships at at tournament in late July at Uplands Golf Club in Victoria.

He won with a 54-hole score of three over par, two shots ahead of runners-up Norm Bradley and Stewart Scott, both of Kelowna. Harper went into the final round trailing by one shot, but his “magnificent” back nine play closed out an even-par round of 70 and earned him the title, noted a press release from B.C. Golf.

Harper suffered a stroke in 2020 and told B.C. Golf that it’s affected his vision and hand-eye co-ordination and it’s been frustrating not to be able to hit certain shots with the ease that he could before.

“If I didn’t play golf I don’t think I would have been as frustrated after having the stroke as I have been. Golf showed me that I am not the same person that I was in that regard,” Harper said in the release. “But the flip side is the support you get from the golfing fraternity. That has been amazing.”

His competitors gathered around the 18th green at the B.C. championships to watch Harper close out his round and give him bear-hugs afterward.

“This win means more to me than probably any other tournament that I’ve won, given what I have been through,” Harper said.

The top three finishers at the tournament will represent B.C. at the Canadian Senior Men’s Championship in Red Deer from Sept. 6-9.

To read more, search http://britishcolumbiagolf.org/newsroom.html.

READ ALSO: Vancouver Island golfer captures U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur crown



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About the Author: Greg Sakaki

I have been in the community newspaper business for two decades, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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