The latest Grand Slam of Curling event is underway in Conception Bay South, Nfld. and Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs opened the six-day event on a tough note on Wednesday.
Competing in the National, the Jacobs rink, which includes third Marc Kennedy, second E.J. Harnden, and lead Ryan Harnden, dropped a 6-3 decision to Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher in Draw 3 action.
After blanking the opening end with the hammer, Jacobs took the lead in the second end, scoring a pair to take an early 2-0 lead.
Bottcher erased the lead by picking up a single in the third end before stealing one more in the fourth.
After Jacobs scored one in the fifth end to take a 3-2 lead, Bottcher took the lead for good with a pair in the sixth end before stealing two more in the seventh end.
Bottcher ran Jacobs out of rocks in the eighth end.
The Jacobs rink returns to action with a pair of games on Thursday.
The team is set to face Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland in the morning draw and Sweden’s Niklas Edin in draw eight, which begins at 6 p.m. Sault time.
The National is the third event on the Grand Slam of Curling schedule and features 15 men’s and 15 women’s teams.
The teams are split into three pools of five teams with the top eight teams advancing to the playoff round, which begins on Saturday. Semifinal action is set for Saturday night with the men’s and women’s finals on Sunday.