We will start with Kevin PomArleau’s first round on the PGA Tour.
It took place 13 years ago at the Air Canada Open in British Columbia, where the Wenatchee resident scorched the course with a 65 to take first-round lead.
We will continue with PomArleau’s best round on the PGA Tour. It was the same day.
Landon Banks shot a 2-under-par 70 to take a one-stroke lead Friday after the first round of the Royal Oaks Invitational.
Play continues today with the second round and the 54-hole event concludes Sunday.
Jack Dukeminier is one shot back at 71, and Chris Babcock, Gaston De La Torre and Tim O’Neal are tied for third with even-par 72s.
Landon Banks shot a 2-under-par 70 to take a one-stroke lead Friday after the first round of the Royal Oaks Invitational.
Play continues today with the second round and the 54-hole event concludes Sunday.
Jack Dukeminier is one shot back at 71, and Chris Babcock, Gaston De La Torre and Tim O'Neal are tied for third with even-par 72s.
PomArleau did not bow to the crowd that Thursday afternoon and retire from the game. Instead, he went Vanilla Ice on golf’s highest level — one big hit to start … then a whole lot of nothing.
“Unacceptable,” said PomArleau when asked to describe his career to this point. “It’s hard when you write it all down but never quite get there.”
It’s not that success is a mosquito and PomArleau a bug zapper. He has won several mini-tour events and is in Vancouver this weekend to defend his Royal Oaks Invitational title.
But if one were to draw a pie chart comparing PomArleau’s “oh yes!” moments to the “oh so close” ones, the latter would be the slice Michael Moore would want to eat.
Eleven times PomArleau has tried to earn his PGA Tour card through qualifying school and 11 times he has come up short. Two of those failures came by a single stroke, including an 18th-hole putt that sat on the lip of the cup and “would have gone in if there was a wind gust,” PomArleau said.
Maddening instances such as these can turn a man who dreamed of wearing the green jacket into one locked in a straitjacket. But year after year, PomArleau, kept teeing it up.
As you could probably guess, PomArleau’s lifestyle didn’t provide the marriage plant with a whole lot of water. Incessant traveling mixed with limited pay days eventually led to his divorce in 2007.
Still, while PomArleau’s mantle may not be brimming with prestigious trophies, his mind isn’t brimming with regrets, either.
“It was all a great time,” said PomArleau, who won last year’s Royal Oaks Invitational by three strokes.
PomArleau, 42, finished 48th in the aforementioned Air Canada Open in 1999 before going six years without qualifying for another PGA event. The main roadblock being mental, PomArleau eventually embraced self-hypnosis and seemed to fix the divots in his psyche.
Suddenly, he was shooting course records while playing his way into two more Tour events, where he registered directly behind Tiger Woods and “was treated like a king” by tournament officials.
Even so, PomArleau missed the cut in both tournaments and stopped playing full-time in 2008. But sit down with him for a few minutes, and it’s clear that his competitive spark needs just a hint of gasoline to explode.
Earlier this spring, he qualified for U.S. Open sectionals and still has aspirations of winning the U.S. Mid-Amateur.
He even skipped his daughter’s high school graduation to defend his crown at Royal Oaks … although that may not have been the best idea.
With his new job as a golf-apparel sales representative keeping him on the road, PomArleau has had little time to practice and posted an 11-over-par 83 in Friday’s opening.
In other words, his chances of winning the 54-hole tournament plopped right into the lake.
That, however, PomArleau can live with.
He said his primary goal this weekend is to find his game so that he can be ready for tournaments in the near future. After all, while his golf career up to this point might be “unacceptable” in his view, he gave a different answer when asked to describe his golf career in general.
“Incomplete.”
