Hallborg records inaugural win
Zach Hallborg made his first victory on the Niagara Men’s Golf Tour a memorable one.
Playing Sunday at Willow Valley, the 30-year old Welland native carded a seven under par 65 to record a two-stroke victory over Cherry Hill’s Jaret Chipman and public player Andrew Dagneau.
“It was a long time coming. I think I had about 10 people come up to me afterwards and tell me that it was about time or something to that effect,” the Cardinal Lakes member said. “It felt good. I have played in a number of events and have been running it for a couple of years now so it is nice to finally get my name on the trophy.”
He had a number of top three finishes before breaking through at Willow Valley.
“I have definitely been close but there have been a lot of other ones where I played really well and then dropped it coming in or blew up a little bit. It was nice to play well, consistently close it out and finish the round well.”
Hallborg agrees it is also a hard tour to win on.
“And it’s getting harder. Top 10 this week were even par or under. I played really well — that is kind of an outlier — but to have two guys right behind me shows the tour is getting really, really good.”
To record the victory, he drove the ball really well. His round included a tap-in eagle putt and a number of short birdie putts.
“I started with a bogey on the first hole with a three putt and then got seven birdies and an eagle. In the past, I would have probably got angry with that and let in linger but I let it go and just tried to have fun.”
During one stretch of his front nine, he went birdie, eagle, birdie.
“That was kind of nice and it should have been eagle, eagle, eagle. It was pretty crazy. I lipped out the other two eagles. It was obviously a lot of luck — I am not saying it wasn’t — but it happened at the right time and from there on it felt like I couldn’t miss.”
Hallborg, who placed fourth overall on the tour in 2023, came into the event with confidence following a strong showing at the Ontario men’s amateur at the St. Catharines Golf and Country Club two weeks ago. He finished 39th overall with a score of four over. He was even par after the first three rounds.
“It was good to make the cut and get an exemption for next year which is always nice,” he said.
He credited his mental attitude for the result.
“My physical game is usually there and somedays it is better than others but for me it is usually about staying cool and calm, not getting too worked up and just having fun.”
It helped that he played with Chipman on the first two days of the championship.
“It kind of felt like a friendly match out there.”
There are no major events left for Hallborg to play in this season but he will be competing in a few invitationals.
Rounding out the top 10 at Willow Valley were Cherry Hill’s Ryan Dyck (71), public player Ty Anderson (71), Bridgewater’s Nolan Vankalckreuth (71), Monthill Golf and Country Club’s Aiden Gavey (71), Cherry Hill’s Hanish Nagrani (72), Niagara National’s Maric Brooks (72) and St. Catharines Golf and Country Club’s Morgan Daley (72).
Next stop on the tour is July 14 at Twenty Valley.