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Steve Laycock has some unfinished business to take care of in his birthplace of Yorkton, Sask.

A packed house at the Gallagher Centre cheered on Laycock during the Canadian Open a year ago as he reached the final of a Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event for the first time in his career as a skip facing Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L.

Gushue trailed by one point heading into the last end but held the hammer coming home and drove his final stone to the button to score a deuce and capture the Grand Slam title with a 6-5 victory.

Laycock is back with his Saskatoon-based team featuring third Kirk Muyres, second Colton Flasch, and lead Dallan Muyres as they look to take the next step and win their first Pinty’s GSOC championship together in a return trip to the Gallagher Centre for the 2015 Meridian Canadian Open.

“It was an unbelievable experience last year to play in front of a hometown crowd like that and obviously being that much more special because of how well we did in the event making it to the final,” Laycock said. “We’re hoping for a similar level of performance and hopefully just a slightly better outcome this year.

“We were within inches of victory last year so we just need to get on that same kind of roll that we were on.”

The Gallagher Centre features several memorabilia items from the early years of Laycock’s career including the 1998 Sask juvenile champs banner and a framed picture of his 2003 world junior championship Team Canada crew.

“There are a lot of great memories from that curling club and past success,” Laycock said. “It really was one of the places where I honed a lot of the skills that I have today by going and throwing a countless number rocks. A lot of great memories and I always enjoy going back.”

Team Laycock have had a solid season and are currently ranked seventh on the World Curling Tour’s order of merit and sixth on the money list with $43,000 in prize winnings. Laycock said it’s been really good so far this year.

“We’ve played seven events and have had five where we made the semifinals or better. We had a big win in the Canad Inns Men’s Classic in Portage la Prairie so I think we’re pretty happy,” he explained. “We’ve moved the yardsticks yet again as far as our level of play that we’ve been able to demonstrate and feel pretty good coming into what will be our most important events of the year coming up, this next little stretch.”

Laycock not only refers to the Meridian Canadian Open, but also the tournament they’re competing in this weekend, the Canada Cup of Curling. The winner of that event earns a berth to the 2017 Canadian Olympic Trials, which will decide who moves on to wear the red and white at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

“Obviously a big part of why any curler is doing what they’re doing right now is trying to get into the Olympic Trials and represent Canada at the Olympics so it’s our first opportunity to get one of those spots at the Canada Cup,” Laycock said. “But between that and the Canadian Open it’s two events that we’re really excited for.”

Laycock was caught off-guard last month when he was featured in a clip on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert highlighting the curling brush controversy. The satirical segment went viral and Laycock said it was pretty neat overall.

“I thought they did a good job on that and it was good for a laugh,” he said. “Obviously any exposure for our sport — and especially our team — we’ll take it. It was a good surprise, I had no idea that was going to be happening, and I’ve definitely have had a lot of messages from people saying that they saw me on national television so that was a lot of fun.”

Tickets are available for the 2015 Meridian Canadian Open, starting Tuesday night at the Gallagher Centre. Click here for details.

Can’t make it to Yorkton? Watch on Sportsnet beginning Thursday at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT (full TV schedule & links to watch online).