James Edgar Rutledge (born August 26, 1959) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

er. He has played on the

Canadian Tour PGA Tour Canada, commonly referred to as the Canadian Tour, was 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 ...

Asia Golf Circuit The Asia Golf Circuit was the principal men's professional golf tour in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s through to the mid-late 1990s. The tour was founded in 1961 as the Far East Circuit. The first series of five tournaments was held in 196 ...

Nationwide 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. ...

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

, and

Champions Tour PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, open to golfers age 50 and over, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, f ...

Early life

Rutledge was born in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

. He won the Canadian Juvenile Championship in 1975 at the Gorge Vale Golf Club in Victoria and the Canadian Junior Championship in 1977.

Professional career

In 1978, Rutledge turned professional. For the first 20 years of his career, Rutledge would play in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

in the winter and in Canada for the rest of the year. He did not do this from 1988 to 1992 though. During that time Rutledge was a member of the

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

, where his best finish on the Order of Merit came in 1990 when he finished in 55th, earning £75,274. He played in his first

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

at the 1990 Open Championship, where he was high on the leaderboard going into the weekend, but ended up finishing T-57. He played in his second and last major the following year at the

1991 Open Championship The 1991 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 120th Open Championship, held from 18 to 21 July at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. Ian Baker-Finch won his only major championship, two strokes ahead of r ...

but he missed the cut. Rutledge's best finish on the

Order of Merit was third in 1994 and 1995. He has finished third on the Canadian Tour's Order of Merit three times. He is one of the winningest players in Canadian Tour history, winning six times on tour. Rutledge was a member of the

between 2001 and 2009, except for 2007 when he was a member of the PGA Tour. Rutledge's first Nationwide Tour win in 2006 at the ING New Zealand PGA Championship, helped him finish in 14th on the money list, which earned him his PGA Tour card for 2007. As the second oldest rookie in the history of the PGA Tour, he was not able to retain his tour card. Rutledge only made 5 of 23 cuts, with his best finish coming at the

Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun The World Wide Technology Championship is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in Mexico, contested at the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal golf course within the Diamante Cabo San Lucas resort. It debuted in February 2007 PGA Tour, 2007 ...

where he finished T-31. He does not play in Asia anymore but still plays on the Canadian Tour. After turning 50 on August 26, 2009, Rutledge has made several appearances on the

, with some success. He earned conditional exempt status for the 2011 Champions Tour season, by finishing eighth at the final

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 ...

tournament on November 19, 2010. Only the top five players in that event gained full status for 2011. He fully qualified for the 2012

after finishing tied for second at qualifying school in 2011.Freeman earns medalist honors at q-school
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Amateur wins

*1975 Canadian Juvenile Championship *1977 Canadian Junior Championship

Professional wins (9)

Asia Golf Circuit wins (1)

Asia Golf Circuit playoff record (0–2)

Nationwide Tour wins (1)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

PGA Tour of Australasia The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently titled as the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf ...

Canadian Tour wins (3)

Earlier Canadian wins (3)

Other wins (1)

*2000 Niagara Classic

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
''Note: Rutledge only played in The Open Championship.''

Canadian national team appearances

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

Dunhill Cup The Alfred Dunhill Cup was a team golf tournament which ran from 1985 to 2000, sponsored by Alfred Dunhill Ltd. It was for three-man teams of professional golfers, one team representing each country, and was promoted as the "World Team Championsh ...

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

References

External links

* * *
Article from Sports Illustrated
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutledge, Jim Canadian male golfers Asian Tour golfers European Tour golfers PGA Tour golfers PGA Tour Champions golfers Korn Ferry Tour graduates Golfing people from British Columbia 1959 births Living people 20th-century Canadian sportsmen