It
seems like Canadian Tour Professional John
Shin has taken a liking to his old stomping
grounds at King’s Links Golf Club. You
see, in VGT’s Opening event this year (The Brad
Garside Open), Shin took down Kendal Yonemoto on
the first playoff hole with a 30 foot putt to
win his first VGT event in 2008. Five months
later, Shin was back to his old tricks, shooting
an impressive score of 66 (-6) to get himself
into a playoff once again, this time against
former Champion Tour player Norm Jarvis.
After a wayward drive that put
Shin deep into the fescue, Shin pulled off a
remarkable shot onto the green, and left himself
30 feet from the pin. Shin once again drained
the putt and birdied the first playoff hole to
claim the title of 2008 VGT Summer Pro-am
Champion. Shin’s win for $1,700 took him into
5th place overall in the VGT order of merit
standings. Jarvis took home $1,200 for his 2nd
place showing. Lurking only one shot away were
Professionals Murray Poje and Bryn Parry, who
started the day slightly sluggish, but finished
with back nine scores of 29 (-7) and 21 (-5)
respectively to make $850 each for their T3rd
place finish.
After
a course record round of 64 (-8) on Friday’s
opening round of the 2008
PERFECT LIES VANCOUVER OPEN, 20 year
old Lucas Bogdan
maintained his 4 stroke lead on day 2 with a
2-over par 74 heading into the final round
today. A shaky bogey start on hole #1 did not
deter the Northwood University sophomore as he
bounced right back on the 2nd hole with a birdie
3. The biggest question on a lot of people’s
minds was how the young Ledgeview amateur would
handle the pressures of playing in the final
group of such a major 54-hole Championship. And
after his second bogey of the day on the 6th
hole, it seemed like the 20 year old NAIA 3rd
Team All American star was having a bit of a
tough time handling the final group/ final round
situation.
Meanwhile, three groups ahead, Nationwide Tour
member Bryn Parry was on a bit of a
charge. At +1 at the start of the day and 7
shots back, Parry seemed like less of a threat
to Bogdan than one would have thought. However,
at the turn, Parry had made a small move,
getting himself to 2-under for the day and
1-under for tournament. A back nine charge of
three birdies in four holes pushed Parry to
4-under for the tournament and only 2 shots out
of the lead.
The 2008 Golden Ear's Open came down to a dramatic
conclusion for the second straight year. It took the 36th and
final hole for Dan Swanson of Guilford
Golf Club to finish off all 215 competitors at this
year's Championship to finish -8 and a one shot win over
Nationwide Tour player Bryn Parry.
At the start of the final round, twelve players in the field
were within 4 shots of the leaders Kyle German (Point Roberts
Golf & CC) and Matt Palsenbarg (Northview). With the Pitt
Meadows Golf Club in perfect condition and ripe for the scoring,
This tournament could have gone anyone's way. In fact, it was
young South African amateur Brent Kirsten who got all the
spectators excited on day one with his run for the course record
of 64 (-8). Needing only one more birdie on day one with four
holes to go to break the Pitt Meadows course record (held by
Bryn Parry), the Wayland Baptist University-Texas student
stumbled on his way in but needless to say, impressed many
onlookers with his fine play and eventual first round score of
68.
“SMEETH TAKES CHARGE IN FINAL
ROUND OF HUB INTERNATIONAL”
After
setting a tournament course record 63 on day one, it looked like Point Roberts
Head Professional Kyle German was in full command of his game and virtually
unstoppable. German not only went bogey free in round one making 8 birdies, but
came into this event with a 66 and 65 under his belt from his last two previous
events at University GC and Richmond CC. Looking at how solid German has been
playing in these last three rounds (21 under par), it appeared that his three
shot lead over McCleery’s James Harper would be enough of a cushion to win the
Chilliwack Open trophy.
However, after 9 holes of a very windy second round, German came back to the
field with two double bogeys, shooting a 3 over par score of 40. This brought
the field right back into the tournament and it wasn’t too long before the
chasers took advantage of this. Both Professional Andrew Smeeth of Ledgeview and
Bryn Parry of the Nationwide Tour made their moves by shooting 3-under par and
4-under respectively. At the turn, it was Smeeth who now held the lead at -6
with both German and Parry at -5 and one shot behind. A quick birdie on the 10th
by German pulled him back to even, however ahead in the second last group of the
day, Parry eagled the 11th par 5 to move ahead of Smeeth…
‘SWANSON AND GERMAN RED-HOT AT THE HADASSAH-WIZO
PRO-AM’
With
one of the best Professional fields in the
tournament’s 26 year history, it was no surprise
to see the amount of low numbers posted in VGT’s
ninth Official Order of Merit event. At the end
of the day, it was the remarkable play of
Guilford GC’s Dan Swanson
and Point Roberts GC’s Kyle
German that resulted in a two-way tie
at the top. Both professionals
carded 65 (-7) on the day and
pocketed $1,575 each for their
t1st honors. Close behind in 3rd with
another fine round of 66 was Doug Morgan of The
Redwoods.
Featuring
one of the biggest one-day
Pro-am purses ($10,000) now in BC,
the Hadassah Wizo Pro-am has become one of the
most Premier Professional tournaments in BC. Not
only is the tournament contested on one of BC’s
finest conditioned tournament courses (Richmond
Country Club), the event is co-ordinated with
first class. From the time a player drives into
the parking lot to the end of the dinner
presentation, the Hadassah Wizo committee puts
on one of the smoothly co-ordinated events in
Canada.
Parry’s Patience pays off!
It took until the 54th and final hole to determine the winner of this year’s
Ledgeview Open Presented by Saputo.
All contestants had to bear the sweltering 35 plus degree heat over three days
of championship golf conditions. At the outset, it was 20 year old Amateur Jesse
Singh from The Redwoods who led the tournament after 18 holes with an impressive
opening round of 66 and a two shot lead over Professionals Andrew Smeeth and
Matt Palsenbarg. Day two saw a change in the leader board as Nationwide Tour
member Bryn Parry charged to front of the pack with a flawless round of 63,
including nine 3’s. At the conclusion of play, Parry felt he had control of his
ball the entire day, feeling at home as the heat peaked into the high 30’s by
mid day. Witnesses to Parry’s round felt there could have been a 59 on the card
easily had the putter been slightly hotter. By the end of day two, Parry held a
two shot lead over Singh who had himself fired a solid round of 69 to get to -5
for the tournament.
“Parry near perfect in Pitt Meadows” In VGT’s 7th event on the 2008 schedule, Seymour
Creek’s Bryn Parry cruised himself around
a stretched out Swan-e-set Bay Resort Course
with a bogey free round of 67 to earn himself
his first win on the 2008 Vancouver Golf Tour
schedule. Parry withstood the challenge of CAN
Tour veteran Andrew Smeeth who made four
birdies on his way to a fine round of 68.
Smeeth’s runner-up finish earned him $725 pushed
him into the top 10 in the VGT OOM this year.
2008
ECCO Spring Championship
Hazelmere Golf Course
“Daniel’s
Patience Pays off at Hazelmere”
In
this the 6th and final Spring Series Event on
the 2008 MarketPlace Vancouver Golf Tour
schedule, a well travelled Canadian Tour Member
Matt Daniel felt right at home on a familiar and
well manicured Hazelmere Golf Course. Having
played several rounds on the now famous course
for hosting CAN TOUR’S Greater Vancouver Charity
Classic, Daniel finished with full guns ablaze,
birdying 6 of his final 7 holes to record a
five-under par round of 67 and a two shot
victory over Calgary’s Todd Halpen.
2008 HAYWOOD SECURITIES OPEN
Point Roberts Golf Club
SWANSON’S DELIGHT AT POINT
ROBERTS
Guilford
Head Professional Dan Swanson seemed to
make it look easy this Monday at the Inaugural
Haywood Securities Open held at the
beautiful Point Roberts Golf & Country Club.
Carding 7 birdies on his card, Swanson’s six
under par 66 was good enough for a 3 shot
victory over Nationwide Tour player Bryn Parry
and past Canadian Tour player Phil Jonas and
good for $1,300. Swanson’s back-to-back
victories collected him $2,800 in Vancouver Golf
Tour’s fourth and fifth events vaults him
comfortably into the lead with $4,058.33, a good
$1,500 clear of his next competitors Kendal
Yonemoto ($2,470) and Bryn Parry ($2,011). After
the round, Parry, who had finished one group
earlier, had gone on record to say that all he
saw behind him all day was Swanson’s ball in the
middle of the fairway. So there was no surprise
when his card was handed in, pushing both Parry
and Jonas from their leader-in-the clubhouse
position back into a tie for 2nd place.
The 2008 Nickel
Heating Open, co-sanctioned by the Srixon Golf Tour, hosted a record
breaking 100 contestants for the one day VGT Open event held at the Ledgeview
Golf Club & Country Club yesterday. On this sunny but breezy day Professional
Dan Swanson of the Guilford Golf Club proved victorious, birdying the
18th hole for a score of (-4) to beat young Professional Jeremy Paradis of
Langley by one stroke to capture the title and a cheque for $1,500. Swanson’s
winning performance included a total of six birdies on the day and vaulted him
to the top of VGT’s Professional Order of Merit with a year-to-date earnings of
$2,758.33 after four events. Swanson is chased by Seymour Creek’s Kendal
Yonemoto and John Shin - winner of the Brad Garside Open – VGT’s Opening Event.
2008 CANADA BREAD BC MATCH PLAY
CHAMPIONSHIP -
Final Match
Northview Golf & Country Club, Surrey, BC
Sunday, April 20th
Matt
Palsenbarg/ John Shin (4) 3&2 Charlie Hughes/ Justin Shin (2)
In the morning match, it was a guns a
blazing by both sides in this the 63rd
edition of the BC Match Play Team
Championship. And the action started right
out of the gates after both Hughes and Shin
both made solid pars on hole one while both Palsenbarg and John Shin made bogeys. Hughes
and Shin extended their lead after a great
scrambling par from Hughes allowed his
partner to stroke his 10 foot birdie putt
into the back of the cup to go 2 up. After a
couple of close birdie tries on #3 from both
Shin’s (John and Justin), John Shin brought
his team back to one down with an amazing
wedge shot to 1 foot and the solo birdie on
the hole.
On a bogey - free day, Professional
Shingo Akizuki of Mayfair Lakes Golf Club
captured his first VGT Title with a fantastic
score of 65 (-7) at the beautiful Sandpiper Golf
Resort. With 7 birdies on the day, including one
at the 18th hole, Akizuki edged out Seymour
Creek’s Ryan Williams by a single stroke,
earning him $925 for his first place showing and
vaulting him up into 4th place on the VGT Order
of Merit with $1,100 after 3 events. After a
full season out on the Canadian Tour in 2007,
Akizuki has made his plans this year to develop
his skills locally while teaching at the Mayfair
Lakes Golf Club in Richmond. He will plan to
play a majority, if not all of the VGT events in
2008, ultimately shooting for the year-end
player of the year honors which comes with a
sweet prize – A paid entry down to PGA Tour
Qualifying School (Approx. $5,000 in value).
read more>>
After a hard-fought front nine, the team of
MacPherson and Williams worked there way into a
2-hole lead. Pars on hole 10 left the pair at
2-up before the matches’ turning point on hole
11 where Brandan Price had a 15 foot birdie putt
to win the hole and bring the match back to only
1 down. A costly three putt suddenly changed the
complexion of the match as MacPherson and
Williams, now 3-up, went on to win the next two
holes and eventually win the match handily 5&4.
Please find Quarter Final Match dates and
times below:
Saturday, April 12th
Vancouver Golf Club, Coquitlam, BC - 2:38pm
Matt Palsenbarg – John Shin (4) Vs. Murray Poje
– James Harper (12)
Marine Drive Golf Club, Vancouver, BC - 2:30pm
Bryn Parry – Kendal Yonemoto (19) Vs. Jeremy
Paradis – Mark Kitts (6)
Sunday, April 13th Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club,
Vancouver, BC - 1:30pm
Charlie Hughes – Justin Shin (2) Vs. Dave Zibrik
– James Legault (1 up)
Quilchena Golf & Country Club, Richmond, BC -
2:06pm
Clarke MacPherson – Ryan Williams (17) Vs. Dan
Warburton – Billy Noon (9)
SRIXON BALL
PROGRAM: We
have a great program in place for our members
courtesy of our Official Ball Sponsor –
SRIXON. Thanks to Jamie MacKenzie of Srixon
Canada, VGT will supply its professional members
with premium Srixon balls for the 2008 season.
Courtesy of VGT and Srixon Canada, VGT
Professionals who play the Srixon ball for the
year will qualify to win a $500 cash bonus
awarded to the Top Srixon ball player at the
conclusion of the 2008 season. Srixon Canada
will also sponsor the amateur side of our events
by way of premier ball and merchandise prizing
throughout the year.
CLUB CAR signs on as
HOLE-IN-ONE SPONSOR: We
would like to announce that the Club Car
powercarts have signed on as an Official
Hole-in-one Sponsor for 2008. Club Car will
provide our players the chance to win their most
premier golf cart – The Presedent i2L Golf
Cart valued at $8,000 as a hole-in-one
prize at every VGT event this year! We are
excited to have the #1 rated Golf Carts onboard
this year to make our events even more exciting
for our players to play!
Membership gifts & Draw
prizes: All members will receive their VGT
membership gift at their first event. After the
round, we will draw for the following great
sponsor prizes:
One pair of ECCO SHOES – our Official
Footwear Provider
$50
Perfect Lies Gift Certificate – our
Official Golf Prize Retailer
Galvin Green golf shirt - our Official
Clothing Provider
Yellow
Pages The Yellow Pages Group has signed on as one of
VGT’s Official media sponsors and have become a
Presenting Sponsor of the 2008 Vancouver Open. They
will be an integral source of promoting our tour
through their website, lower mainland phone listings
and Vancouver Plus magazine. Let’s just say there
can be no more excuses for not knowing how to get a
hold of us now!!
PLATINUM SPONSORS:
Perfect
Lies We are very proud to welcome PERFECT LIES
back for their second year as the Official Prize
Retailer of the Vancouver Golf Tour for 2008. Their
support of our tour will allow us to offer some
great prizes for our Amateur golfers as well as
playing a significant role in one of our major
events for 2008 (TBA).
Surrey Now The
Surrey Now Newspaper has also signed on as one of
our Media Sponsors for 2008, helping us promote all
events we are conducting in the Surrey area – the
first of these is their Presenting Role of the
Canada Bread BC Match Play Finals at Northview Golf
Club on April 20th.
With that said, we are very excited about our 2nd
Championship Season which kicks off in just 11 days.
Sign-up early to ensure a place in the draw for all of
our tournaments!
Best regards,
Fraser Mulholland
Commissioner
Vancouver Golf Tour
NEWS FROM FEBRUARY 26
VGT LAUNCHES
NEW MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM FOR 2008!
MEMBERSHIP/TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION
VGT is excited to launch its New and Improved
Membership Program and Tournament Schedule for
2008. As of now, all VGT golfers have the
ability to register for 2008 membership and
tournaments online. Please follow the easy instructions
on how to register for membership and for
tournament registration. If for any reason you
are experiencing difficulties with registering
for membership or tournaments, please email us
at
info@vancouvergolftour.com and we will work
you through the process.
We are really looking
forward to hosting all our events with the new
GOLFBOX Membership and Scoring Software
we have installed. We hope you will enjoy the
experience both on course and when tracking your
tournament bookings through access to the
membership side of the program that will allow
you pre-register for events, update your member
profile at any time, check out the tournaments
you have registered for and have any tee-times
posted to your home page.
As a member, your tournament stats will be
tracked from event-to-event which will
accumulate into Year-end-totals which will
determine our Order of Merit Standings for both
Amateurs and Professionals. Professionals will
be vying for a paid entry down to PGA Tour
Qualifying School and Amateurs will be playing
for ‘Player of the Year’ honors. A full list of
Membership Benefits for
2008 can be found on our website.
2008 SPONSORS We
are very happy to have MarketPlace IGA
back as our Title Sponsor and Canada Bread
back as one of our Major Supporting Sponsors. We
are also proud to list the following sponsors
who are confirmed as Gold Sponsors or higher for
2008:
Johnston Meier
Insurance Group
Nickel Heating
& Ventilation
Haywood
Securities
Budget
Printing
Brad Garside
ECCO GOLF
Pest Detective
Yellow Pages
Group
MousePad
Publishing
Sunrise
Embroidery Ltd.
GOLFSWAP.CA
ECCO GOLF will be the Title Sponsor of
our Spring Championship, Yellow Pages
will act as one of our Premier Media Partners
and Sunrise Embroidery Ltd has signed on
as our Official Embroidery Provider for VGT.
Budget Printing has signed on again as VGT’s
Official Printing Provider and Haywood
Securities has signed on as the Title
Sponsor of our co-sanctioned event with the
Srixon Tour at Point Roberts on May 5th. We are
very thankful to have the services of Mike West
of MousePad Publishing who is the brains
behind making our website look so great!
With the help of our sponsors, we have been
able to commit to some higher Pro Purse amounts
and great amateur prizes for our Spring Events.
We are in the midst of negotiating more
sponsorship for the remaining Spring events and
our summer events that will help push our
Professional Purses higher in these events and
allow us to offer more exciting prizes to our
amateurs who compete.
NEW EVENTS
VGT has partnered up with two very successful
Pro-am events in the city, namely the
Hadassah Wizo Pro-am at Richmond Country
Club and the Flora Aasen Memorial Pro-am
at Pitt Meadows. Our association together has
already seen growth in the Hadassah Pro-am’s
Professional Purse from $7,500 last year to
$10,000 in 2008.
We have co-sanctioned two events with the
Lower Mainland Srixon Tour this year,
namely the NICKEL HEATING AND VENTILATION
OPEN on April 21st at Ledgeview GC and the
HAYWOOD SECURITIES OPEN on May 5th at
Point Roberts GC. We will have more news to
report about these two events and our other TBA
events very soon.
FREQUENT
PLAYER PROGRAM
New for 2008, VGT is featuring a ‘Frequent
Player Program’ for those members who play in a
minimum of 8 events on our calendar. Here’s how
it works:
Play 8 or more events - receive a VGT gift
at the end of the year. We will announce
this gift by the beginning of our first
event.
Play in 10 or more events – get put into a
draw for a Free Membership Program
for 2009 that consists of one VGT Membership
and a full Spring Series of Entry Fees for
2009 at no cost valued at up to $1,000!
Thanks for
your patience with the loading of our new system
to the website and I look forward to seeing you
at the golf show and our Opening event - the
BRAD GARSIDE Open on March 17th!
Fraser Mulholland
Commissioner
Vancouver Golf Tour
After
setting a tournament course record 63 on day one, it looked like Point Roberts
Head Professional Kyle German was in full command of his game and virtually
unstoppable. German not only went bogey free in round one making 8 birdies, but
came into this event with a 66 and 65 under his belt from his last two previous
events at University GC and Richmond CC. Looking at how solid German has been
playing in these last three rounds (21 under par), it appeared that his three
shot lead over McCleery’s James Harper would be enough of a cushion to win the
Chilliwack Open trophy.
With
one of the best Professional fields in the
tournament’s 26 year history, it was no surprise
to see the amount of low numbers posted in VGT’s
ninth Official Order of Merit event. At the end
of the day, it was the remarkable play of
Guilford GC’s Dan Swanson
and Point Roberts GC’s Kyle
German that resulted in a two-way tie
at the top. Both professionals
carded 65 (-7) on the day and
pocketed $1,575 each for their
t1st honors. Close behind in 3rd with
another fine round of 66 was Doug Morgan of The
Redwoods.
“Parry near perfect in Pitt Meadows”
In
this the 6th and final Spring Series Event on
the 2008 MarketPlace Vancouver Golf Tour
schedule, a well travelled Canadian Tour Member
Matt Daniel felt right at home on a familiar and
well manicured Hazelmere Golf Course. Having
played several rounds on the now famous course
for hosting CAN TOUR’S Greater Vancouver Charity
Classic, Daniel finished with full guns ablaze,
birdying 6 of his final 7 holes to record a
five-under par round of 67 and a two shot
victory over Calgary’s Todd Halpen. 
Guilford
Head Professional Dan Swanson seemed to
make it look easy this Monday at the Inaugural
Haywood Securities Open held at the
beautiful Point Roberts Golf & Country Club.
Carding 7 birdies on his card, Swanson’s six
under par 66 was good enough for a 3 shot
victory over Nationwide Tour player Bryn Parry
and past Canadian Tour player Phil Jonas and
good for $1,300. Swanson’s back-to-back
victories collected him $2,800 in Vancouver Golf
Tour’s fourth and fifth events vaults him
comfortably into the lead with $4,058.33, a good
$1,500 clear of his next competitors Kendal
Yonemoto ($2,470) and Bryn Parry ($2,011). After
the round, Parry, who had finished one group
earlier, had gone on record to say that all he
saw behind him all day was Swanson’s ball in the
middle of the fairway. So there was no surprise
when his card was handed in, pushing both Parry
and Jonas from their leader-in-the clubhouse
position back into a tie for 2nd place.
The 2008 Nickel
Heating Open, co-sanctioned by the Srixon Golf Tour, hosted a record
breaking 100 contestants for the one day VGT Open event held at the Ledgeview
Golf Club & Country Club yesterday. On this sunny but breezy day Professional
Dan Swanson of the Guilford Golf Club proved victorious, birdying the
18th hole for a score of (-4) to beat young Professional Jeremy Paradis of
Langley by one stroke to capture the title and a cheque for $1,500. Swanson’s
winning performance included a total of six birdies on the day and vaulted him
to the top of VGT’s Professional Order of Merit with a year-to-date earnings of
$2,758.33 after four events. Swanson is chased by Seymour Creek’s Kendal
Yonemoto and John Shin - winner of the Brad Garside Open – VGT’s Opening Event.
2008 CANADA BREAD BC MATCH PLAY
CHAMPIONSHIP -
2008 VGT Spring Series Event
Sandpiper Resort
2008
Canada Bread 
2008
We
have a great program in place for our members
courtesy of our Official Ball Sponsor –
SRIXON. Thanks to Jamie MacKenzie of Srixon
Canada, VGT will supply its professional members
with premium Srixon balls for the 2008 season.
Courtesy of VGT and Srixon Canada, VGT
Professionals who play the Srixon ball for the
year will qualify to win a $500 cash bonus
awarded to the Top Srixon ball player at the
conclusion of the 2008 season. Srixon Canada
will also sponsor the amateur side of our events
by way of premier ball and merchandise prizing
throughout the year.
We
would like to announce that the Club Car
powercarts have signed on as an Official
Hole-in-one Sponsor for 2008. Club Car will
provide our players the chance to win their most
premier golf cart – The Presedent i2L Golf
Cart valued at $8,000 as a hole-in-one
prize at every VGT event this year! We are
excited to have the #1 rated Golf Carts onboard
this year to make our events even more exciting
for our players to play! 
Yellow
Pages
Perfect
Lies 
The
Surrey Now Newspaper has also signed on as one of
our Media Sponsors for 2008, helping us promote all
events we are conducting in the Surrey area – the
first of these is their Presenting Role of the
Canada Bread BC Match Play Finals at Northview Golf
Club on April 20th.
We
are very happy to have MarketPlace IGA
back as our Title Sponsor and Canada Bread
back as one of our Major Supporting Sponsors. We
are also proud to list the following sponsors
who are confirmed as Gold Sponsors or higher for
2008:
