MONDAY,MARCH2,2020| THEGLOBEANDMAILO B13
Im Sung-jae is tireless, and no
longer winless.
The 21-year-old South Korean
started fast and finished stronger
Sunday, winning The Honda
Classic by one shot over Cana-
dian Mackenzie Hughes and
Tommy Fleetwood for his first
career PGA Tour victory in his
50th attempt.
Im shot a four-under 66 on
Sunday, finishing at six under to
match the second-highest
winning score since the Honda
moved to PGA National in 2007.
He was the tour’s rookie of the
year last season, plus has played
more tournaments and more
rounds than anyone since the
2018-19 season began nearly a
year and a half ago.
And now, he’s a winner – the
seventh from South Korea to win
on tour, and the Honda’s 10th
international champion in the
past 16 seasons.
He’s also the fifth player to get
that first win at PGA National in
the Honda, joining Keith Mitch-
ell in 2019, Michael Thompson in
2013, Y.E. Yang in 2009 and Mark
Wilson in 2007.
Im birdied four of his first five
holes, then birdied two of the
final four to finish off the victory
and pick up US$1.26-million.
Hughes, from Dundas, Ont.,
who made the cut on the num-
ber Friday, shot his second con-
secutive 66.
Playing alongside Im, he was
part of some serious fireworks
on the last two holes and missed
a birdie putt at the par-five
finishing hole that would have
got him into a tie for the top
spot.
Fleetwood, who is still seeking
his first PGA Tour win, started
the day one shot clear of the
field, and started birdie-birdie to
get to seven under at that
point – matching what was the
low score in relation to par of the
week.
Then PGA National did what
it usually does – that being not
letting anyone run away from
the pack.
Fleetwood made bogey on the
par-four sixth and couldn’t get
up and down from a greenside
bunker on the par-four eighth,
giving back what was left of his
lead at that point and sharing
the top spot at five under with
Im and Steele.
Moments after Im finished,
Fleetwood made a 25-footer for
birdie on the par-three 17th to
get to five under.
But Fleetwood’s second on the
par-five finishing hole leaked
right and splashed into the wa-
ter, and once his attempt at a
miracle hole-out after a drop
from 120 yards didn’t fall, Im
could finally exhale as the win-
ner.
That’s when Im could hug his
caddie in the locker room, where
he watched the last 20 minutes
or so on a monitor.
“I’ve been in this spot many
times. ... I just felt like the expe-
rience really helped,” Im said
through a translator.
Some of Im’s best moments
have come when no one has
been looking.
He was third at the Zozo
Championship in Japan last Oc-
tober, a finish totally overshad-
owed by Tiger Woods tying the
PGA Tour record of 82 career vic-
tories.
And in November, he went 3-
1-1 to tie for the best showing by
a player on the International
team at the Presidents Cup, but
the U.S. team captained by
Woods rallied in singles on the
final day to win the trophy at
Royal Melbourne.
But this time, he was on cen-
tre stage and embraced the mo-
ment.
Hughes and Im went to the
par-three 17th green – the end of
the “Bear Trap” three-hole
stretch – in wildly different spots.
Im stuck his tee ball to just in-
side of eight feet, while Hughes
had nearly 55 feet left from above
the hole.
Hughes rolled in his most im-
probable birdie to an enormous
roar, pulling into a tie with Im at
five under.
If Im was worried, it didn’t
show.
Im took a couple looks at his
downhill line, took his putter
back just a couple of inches and
watched the ball roll in for a
birdie that allowed him to re-
claim his lead at six under – this
time, for good.THE ASSOCIATED PRESSImekesout
winover
Hughesat
HondaClassic
TIMREYNOLDS
PALMBEACHGARDENS,FLA.T
here’s no mistaking Team Wild
Card lead Colin Hodgson on the ice
at the Tim Hortons Brier.
A Grim Reaper tattoo is featured
prominently on his ink-loaded right arm.
Skull and crossbone symbols run up and
down his curling broom. Combined with
his hairstyle – a thick mane of dark hair
with shaved sides – it makes for a rather un-
usual sight at the national men’s curling
championship.
“I’m getting edgy,” Hodgson said. “I’m
feeling more comfortable in my skin than I
ever have. So this is me. I’m starting to care
less what other people think, and that’s re-
laxed me and been more fun, too.”
The 29-year-old Edmonton native is a bit
of an outlier in the rather staid environ-
ment at the national men’s curling cham-
pionship. The sport is still steeped in tradi-
tion, with crowds that are perhaps best de-
scribed as extremely polite.
Hodgson’s mission is not necessarily to
ramp up the rebel quotient on the ice. He’s
one of the more engaging, good-natured
and downright friendly athletes you’ll
meet. However, he’s keen to help provide
some colour and personality into the sport.
As director of operations for Winnipeg-
based Dynasty Apparel, he literally has the
ability to do so.
Hodgson’s company is the official uni-
form partner of Curling Canada. He has
helped inject vibrancy and fashion into
curler kits, which have become more sleek
and attractive in recent seasons.
“I think the Brier is ready for anything,”
he said. “The new uniform stuff and us go-
ing more crazy, I think curling
fans are completely changing
their tune. Now that things
are available, people are all
over it.
“We’ve got the Joker hats,
we’ve got the angry moose
sweaters, people are really
trying to latch on to some-
thing and feel something
with their apparel and how
they’re representing at the
Brier.”
Subtle touches are sometimes added to
provincial/territorial uniforms each sea-
son. Symbols are often added on shirt
backs – the Newfoundland dog is one ex-
ample – and all teams this year have an im-
age of Kingston City Hall emblazoned on
the side of their shirts and jackets.
“People have been so nice to me and
generous,” Hodgson said. “They’re
reaching out and happy that we’re doing
different things.”
Hodgson and his Wild Card teammates
are getting results on the ice, too. It took a
little while for the foursome of Hodgson,
skip Mike McEwen, third Reid Carruthers
and second Derek Samagalski to find their
footing after teaming up two years ago.
But now, they’re up to fourth in the Can-
adian rankings and are off to a great start atthe Brier.
McEwen, who edged Glenn Howard in
the play-in game to earn the last spot in the
16-team field, beat Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin
10-6 on Sunday to improve to 2-0.
“I think this team can win, we’re in a
great place,” Hodgson said. “We still
haven’t played our best yet and we’re com-
fortable. So that’s awesome,
too. I think we’ve got a good
vibe going.
Alberta’s Brendan Bottch-
er also won his second
straight round-robin game
with a 9-4 victory over Nuna-
vut’s Jake Higgs.
In other early matchups,
Northern Ontario’s Brad Ja-
cobs defeated Prince Edward
Island’s Bryan Cochrane 6-2,
and Saskatchewan’s Matt
Dunstone outscored James Grattan of New
Brunswick 10-6.
Manitoba’s Jason Gunnlaugson stole
two points in the 10th end for an 8-6 win
over Quebec’s Alek Bédard in the after-
noon, and Brad Gushue of Newfoundland
and Labrador topped Nova Scotia’s Jamie
Murphy 5-2.
Canada’s Kevin Koe beat brother Jamie
Koe of the Northwest Territories 7-3, and
Ontario’s John Epping dumped British Co-
lumbia’s Steve Laycock 11-3. Draw 5 was
scheduled for Sunday night at the Leon’s
Centre. The preliminary round continues
through Wednesday night.
The Page Playoffs begin Saturday and
the final is scheduled for March 8.THE CANADIAN PRESSTeamWildCard’sMikeMcEwenshootsagainstThomasScoffinofTeamYukonattheBrierinKingstononSunday.McEwen,whowon10-6,
hasrecentlyfoundhisfootingplayingwithColinHodgson,ReidCarruthersandDerekSamagalski.SEAN KILPATRICK/THE CANADIAN PRESS
odgsonhopeshisrebel
imagewillbringcolourto
nationalmenÌschampionship,
aneventsteepedintradition
GREGORYSTRONGKINGSTON
[Colin] Hodgson’s
company is
the official uniform
partner of Curling
Canada. He has
helped inject
vibrancy and fashion
into curler kits.TeamWildCardrockstheBrier
S
ara England is accustomed to peo-
ple she doesn’t know telling her
they held her when she was a baby.
The 22-year-old knows that’s how
they connect to her mother still revered by
the Canadian curling community.
Sandra Schmirler died 20 years ago
Monday from cancer at the age of 36. Her
legacy encompasses a gold standard every
Canadian women’s team strives to match
in competition.
The Sandra Schmirler Foundation has
raised $4.7-million for life-saving equip-
ment in more than 60 neonatal intensive-
care units across Canada.
But those who knew Schmirler believe
she would consider daughters Sara and
Jenna her greatest achievement.
“Every person across Canada I think
knows my mom,” Sara said. “My sister and
I were so young when she passed that we
really didn’t get to know her and don’t re-
ally have memories. I know that’s hard for
some people to hear and understand.
“When people come up and talk to me
about her, memories and stories and all
that kind of stuff, that’s how I get to know
her even more.”
While Colleen Jones was racking up
Canadian titles at the turn of this century,
she rebuffed suggestions hers might be
greatest women’s curling team in Canada.
Jones said then “we’ll never know how
good that team might have been.”
“That team” was Regina’s Schmirler, Jan
Betker, Joan McCusker and Marcia Gude-
reit.
In a span of five years between 1993 and
1998, the four women claimed three Cana-
dian championships, three world titles
and an Olympic gold medal in Nagano, Ja-
pan.
“At that period of time, nobody could
touch them,” Hall of Fame men’s curler
Russ Howard said.
Curling was officially added to the
Olympic program in 1998 after years as a
demonstration sport.
Schmirler’s in-off to win the 1997 Cana-
dian trials and wear the Maple Leaf in Na-
gano is still a staple of curling highlight
reels.
“She never met a shot she didn’t like,”
Howard said. “Extremely good hitter, good
drawer and strategist.”
Schmirler won her first world title in
1993 in Geneva, where Howard also
skipped Canada to men’s gold.
Schmirler’s infectious smile and her
team’s ability to joke at
its own expense en-
deared them to people,
but it hid an inner swag-
ger.
“They knew deep
down they were going to
beat you,” Howard said.
“That’s why they’re hav-
ing fun.”
Howard introduced
Schmirler’s team to rock
matching – looking for a
set of eight consistent
stones – which was a
novel strategy at that
time.
That and her team’s
athleticism helped put
them ahead of the curve for 1998, he said.
“They set the bar for I think a lot of the
female teams,” Schmirler’s husband,
Shannon England, said.
Schmirler was pregnant with Jenna
when she lost the 1999 Saskatchewan
women’s final.
The fame that comes with winning
Olympic gold, combined with jobs, young
families and curling, was a lot for the team
to manage.
The unanswerable question is how
much more success Schmirler and her
teammates would have achieved if not for
her untimely death.
“I guess we’ll never know, right?” Gude-
reit said. “The one thing I do know is that
we were best friends on the ice and we
were best friends off the ice. We would
have continued to be friends forever.”
Had they kept up their pursuit of curl-
ing glory, more national and international
titles were possible.“How many more? I would say probably
at least double what they did,” said Robin
Wilson, a former national champion who
worked for the sponsor of the Canadian
women’s championship for years.
But just more than two years after skip-
ping Canada to its first Olympic gold med-
al in curling, Schmirler was gone.
Sara is a competitive curler competing
at a provincial level.
Her mother’s tri-
umphs were in the pre-
digital era, so Sara
hasn’t watched a lot of
footage of Sandra curl-
ing.
What Sara treasures
is an audio recording of
Sandra singingPart of
Your Worldfrom theLit-
tle Mermaidsoundtrack,
while Sandra was in
hospital giving birth to
Jenna.
The Sandra Schmirler
Foundation telethon for
neonatal care is a fixture
of opening weekend at
the Scotties Tourna-
ment of Hearts.
It’s common for a handful of women
competing at the national championship
to be in various stages of pregnancy, which
makes Schmirler’s legacy all the more poi-
gnant.
“Obviously, I wasn’t around much when
she was playing, but I think a big one was
proving that mothers can be competitive
athletes and successful athletes,” Sara
said.
There were all those big wins, too.
“She did set those standards pretty
high,” said Kerri Einarson, the skip of this
year’s national women’s champion com-
peting in the world championship later
this month.
“She was amazing. I think all of us
around my age always looked up to her.
That’s something she did for women’s
curling and all the younger kids.”THE CANADIAN PRESSSchmirler’smemorylivesonamongCanadiancurlers
DONNASPENCER
SandraSchmirlerSPORTS |