Gushue wins Players’ Championship to complete career Grand Slam
TORONTO — How badly did Brad Gushue want to win the Players’ Championship?
Having already clinched the Rogers Grand Slam Cup as the overall season champion — carrying a $75,000 bonus — the St. John’s, N.L., was willing to hand over the cash to opponent Brad Jacobs to win the lone Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling major that had eluded him.
Jacobs wouldn’t budge, however, as he needed a successful title defence to secure a berth into the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup.
Gushue, who had finished runner-up at the event twice previously, didn’t need to part ways with the prize money as he defeated Jacobs 5-4 during Sunday’s men’s final. The St. John’s, N.L., team of Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker also completed a career Grand Slam have now won all four original majors in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling.
“I think they wanted to get into the Champions Cup but we wanted to finish the Slam,” Gushue said with a smile. “That was important for us. That was our goal coming into this week and really this year. This was one that we wanted to win and to finish it off and do it is pretty nice. I’m very proud of our team. We’ve had a successful year anyway. We can look back and this has been a really successful year with the exception of one game at the Brier [losing in the final] it could have been an absolutely mind-blowing year.”
Team Gushue have had a Golden State Warriors-esque run this season on the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling circuit winning three titles having also captured the National and Elite 10 and finishing runner-up at the Tour Challenge and the Meridian Canadian Open. Through six events on the year, they hold a jaw-dropping 34-5 win-loss record including a 14-game winning streak running the table at the past two events.
“I think from a strategic point we don’t get ourselves in too much trouble and when we do we’ve been bailing early enough,” said Gushue, who has now won six titles in the series. “We haven’t given up many steals, which I think is the key. You catch the odd deuce here or there and you can win some games.
“To win as many as we did we have to have some luck and we’ve had some teams that have played probably under their ability. So we’ve had some luck definitely to get as many wins as we’ve had but I think we’ve also put ourselves into a good position.”
Although Gushue was forced to draw for a single in the first, he was able to build a 2-0 advantage thanks to a steal in the second by freezing his last on the button under cover and Jacobs opted to throw his final stone away to concede.
Jacobs tied it up with a deuce in three and singles back and forth in four and five kept it tight.
Gushue secured the lead for good with a deuce in the sixth. Jacobs looked to match in the seventh with an opportunity to draw for two but came up light.
It was a victory lap coming home for Gushue as he kept things clean with the hammer.
“Anytime you get a situation like that, that’s pretty relaxing,” Gushue said. “I was prepared to have to draw to the button or draw to the four-foot (to win). Geoff made a good tick and Brett made an incredible double and once he made the double I knew the game was ours unless we did something really stupid. It was a nice way to finish. Tight game. Those guys are so tough to beat because they’re tough right from lead to skip. Fortunately, we came out on the right side.”
The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., team of Jacobs, third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harden were competing in their third consecutive Players’ Championship final. Jacobs also finished runner-up to Kevin Martin in 2014 and defeated Mike McEwen a year ago to earn his first career Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title.
Earlier Sunday, Eve Muirhead of Scotland topped Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones 9-6 to win her third Players’ Championship women’s title in four years.
The inaugural Humpty’s Champions Cup wraps up the season April 27 to May 1 in Sherwood Park, Alta. Gushue said it’ll be a nice bonus after finally winning the Players’ Championship.
“I’ve put a lot into this week. I wanted to win this badly,” he said. “It’s been a long year. I’m not saying we’re going to go out and mail it in by any means but I’m sure it’ll be a little bit more relaxed. We’re probably going to have a little bit more fun there and try to cap the year off. It would certainly be nice to win the first Champions Cup, too. We’ll be ready to play but it definitely will be the cherry on top. This is the cake for sure for us this year. This is a big win and means a lot to us.”
