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Chasing the dream, local golfer cracks Canadian Tour – Metro US

Chasing the dream, local golfer cracks Canadian Tour

David Williamson is chasing his childhood dream.

The Halifax native has embarked on a professional golfing career, qualifying for the Canadian Tour last month and travelling across the country this summer to as many events as he can find the money to attend. For a guy who became interested in golf at the age of two, he couldn’t be happier.

“I have videos when I was young saying how I wanted to be on the (PGA) tour and playing professional golf,” Williamson recalls. “This is the first logical step toward doing it.”

The Ashburn member is coming off a phenomenal year of amateur golf that saw him win the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick championships. He spent the winter training in Florida and earned his way onto the Canadian Tour in May by tying for fourth in the 53-player field at Spring Q-School.

He’s since participated in a pair of tour events in British Columbia, and although he didn’t make the cut in either of them, he’s using the experience to develop his game.

The Canadian Tour is made up of golfers from all over the world and is seen as a springboard to Nationwide.

“I’m realizing very quickly that it’s an extremely high level and something I’m not really used to,” he said. “But I’ve had the past week off to breathe, take it all in, and realize what I need to do to go forward and compete for a win.”

He said his journey isn’t easy financially. But he held a fundraiser at Ashburn last year, secured a two-year commitment from his title sponsor, RoofTight Construction, and is sleeping on friends’ couches as he traverses the nation.

Williamson, 24, won’t start seeing major financial kickbacks unless he graduates to Nationwide, which picks up more than 10 Canadian Tour golfers each year.

The Simon Fraser grad hopes to chase his dream for three to five years to see if he can crack the next level.

“It’s something I’ve trained so hard for, the past few years,” he said. “Now that it’s actually happening, it’s a little surreal. It’s fun, but it’s a hell of a lot of work.”