By Jonathan Brazeau
OAKVILLE, Ont. — Ross Whyte is hoping the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard is the first of many trophies his Scottish squad will be hoisting during a busy start to the season.
Team Whyte captured the men's title following a 7-3 victory over Team Dropkin of the United States in Monday's final at the Oakville Curling Club.
Whyte, No. 5 in the world rankings, said it felt great to win as his team had a bit of a slow start to the season with quarterfinal finishes at the Baden Masters in Baden, Switzerland, and the Euro Super Series at their home club in Stirling.
"It didn’t feel like we were firing on all cylinders," said Whyte, whose team posted a perfect 6-0 record in Oakville. "To come out here and put in a really good performance this week, we’re really pleased with that."
The Stu Sells Oakville Tankard was the first event since Craig Waddell joined as a full-time fifth player alongside Whyte, third Robin Brydone, second Duncan McFadzean and lead Euan Kyle. Waddell is filling in for McFadzean, who is recovering from knee surgery and is expected to be out of the lineup until December.
It was also the first of three straight events in Ontario for the team, as they now turn their attention to the Shorty Jenkins Classic, taking place Sept. 10-14 in Cornwall, followed by the AMJ Masters, the first Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, Sept. 23-28 in London.
Whyte enters the AMJ Masters as the defending champion after capturing his first career Grand Slam title at the event last season.
"You always want to get a trophy early on and kind of kickstart your season," Whyte said. "It’s not easy to win trophies out here, no matter what event you’re at, so every win is celebrated like it means something to us.
"We’re really pleased to get this one and hopefully, this will kick us on and have a good week at the Shorty and then see if we can try and get another trophy."
Although Whyte was forced to a single in the opening end, his team built a big lead thanks to steals. Korey Dropkin came up light on his last in the second end to give up two and conceded another point with a misfire in the third to fall behind 4-0.
After Whyte missed a raise takeout attempt in the fourth, Dropkin capitalized with an open hit for two points to get on the board. Dropkin narrowed the gap to one with a single steal in the fifth, but that was as close as he'd get.
Whyte drew for a deuce in the sixth end and tacked on another single steal in the seventh to bring out the handshakes.
"We played great at the start," Whyte said. "They started putting some really good stones in great spots and that made it really difficult for us, but we knew that we had the hammer. We knew that we had the composure to finally get it done, so that was a good finish."
Meanwhile, South Korea's Team Ha took the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard women's title for the second time in three seasons after a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over Japan's Team Tabata.
Trailing by two points coming home, skip Seung-youn Ha tapped Tabata's shot rock just far enough to count three.
The team of Ha, third Hye-rin Kim, second Tae-i Yang, lead Su-jin Kim and alternate Seo-jin Park also completed an undefeated 6-0 run through the tournament.
