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Markle chosen for world amateur tourney
Friday September 5 2008
By MIKE RAWN Banner Staff Writer
 
David Markle is one of only three Canadian golfers chosen for the World Amateur Golf Team Championship (WATC), to be held Oct. 16 to 19 in Adelaide, Australia.
The Royal Canadian Golf Association announced on Aug. 28 that Markle will join Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C. and Jordan Irwin of Calgary on Team Canada for the WATC.
“I’m really excited,” Markle said. “I was relieved more than anything when I got the call. It’s been a goal of mine for the past couple of years, and I’ve worked hard to achieve it. It’s a great honour to represent Canada, and I will prepare as well as I possibly can for the worlds.”
The tournament will be held at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club and the West course of the Grange Golf Club. Matt Hill of Bright’s Grove, Ont. will be the team’s alternate and Doug Roxburgh, a seven-time member of Canada’s world amateur team, is the non-playing captain.
“This year’s men’s team is an extremely gifted group of golfers,” Roxburgh, RCGA director of high performance, said in a press release. “We are pleased to have Nick, Jordan and David representing Team Canada and the RCGA at this prestigious international championship. They have all played extremely well and have justly earned the right to represent Canada on the world stage.”

Markle is coming off an exceptional senior year at Kent State University, where he helped the team to sixth place overall at the NCAA tournament, and a ninth place individual finish. In his final chance to impress RCGA officials before the world amateur team was named, the Shelburne golfer finished tied for 14th at the Canadian Amateur.
“It was a disappointing tournament,” Markle admitted. “I had a bad first round. The conditions were hard; it was very windy, and I didn’t hit good shots in the wind. But I battled back as best I could, and shot a 65 on the second day and 68 on the third day to get back into it.
“I didn’t do anything at that tournament to help myself get to the world amateurs, but I didn’t do any thing to hurt myself either. I knew I was still in the mix.”
The Canadian men finished second at the biennial event in 2006. Team Canada’s best showing came in 1986 when they won the event. This year 75 men’s teams will compete for the Eisenhower Trophy over 72 holes of stroke play. There will be a team and individual component to the tournament.
“There is going to be some great team’s there,” Markle said. “The U.S. team will be very good; they’ll be the favourites. But we’ve got a great team too. I think that we can compete with anybody.”
Markle is a graduate of Sam Young’s prestigious junior program at the Shelburne Golf and Country Club. He’s hoping to be named to the RCGA’s national team following the world amateurs.
“They choose six to eight players each year for the national team and try to develop those players,” Markle explained. “You get into some good tournaments that way. Hopefully since I’ve been named to the world team, I’ll get chosen for this one. That way I can play another year of amateur golf and then take a shot at [qualifying] school [for a professional tour] next fall.”