By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

His first qualifying school was everything Justin Towill thought it might be, a nerve-wracking, emotional roller-coaster that left him physically and mentally drained.

It was the longest four days of Towill’s golfing life and it wasn’t quite over when the Kelowna native holed his final putt at Crown Isle Golf Resort in Courtenay. Towill now had to watch the leaderboard and wait.

The 23-year-old had finished the 72-hole test at seven-under par and stood solo 10th. The top nine players earned exempt status for the North American swing of the PGA Tour Americas circuit.

At best, he was hoping for a playoff. Turns out, he got something better than that. “I was watching the leaderboard pretty intently,” Towill said.

“I thought when I was on the course I had to get to eight-under. When I walked off the course I was in solo 10th and there were two or three guys who were one or two ahead of me still on the course. Honestly, I was just hoping for a playoff, but I guess one of the guys kind of stumbled down the stretch and I ended up solo ninth.”

It was a dream ending for the UBC-Okanagan graduate who won last fall’s Canada West Championship. “It’s unbelievable, it’s awesome,” Towill said. “Only being a pro for six months and just graduating university — my graduation ceremony was eight days ago — it is kind of amazing how quickly this has all happened. I am excited to get out there and try to compete with some really good players.”

The North American swing of the new PGA Tour Americas circuit begins with The Beachlands Victoria Open, which goes June 20-23 at Uplands Golf Club in Victoria. “Having more clarity on my summer and where I am going to get some starts is really nice, especially with this kind of competition in PGA Tour Americas events,” he said. “It’s going to be awesome.”

Towill experienced lots of those Q-school butterflies during the four days of competition at Crown Isle. “I think I am most proud of how there were a couple of moments out there, where a couple of years ago when I wasn’t as mentally strong, I would have stumbled more and not battled as hard. Obviously, in a 72-hole tournament with that much on the line you are going to have stretches that aren’t necessarily great and I think I did a good job of hanging in there and staying patient through them. Not making it worse than it had to be.”

The 22-year-old Towill was the leader of the UBC-Okangan golf team before graduating this past December and turning pro. UBC-Okanagan coach Clay Stothers was delighted to see Towill get through Q-school. “The whole team was going nuts following it on-line,” Stothers said. “Everyone was kind of losing their mind, so it was a pretty cool moment for us, for sure.

“Justin was our team leader. It’s hard not to get emotional talking about it. He came through our high school golf program that (fellow Kelowna-area pro) Conner Kozak and I taught, so we’ve known him since he was 15 or 16. He’s a dream leader, he was unbelievable as a teammate. Anything you needed from him, he’d do anything for the program. He was the perfect teammate, he was amazing for me to coach.”

CONDITIONAL STATUS: Jake Lane (T21) of Charlie Lake, B.C. and Victoria’s Jeevan Sihota (T25) both earned conditional status at the Crown Isle Q-school. Unfortunately, they are not likely to earn any starts with those numbers. Sihota, however, does have a sponsor’s exemption into this week’s The Beachlands Victoria Open.