Jeff Wiggins took to the first tee with the number 73 stifling his concentration.

After 18 holes, the Mountain View Golf Club pro shot a 72.

That score was good enough to push the 33-year-old past the first cut of the Quebec PGA's Rogers Canada Cup held at Valle De Richelleux Golf Club outside of Montreal last weekend.

North Vancouver's Bryn Parry, a 39-year-old Players' Academy teaching professional, won the event – earning $30,000 in the process – by shooting 11 under par over 72 holes.

Wiggins made history by simply stepping onto the course Thursday as the only Yukon-based golf pro to compete in a national event.

Once there, the Saskatoon-born Wiggins set the goal of making the first cut.

"I met my goal. But my main reason for going down was for the Yukon, to represent it. And it was taken well. The Quebec PGA ate it up, and so did the fans, to be honest. Even though I'm a part of the British Columbia PGA, that's my affiliation, they made a good point of letting everybody know that the Yukon was being represented and that there is golf in the Yukon.”

The country's top 155 pros hit the links Thursday and Friday, each with the aim of hitting below 148 over the opening two days.

On day one, Wiggins shot a 75, a score he had to beat on day two.

"I was a little bit shaky out of the gate,” he said. "And so I knew when I got up Friday morning that I had to be 73 or lower. That was pretty intense. I was standing on the first tee Friday morning knowing that I had to produce a number.”

He produced it. With a stroke to spare.

Ninety-six of Canada's premier golfers failed to do what Wiggins had.

But he was nearly one of those making flight arrangements home. He shot two-under par with three holes to play.

"That's when I started to feel it. I knew I had a couple of shots to play with. You start to get a little bit anxious, because you know you're really close to getting it done and making the cut.

"But at the same time, I almost slipped. I parred 16 and I parred 17, but on the 18th hole I made a double bogey. That's how I came to 72. So pressure got to me. You start thinking. It's tough when you go with a number in your mind; you got to somehow drop and play one shot at a time. And I've got to be honest, I didn't. I let it get to me.”

On Saturday, Wiggins shot a 73 – good enough to tie for 31st overall.

But he let himself down Sunday by shooting 79, dropping him to 51st overall to end the weekend.

What happened on Sunday?

"To be honest – the conditions, the actual conditions,” Wiggins said. "It was the first time I played in 100 per cent humidity and 35 above weather. That's something I need to learn to deal with. I'm going to have to learn to play in that stuff, because I need experience.”

Now, he'll get it.

Wiggins earned an automatic pass into next year's Canada Cup and a pass to the 2011 Titleist & FootJoy Canadian PGA Club Professional Championship set for Port St. Lucie, Fla., Nov. 20-23.

And that's how it happens.

"You go to an event and you place well, this is how it starts,” Wiggins said.

"It really hadn't hit me until (Monday) on the flight back home. I got these two exemptions, so I got a couple opportunities over the next 12 months to have another crack at things. My focus needs to change a bit. I need to make sure that I spend time on my game up here, and work on it, because it means a lot, it means a lot to me, it means a lot to the golf club and golf up here.”

The Canadian PGA started the Canada Cup in 1953. Originally, the event was designed to promote the sport within international PGA federations.

After 1967, the international PGA federation adopted the event and changed the name to the World Cup.

Through 1960s and 1970s, the World Cup became one of the sport's biggest tournaments, eventually attracting the likes of golf greats Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer.

The World Cup was again renamed in 1993, this time called the World Cup of Golf, and was incorporated into the World Golf Championships series in 2000.

In 2009, the International Federation of PGA Tours downsized world championship events, essentially handing back the Canada Cup to the Canadian PGA.

Last year marked the first time the Canada Cup was played under its original title in 44 years.

Wiggins missed out last year, but was determined to make his Canada Cup debut in 2011.

He wrote the Canadian PGA last spring.

"I'm way out in the boondocks up here in the Yukon and trying to grow the game of golf, and I'm a little disconnected from the British Columbia professional association, so I don't get to play too much. But I think it would be a good opportunity if I was allowed to have an exemption,” he said, paraphrasing his proposal.

Yukon Golf Association (YGA) president Gordon Zealand said Wiggins' performance is a key benchmark in the three-year process of promoting the sport in the North.

"Knowing Jeff, nothing would surprise me,” Zealand laughed. "He's a very capable individual, and I think it's just incredible and does the world of golf up here a great credit.

"It's one thing to have someone call themselves a pro, and, yeah, they do pretty good. But to be able to show that they can go out and compete against these other individuals – and compete at a very high level – it does a credit both to the individual and to the fact that he's in the Yukon.”

Zealand also cited the 2nd Annual Skookum Asphalt Charity Pro-Am golf tournament held at Mountain View in July as further evidence of the sport's growth.

The tourney was the second Pro-Am ever held in the Yukon.

Not to mention the hiring of Mountain View's other professional Graham Frey to focus on youth.

It's a process Wiggins seems set on being a major part of.