TST #1 The Finale Becomes the Opener

There’s a particular silence to a first tee in April — the kind that holds six months of winter

inside it. Grips remembered what to do before hands did, nerves showed up before swings did,

and somewhere between the putting green and the starter the fourth season of Twlv Stix quietly

began. It was warm, cloudless, the kind of spring morning that makes a golfer believe things that

aren’t true yet.

Tower Ranch was happy to correct them.

Sixty-two players gathered in the sunshine, the largest field in tour history, and by the end of the

day Tower had reminded every one of them exactly where they stood.

The 2026 season, presented by Strictly Golf, opened where it usually ends. For two years this

course had been the finale — the place where seasons were crowned under a bleeding Okanagan

sunset. This year it became the opening statement. Earlier than ever. Still the hardest test on the

schedule.

Fourteen of those sixty-two were new — first tees they’d never walked, a field they were still

sizing up. The tour doesn’t leave strangers strangers for long. By the 15th green Michael Ross

and Greg Art were chirping each other like they’d been paired every Saturday for a decade — a

friendship that didn’t exist at breakfast and would outlast the round.

That’s how this tour works.

The talk of the day wasn’t the field. The greens were glass.

Tower’s greens were pure and merciless, rolling faster than memory allowed, and by mid-

afternoon four-putts were finding their way onto scorecards that had no business holding them.

The pin on 13 drew more curses than any single piece of green should have to bear. By the

clubhouse, most had stopped asking whether it was the course or the golfer.

In the Gross division, it wasn’t a runaway. It just felt like one.

Tyler Johnson, the lowest handicap in the field, played like it — not flashy, just relentless. Even

par through the front. Out of position more than he wanted. Forced to earn it.

And he did.

On the sixth, a ball-below-feet lie turned a routine approach into a problem. He made par

anyway. On the eighteenth, he did it again. That’s where the tournament was won — not with

perfect swings, but with refusals to give shots away. Johnson signed for -1, the only round under

par, and set the pace early in the Gross season race.

Behind him, a chase that never quite closed. Landen Harison, making his debut, posted +3 for

solo second, with four more players stacked at +4 just behind him. The field showed up. They

just couldn’t match the saves.

The Net division looked over early.

Dustin Hughes opened with a 38 — five under net, including a net eagle on the par-5 second —

the kind of start that forces everyone else to chase before they’re ready. He came home steady,

signed for -5, and waited.

Ashton Love made his move on the back. An even-par 36. A net eagle. A late birdie. Suddenly

the margin was one.

The door didn’t open.

Hughes held on for his second career Twlv Stix title and took the early lead in the Net season

race.

It’s one event of eleven, and already the season has texture. Johnson sets the standard. Harison

arrives. Hughes holds. And fourteen new players walk off Tower Ranch understanding exactly

what this tour asks of them.

Next stop: Black Mountain. May 3.