Kimberley native Jared du Toit isn't coming home from the 2015 Canadian Men's Amateur Golf Championship empty handed, but he isn't returning with the result he hoped for.
Despite helping Team B.C. to the Willingdon Cup title, du Toit missed the individual cut by one stroke after posting a second-round 76 at Weston Golf & Country Club on the heels of an opening round 72 at Lambton Golf & Country Club in Toronto.
"It's definitely pretty cool getting your name on that cup," du Toit said over the phone, shortly after landing back in Calgary on Wednesday afternoon. "Any cup is nice, but when you're representing your province and you're competing against all the other provinces and come out on top, it feels pretty good."
du Toit and his Team B.C. running mates -- Stuart Macdonald (Vancouver) and Kevin Kwon (Maple Ridge) -- finished even par through 36 holes to finish atop the team leaderboard.
Finishing at three-over par, Team Quebec and Team Alberta were the closest competitors.
The conditions and circumstance weren't ideal for competitors through the first two rounds of play, with many having to squeeze nearly 36 holes into Tuesday after heavy rain forced the suspension of opening-round action Monday.
For du Toit, he snuck in three holes over what he estimated as a seven-hour period on Monday at Lambton, before finishing out the final 15 holes of his first round Tuesday morning.
From there, he had to trek from Lambton to Weston for his second round Tuesday afternoon. With a late tee off, the Kimberley native nearly snuck in 18 holes, before darkness set in.
But it wasn't meant to be.
du Toit was pulled off the course with one hole to play, faced with finishing out the final hole of his second round Wednesday morning.
Heading into his 36th hole of the tournament, du Toit was on the cut line. All he needed to do was scrounge a par Wednesday morning and he would have been through.
du Toit faced a 449-yard, par-four 18th hole at Weston and it ended up getting the best of him as he pencilled in a bogey on his final hole of the second round.
"It was not a good bogey and I ended up missing the cut by one [stroke]," du Toit said. "It's just the way it goes. I can't really blame it on the draw. Quite a few people from my draw ended up playing all right. When it comes down to it, I was in a bad mindset all week.
"In hockey, you can't score goals when you're playing defence all the time. That's kind of what it felt like for me. I was really defensive all tournament. Not a lot of good things to say about my performance.
"A lot of people did adjust and I just didn't seem to adjust to the restrictions that were there."
The third round of play at the Canadian Men's Amateur Championship was completed Wednesday with Billy Kennerly, of Alpharetta, Ga., leading the pack at 10-under par.
Patrick Murphy, of Crossfield, Alta., sits alone in second at six-under par.
du Toit won his way into the 2015 Canadian Men's Amateur Championship by claiming the title at the 2015 B.C. Men's Amateur Championship in Oliver earlier this summer.
With the summer season concluded, du Toit finds himself preparing for the NCAA's fall golf season, which begins in September.
The former Selkirk Secondary School student will be embarking on a new adventure of sorts, as he heads to Arizona State University (ASU) for his first season with the Sun Devils golf program.
"[I'm] going to really get back into the college season, the college grind," du Toit said. "Going to do that and trying to succeed at that level again."
After two seasons with the University of Idaho Vandals, du Toit transferred to ASU on July 15.
The winner of the 2015 Canadian Men's Amateur Championship receives exemption into the 2015 USGA Men's Amateur Championship (Aug. 17 to 23 in Olympia Fields, Ill.) as well as the 2016 RBC Canadian Open.
The Canadian Men's Amateur Championship is more than a century old, having been first contested in 1895 at the Ottawa Golf Club.