TST #5 Fairways & Fire-Scars
Talking Rock Golf Course | July 6th, 2025
By Twlv Stix Tour Staff
You know you’re close to Talking Rock when Highway 1 tilts toward Shuswap Lake and the hills turn charcoal. The 2023 wildfire stripped the forest bare, leaving blackened sentries, panoramic sight-lines, and a cheeky cross-wind now free to roam. For more than half of our 60-player field it was a first look at this reshaped beast—and every one of them called the highway haul “absolutely worth it.” With double tour points dangling and the KP bounty beefed up to match, the sun-washed afternoon hummed with first-tee electricity long before the starter barked, “Play well.”
Remember all those runner-up finishes? Cameron Bibby-Fox does—and on Sunday he flipped the script. An eagle at the par-5 10th and a birdie on 15 pushed him clear; a nervy bogey at 18 tried to drag him back, but his two-under 70 held firm. Bryson Marshall and season-leader Bruce Kristinson finished two adrift at level par—Bryson’s early clubhouse number sat on the board like a dare, while Bruce cooled after a –3 front nine. Steve Buse resuscitated a four-bogey start with an eagle-birdie blast on 7-8, and Reid McIntyre lurked until a missed birdie on 16 and a lost ball on the drivable 17th (double, T-6) torpedoed the charge. Bibby-Fox finally traded silver for gold, becoming the first guest ever to lift a Twlv Stix Gross trophy.
If anyone still thinks Net is a big-handicap lottery, Talking Rock begged to differ. Rookie Josh Fraser, a 13-cap still rocking that new-car smell, captured his first crown with a composed net 68 (-4). Chasing him: Bruce (3) at –3, and the low-cap trio of Bryson (1), Chris Myer (3), and James Duckworth (6) at –1. Past tour champ Fred Winters tied Landon Hemmes at even par, while proven closer Alex Lopes hovered just off the podium. High-handicap wildcards Kenny Lindsey and Matt Stefan flirted with red numbers before late triples reminded them that closing is its own craft. Fraser rockets forty spots to 13th overall and proves this race is wide-open—low-cap assassins, mid-cap grinders, and high-handicap wildcards are all trading blows, and a new contender just entered the chat.
Momentum wasn’t measured only on the card. A full-throated roar rippled across the property when Elliott Radies flighted a 100-yard wedge that took one hop and disappeared on the brutish par-4 14th—our second walk-off eagle on a par 4 in as many events and a sharp reminder that no lead is truly safe out here.
Season-long race, Bruce still wears the Gross crown, with Bryson now breathing down his neck, Chris Myer sliding into third, and Evan Koppa slipping a rung. Koppa, however, clings to the Net lead, pursued by Bruce and a resurgent Winters, while Fraser and Duckworth surge into the teens with momentum to burn.
As the last cards trickled in, a quiet tip of the cap went to Bob Duncan of Strictly Golf Vernon, who’d gone out first to scout pins and set the day’s tempo—a classy show of sponsor support. A few players lingered on the deck trading “almost” stories while the scarred hills faded to purple; others headed south down Highway 97, already picturing Nk’Mip Canyon Desert’s fairways. No matter the direction, the takeaway was the same—the leaderboard’s fuse is lit, and the desert is where it blows.
