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This is a home game for Evan Holmes, an especially nice treat this summer.

The 24-year-old Holmes, who was born and raised in Calgary and honed his birdie-making skills on the fairways at Earl Grey and later Glencoe G&CC, scored an exemption to tee off this week at the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada’s ATB Financial Classic.

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Otherwise, his focus has mostly been thousands of kilometres away — on the European Challenge Tour.

Holmes, a conditional member on that developmental circuit, has already competed in Austria and Slovakia. Immediately after Sunday’s final round of the ATB Financial Classic, a four-day shootout on the Talons Course at Country Hills, he is jumping on a flight to Ireland.

“It’s a lot of pointing at menus and trying to get by,” said Holmes, joking about the language barrier at some of the stops along his European adventure. “There have been a lot of times where I’m like, ‘Whoa, this is really cool.’ And there have been a few other times where I’m like, ‘Whoa, what am I doing?’ But more often than not, you wake up thinking, ‘Wow, I am playing pro golf in Europe. Every single week, it’s a different place.’ That’s really cool.”