Riley Fleming’s Standout performance on the course in 2021
By: Adam Stanley
When Riley Fleming used to have success on the golf course, he tended to push the accolades aside. He was always looking to the next thing.
In 2021, however, he let the success sink in.
The winner of the BetRegal PGA Championship of Canada put the cherry on top of an excellent season by winning the Mike Weir Male Player of the Year Award at the PGA of Canada’s annual awards ceremony in January.
And now, Fleming says, he’s happy to celebrate.
“I thought I had a good chance to win (Player of the Year)… but I didn’t want to take it for granted. You never know. But to be tied in with Mike Weir and with the other names this summer, it’s getting cooler and cooler,” says Fleming. “The recognition is really neat, and I’m letting it sink in a little more.”
Fleming teaches out of Lynx Ridge Golf Club in Calgary and topped a solid field in Bromont, Que. to win the PGA Championship of Canada by three shots. His name was etched on the same trophy as Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, and Moe Norman – to name a few.
He also finished third at the PGA Assistants’ Championship of Canada, and, a month prior to that result, he won the PGA of Alberta’s Cobra-Puma Golf Assistants’ Championship for the fourth-consecutive year.
Despite his success on the course last year, Fleming laughs and says he was playing an opposite kind of game than usual. Normally he drives the ball well and has a solid iron game. In 2021 he says he “fought” his driver every week and his irons “weren’t very good.” But his wedges and putting were “the best” they had ever been. That equated to some low scores and excellent results.
Fleming played golf on a scholarship at the University of Texas at Arlington after being part of Team Canada’s development squad as an 18-year-old. He played four full seasons on PGA TOUR Canada before transitioning out of the pro game in 2018 and began teaching.
That transition and corresponding fresh career path has given him a new kind of joy each day.
“The biggest thing is that it never feels like work. I used to try to help when I was on the range, if people were around, and I would truly do this for free. I’m just lucky enough to be paid for it. I really do love it,” says Fleming. “Even when I work my long hours for days in the summer there is no day when I feel like, ‘Oh gosh I have to go teach more lessons today’ that’s just my enjoyment.”
Fleming says, these days, it feels more like a reward to go play a tournament. Before, while going across Canada and even to Asia to try to earn his way up golf’s steep ladder, it was a job – especially at the end of his playing career.
“It was really frustrating and tough to sort out. I went through my own battles,” says Fleming. “But (in Bromont) it was kind of like my old life a little bit – like a vacation back to what I used to do, which was pretty fun.”
Given Fleming’s success in 2021, he admits the line he may cross to return to TOUR-level competition is getting closer. One thing he wants to do before he’s done-done is play in a PGA TOUR event. Hopefully, he says, the RBC Canadian Open.
“If I found some success in an even bigger-scale event, I’d go back to (Q-School). That’s the line,” he says. “I want to get into a big one and see what happens.”
For now, though, the 2021 Mike Weir Male Player of the Year is embracing his successes. He got married in September and continues to help golfers from the Calgary area get better. The ‘next thing’ he’s looking for now is just the next day of doing what he loves.
“I’ve accomplished things outside of golf now,” says Fleming, “which makes my golf accomplishments even better in my mind.”