Pender equal to the test on Canadian course

Jared Pender has re-set his sights on making New Zealand's Eisenhower Trophy team after a top-four finish in the prestigious Pengrowth Invitational tournament in Canada.
The 25-year-old Tauranga golfer, coming off the back of a purple patch in New Zealand, arrived home on Tuesday after firing a two-under 54-hole total of 214 at the Glencoe Country Club in Alberta.
He was in Canada with Omokoroa's Andrew Stewart as part of the New Zealand Maori team.
Pender's was the best result by a Kiwi since 2004, when Brenden Stuart beat fellow New Zealander Brad Iles in the first hole of a play-off.
An exhausted Pender had rounds of 73, 71 and 70 on the epic layout, rated one of the toughest tests in Canada.
"It was easily the toughest course I've played so I'm stoked to go sub-par over the three rounds," Pender said yesterday.
"There were hazards on just about every hole, thick rough just a foot off the greens and every hole was completely different, so every birdie you made you felt you'd earned.
"I used an iron on about six of the (dog-leg) par fours.
"Over here, I'd be hitting iron-wedge into the greens but there I was smashing a three iron and ending up with a six or seven iron - and that's taking into consideration the longer ball flight at altitude."
United States-based Jordan Irwin, a winner of five NCAA tournaments, was wire-to-wire winner by four shots at seven-under, with Stewart top-30.
Pender said the entire Canadian national squad teed it up, while his first-round playing partner, Nick Taylor, qualified for and played in the US Open at Torrey Pines.
"The practice facilities were unreal, the best I've ever used - Andrew and I spent hours every day working on our game and because it doesn't get dark until 11pm we'd be out there sometimes until 10.30 at night."
Pender's fourth-place finish earned him one of the more unusual trophies of a burgeoning amateur career - a porcelain ram's head that caused a few chuckles when he hauled it out of its wooden carry box coming through customs at Auckland Airport.
"The winner got a huge stag's head, complete with a full set of antlers, which might have been a bit of a struggle getting back into the country."
Pender will work on his game for the next month before the Waikato Winter Strokeplay at Lochiel in four weeks, where he'll get another chance to state his claim for inclusion in the three-man team for the Eisenhower Trophy world teams' championship in Adelaide in mid-October.