If there’s such a thing as an easy route in the world of curling, Kelowna’s Bob Ursel took it last weekend at the Vernon Curling Club.

After going undefeated in three round-robin games in the men’s draw of the Twin Anchors Invitational Curling Classic, Ursel – backed by third Jim Cotter (throws skips stones), second Kevin Folk and Rick Sawatsky – leapfrogged right to the semifinal draw, and took full advantage.

Ursel shaded Edmonton’s Chris Schille 5-4 in an extra end in Sunday’s noon semi before meeting New Westminster’s Sean Geall for a rematch of last year’s final.

Ursel doubled Geall 6-3 to pocket $7,500 and repeat as champion.

“We got a bye right to the semifinal in the playoffs, which is kind of nice, and we didn’t have to battle our way through the B and C events,” said Ursel. “There’s so many great teams here. (Head ice technician Dave) Merklinger had the ice playing beautiful. It was fun to play on.

“We’re happy to get off to that kind of start this year and get some points for the CTRS (Canadian Team Ranking System).”

Geall (5-2) and Ursel (5-0) traded deuces in ends one and two, after which Ursel used to the hammer to blank three and four.

Geall, who collected the runner-up purse of $5,500, forced Ursel to take a single in five, and with Ursel counting multiple stones in six, Geall drew to the button to stay alive.

Vernon’s Cotter iced the game in seven after a miss by Geall left a hit to count three.

“All the guys played pretty good and stayed on top of things and had some breaks go out way,” said Cotter. “It was a good start to the season. We all get along so well, and that’s a big part of it. If there’s a miss, we pick each other up, and that’s what it’s about. It takes all four of us to win.

Earlier, Ursel grounded Geall 6-4 in his final round-robin to advance to the semis.

The champions never gave up more than a deuce in any one end throughout the spiel, and never gave up more than four points in any one game.

Next up for Ursel is the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Westcoast Curling Classic this weekend in New Westminster.

“Our goals is to get ourselves set up for points to get into the pre-Olympic trials,” said Ursel. “Part of the process is getting to the Brier for points as well. We practise a lot and we curl a lot, so getting the games in isn’t as important as getting through to the playoffs.”

Geall used a four-point fifth end to stop Richmond’s Greg McAulay 7-1 in the other semi to advance.

McAulay (3-1) and Schille (5-2) each earned $3,500 for finishing top-four, while New Westminster’s Jay Peachey and Team China’s Fenchun Wang earned $2,000 for ranking top-six.

After opening with wins in two of his first three games, Vernon’s Tyrel Griffith (2-3) dropped his final two contests to fall out of playoff contention.

Vernon’s other rink, skipped by T.J. Perepolkin (2-3), avoided elimination by edging High Prairie’s Dennis Graber (1-3) 5-3, but bowed 6-5 to Minnesota’s Pete Fenson (4-3) to miss out on the qualifier. Merklinger and Ron McDougall finished ninth.