2008 VGT SEASON UPDATES

 

BC Match Play                                        The Commish on Global
 


HAYWOOD SECURITIES OPEN – Point Roberts Golf Club
 

SWANSON’S DELIGHT AT POINT ROBERTS

Haywood Winner - Dan SwansonGuilford 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.

Complete Tournament Recap Available Here
 


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.

Complete Tournament Recap Available Here


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.

Complete Tournament Recap Available Here


Results of Saturday's Semi-finals matches of the 2008 CANADA BREAD BC MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPS held at Northview Golf & Country Club:

Matt Palsenbarg/ John Shin  (Northview Golf & Country Club)
3&2
Ryan Williams / Clark macPherson (Seymour Creek Golf Center)


Charlie Hughes / Justin Shin (Swan-e-set Bay Resort)
5&3
Bryn Parry / Kendal Yonemoto  (Seymour Creek Golf Center)

Complete Tournament Recap Available Here


Official Start Times for this Monday’s NICKEL HEATING OPEN at Ledgeview Golf & Country Club have been posted, please click here and then select ‘Nickel Heating Open’ from the Tournament list. Our attendance for this event, including a few sponsors, is a record high of 94 players – more than any one day VGT event we have run so far!!

Our field consists of 51 professionals and 40 competitive amateurs plus a few sponsors. Special thanks to our Title Sponsor NICKEL HEATING and VENTILATION for their support of this event, allowing us to boost the Professional Purse to almost $7,500!! First place professional cheque will be estimated at approximately $1,400. With Nickel’s sponsorship and some of our regular sponsors also comes a great Amateur Prize table!

No doubt we will continue to have numbers similar to these for our future events this year. I would urge that you all try to plan your schedules accordingly and register as early as possible for the events you are planning on attending as we may at time have limited field situations (Hazelmere on May 23rd for instance is a 7:30am shotgun – maximum field size is 72 players). Pre-register through membership as soon as today and make sure your payment is received by VGT by the registration deadline to secure your entry.


VGT Spring Series Event #3 at Sandpiper Resort

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>>


2008 Canada Bread BC Match Play

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.

Tournament Schedule, Results, Reviews & Photos

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)


Tournament Schedule, Results, Reviews & Photos


2008 Brad Garside/Paine Edmonds LLP OPEN
King’s Links Golf Club
Monday, March 17th
10am start

Tournament Results & Review: click here


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

  • Srixon balls (must play the ball that day)


NEW VGT SPONSORS for 2008:

DIAMOND SPONSOR:

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

 

 

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