“HADWIN HOT AT
LEDGEVIEW OPEN”
 Twenty-one
year old rookie Professional Adam
Hadwin of Morgan Creek and Ledgeview
stormed a field of 176 golfers at the
2009 Ledgeview Open to win his maiden
Professional victory, earning him $2,800
and vaulting him into 7th place on the
CLEVELAND GOLF/SRIXON CANADA Order of
Merit on the Vancouver Golf Tour. After
scaring the Ledgeview course record on
day one with a flawless round of 63,
Hadwin fended off a number of past
champions including Bryn Parry, Ray
Stewart and Andrew Smeeth to go on to
win by 5 strokes over Northview’s Matt
Palsenbarg with his 2-day total of
9-under par. Palsenbarg finished solo
second with scores of 67, 69, good for a
$2,000 cheque.
Round two kicked off
as solidly for Hadwin as day one
finished, birdying hole #1. Palsenbarg
also birdied hole #1 after launching his
drive to the back of the 344 yard par 4
green. From here however, things got a
bit unsettled for Hadwin, making bogeys
on #2 and #4 to go back to -6 for the
tournament. With Palsenbarg making pars
on 2 thru 4, he was now at -4 and only 2
shots back. Meanwhile, up ahead, some
players were putting down early
challenges on the front nine. Seymour
Creek’s Bryn Parry rattled off 4 birdies
on the first six holes to get to -3 for
the tournament, but would eventually
fall back with a double on 8 and bogeys
on 10 and 12 to finish even for the
tournament. Morgan Creek’s Jeff Dagg
also burned the front nine up with five
birdies to get to -1 for the day. He
would end up making two more birdies for
a fantastic round of 64 to finish in a
tie for 3rd place at -3. Local Pro
Andrew Smeeth was also on a tear through
15 holes at -5 for the day, but a bogey
on 16 slowed the charge and he would
shoot a 66 on the day and also tie for
3rd.
 After some more solid
play through the front nine and birdies
on #9 and #10 by Hadwin, he now had a
lead of 4 shots with 8 to play. A fine
birdie by Palsenbarg on the par 3 – 12th
diminished his lead to three shots with
7 to play. The turning point, however
seemed to be when Palsenbarg airmailed
the 12th green with a 9-iron, leaving
himself a near impossible up and down to
the back pin. After a miraculous hybrid
chip under a tree and through the rough, Palsenbarg lipped out his 15 foot par
putt and Hadwin’s lead went back to 4
shots with only 6 holes remaining. Two
more bogeys by Palsenbarg on holes 14
and 15 after errant tee-shots left this
tournament in the hands of the young
Professional who grew up learning his
golf around the Ledgeview track. Hadwin
played steadily in through the final
holes, parr-ing in to take the overall
Championship title in front of a local
gallery surrounding the 18th green.
In a post round
interview, Hadwin commented on his
steady play from tee-to-green on day one
that set-up a number of birdie chances
that were capitalized on with a very
solid putter. “Round two wasn’t quite
the same on the first four holes”,
stated Hadwin. “I hit it in a couple of
places that let’s just say you don’t
want to be when playing at Ledgeview”.
“Beyond that, I settled down and played
some great golf again and I am very
happy with my first ever Professional
Win”.
The Ledgeview Open was
only Hadwin’s 4th ever Professional
event. After successfully making it
through to the weekend in both Canadian
Tour stops in Victoria (t58th) and at
the City of Surrey Inviational (t35th)
and a 12th place in his first VGT event
at the Guildford Open, it looks like
Hadwin is heading the right direction
after pocketing his first professional
victory in only 4 tries. He will
continue to play the remainder of the
VGT schedule and chase down the Order of
Merit leaders in search of the winning
award of a free entry down to PGA Tour
Qualifying School. Hadwin will tee-it-up
at next Monday’s Hadassah Wizo Pro-am at
the Richmond Country Club.
For full scoring and
Order of Merit results,
click here.
This day couldn’t have
been better for Hadwin’s father (Gerry),
who managed to make it (from Morgan
Creek where he resides as a PGA Club
Professional) for the back nine to caddy
for the younger of the two Hadwins in
the final group. Yes, that’s right, two
Hadwins in the final pairing of this
Ledgeview Open as 18-year old Kyle
Hadwin stunned the field with a personal
best score of 68 off of a 7 handicap!
The day was a great learning experience
for young Kyle, who definitely took a
few holes to settle his final group
nerves, but he played some great golf on
the back nine himself and should be
commended on getting into the final
group with his great opening round. This
was the first ever competitive round
that the Hadwin brothers had played
together so it was a pretty special day
for the whole family.
 In the amateur end of
the tournament, it was Ledgeview’s own
Kevin Stinson who took home the coveted
Amateur Title and trophy with some great
golf over the two days, shooting 69, 70.
Stinson edged Kelowna’s Norm Bradley by
a mere one shot after Bradley narrowly
missed his birdie chance on 18 to force
a playoff. Overall Low Net in this
year’s Ledgeview Open went to Joe Cocker
with a two-day net score of 135.
Congratulations to all Professional and
Amateur winners at this year’s Open!
TAYLOR SIGHTING!
Well it wouldn’t have
been the same Ledgeview Open without
having its biggest celebrity around for
one of the days. He was unfortunately
unable to attend the tournament in a
playing sense, but local sensation
Nick Taylor (ranked #1 Amateur in
the world) was spotted caddying for his
brother Josh on day one, which was
pretty cool for the fans to see and for
his brother to have him on the bag. This
is a total reversal of roles for the two
as it has been brother Josh who has been
playing a big part in Nick’s playing
career, having caddied for him at two
consecutive U.S. Open’s, most recently
at this year’s where he opened the eyes
of the world shooting an amazing 65 on
day two and finishing Top Amateur in the
U.S. Open field (t36th overall). Taylor
recently won another illustrious event -
the Sahalee Invitational just days
before the Ledgeview Open. He will be
making his way back east to prepare for
the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey
which starts July 23rd. VGT would like
to extend its congratulations to Nick
for his wonderful season this year and
for making such a statement on the world
golf scene. All the best at the Canadian
Open and the remainder of the ’09
season!
GREAT SHOTS!
There were many great
shots witnessed this Ledgeview Open
weekend. Two in particular will be
remembered for being especially NICE:
Mike Smith – Hole-in-one on Hole #14
- Sunday
Fraser Mulholland – Hole-in-one on Hole
#17 – Sunday
Congratulations to Mike and Fraser (yes,
that’s me!!) for their great swings!
THANK-YOU’S:
VGT would like to
thank the following individuals for
making the 2009 Ledgeview Open such a
great success:
- Head Professional
Jason Smith and all his
support staff – Thanks for
co-ordinating everything so smoothly
throughout the event. You make our
work SO MUCH EASIER!!!
- General Manager
Kevin Poland and the
Clubhouse staff – Thanks for the
great service upstairs and down and
all the work behind the scenes
preparing for this event.
- Club Captain
Mike Fisher and all the
Ledgeview volunteers – Thanks for
all the support in organizing the
1st and 10th tee the whole weekend
and for assisting play with all the
hole-spotters who make this event
happen. Thanks to all of you who
volunteered your time!
- Superintendant
Chad Burns – What can I say?
What a fantastic job getting the
golf course in SUPERB SHAPE the
whole weekend. Those greens were
awesome and the whole course was in
great shape from tee-to-green. Well
done to you and your support staff
for all your hard work this year!
- Tom Hall –
Great work with your rules book this
weekend Tom. You also did a great
job keeping the pace-of play to a
very comfortable speed!
- All VGT event
team and volunteers – (Heidi,
Mike, George, Brian, Bill and Fanny).
Thank-you for working as hard as you
do keeping the scores up to date as
LIVE as possible and giving the
players this great experience.
For full results and Order of Merit
Standings, please click below:
Amateur Prize List
Pro Prize List
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