Derek Gillespie (born 6 July 1978) is a Canadian

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who has played on the

Canadian Tour PGA Tour Canada, commonly referred to as the Canadian Tour, is a men's professional golf tour headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The United States based PGA Tour took over operation of the tour on November 1, 2012, at which time it was renamed PG ...

, where he has won twice and the

Web.com Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. Th ...

Early life

Gillespie was born in

Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. He was a heralded junior golfer in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, playing in the 1995 and 1996 Canadian Junior National Teams and was named the top Canadian golfer for those two years. He attended the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

and was the only

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

to play in every tournament. His teammates included

Rory Sabbatini Rory Mario Trevor Sabbatini (born 2 April 1976) is a South African-Slovak professional golfer. Sabbatini won six times on the PGA Tour between 2000 and 2011 and was runner-up in the 2007 Masters. He spent 21 weeks in the world top-10 in late-2 ...

and

Camilo Villegas Camilo Villegas (; born 7 January 1982) is a Colombian professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. Early years Villegas was born in Medellín, Colombia, and took up golf as a child. After several different National Junior Championships in Co ...

' caddie Gary Mathwes. He was named to the Pac-10 Conference Team twice and inducted into the University of Arizona Golf Hall of Fame in 2000. He turned professional later that year during the week of the

Bell Canadian Open The Canadian Open (french: L'Omnium Canadien) is a professional golf tournament in Canada. It is co-organized by Golf Canada (formerly known as the Royal Canadian Golf Association) and the PGA Tour. It was first played in 1904, and has been hel ...

Professional career

Gillespie started playing events on the

in 2002 but did not find immediate success. He won two events there, the most recent in 2003 at the Corona Ixtapa Classic by 8 strokes. He missed getting to the final stage of

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

qualifying school In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

in 2006 and considered quitting his golf career. He then re-dedicated himself and made 13 of 14 cuts on the Canadian Tour in 2007, with three 2nd place finishes and a 3rd place finish on the Order of Merit. He has made only 1 of 4 cuts on the Canadian Tour in 2008. He won

The Big Break ''The Big Break'' is a reality television program broadcast by the Golf Channel. The show's premise was to award an aspiring professional golfer exemptions into selected events or full-season exemptions on lower-level tours. The series debuted on ...

Prince Edward Island, a golf reality television show on the

Golf Channel Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply Golf) is an American sports television television network, network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently ...

. Gillespie played on the

in 2014 after earning his tour card through

Amateur highlights

*1995/96 Canadian Junior National Teams *2000 Pac-10 Conference Team at University of Arizona

Professional wins (3)

Canadian Tour wins (2)

Other wins (1)

*2016 Quebec Open

Team appearances

Amateur *

Eisenhower Trophy The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958, it is named after Dwight D. Eisen ...

(representing Canada):

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gillespie, Derek Canadian male golfers Arizona Wildcats men's golfers Golfing people from Ontario Sportspeople from Oshawa 1978 births Living people