Announcement: Cancellation Of 2020 British Columbia Golf Mid-Amateur Competition

Due to the COVID - 19 pandemic and the Ministry of Health's safety regulations, B.C. Golf has determined that it would not be in the best interests of our staff, volunteers or players to hold the B.C. Mid-Amateur.

The Mid-Amateur was scheduled to be played at Gorge Vale Golf Club in Victoria from May 26th-28th.

The B.C. Men's Mid-Am started in 1986 and the Women's started in 2006, this will be the first time since then that they have not been contested. We look forward to bringing this championship back in 2021.

This is not an easy decision to make and we thank Gorge Vale Golf Club who were excited to hold this championship.

We have not made any decisions on our other Championships for the 2020 season at this time, and will give at least 4 weeks of notice for each event as to whether it goes ahead or not.

We all hope to get back on the golf course as soon as it is safe to do so.

SFU Women's Golf Team - Image Credit Jacob Hall/SFU

By Samuel Rowan/SFU Athletics

BURNABY, BC --- On Friday, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference announced it's All-GNAC selections for the 2019-2020 golf season. After a historically impressive campaign, Simon Fraser had five student athletes selected to the All-GNAC first team, while Matthew Steinbach was named coach of the year.

In addition to being named an All-GNAC first team selection, Emily Leung shared the GNAC player of the year award with Cammie Decker of Concordia University. Both were also recently named DII All-Americans.

SFU Men's Golf Team Including Coach Matthew Steinbach Far Right (Twitter Image)

By Jacob Hall
Sports Information Manager, Marketing and Communications
Simon Fraser University

BURNABY, BC --- On Wednesday morning, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference announced their 2019- 2020 Men's Golf All-GNAC team selections, which included three SFU student-athletes, as well as Head Coach Matthew Steinbach.

Leading the way for SFU among All-GNAC selections was senior Scott Kerr. Kerr tied with Concordia senior Jaxson Daskalos with a 72.0 stroke average over 15 rounds, good enough for second lowest in the conference, finishing with six rounds of par or below and placing in the top-10 three times out of five events to earn his second first-team nod.

For Release April 20, 2020

On March 26, 2020, the BC Government issued the following:

“The Provincial Health Officer has ordered some types of businesses to close. Any business or service that has not been ordered to close and is also not identified on the essential service list may stay open if they can adapt their services and workplace to the orders and recommendations of the PHO.”

With over 300 golf courses in all areas of the province, it is critical that all golf operations in British Columbia immediately align with COVID-19 orders, direction and safety protocols mandated by the Provincial Health Office (PHO) and regional health authorities.

Where governments have not mandated the temporary closure of golf courses, such as in BC, golf operators choosing to open must take every health and safety precaution for their team members and customers.

Please click HERE to view Allied Golf Association (AGA) Best Practices Manual For BC Golf Courses.

British Columbia Golf would like to extend our sincerest condolences to Anita Sharpe and the entire Sharpe family upon learning of the recent passing of Anita's husband Barry, on Sunday, March 29th.

Barry Sharpe was an integral part of the golf media community for many years and a major contributor when it came to covering golf at all levels and those involved in and around the game. 

Please find below the words of Barry's wife Anita honouring her husband and his legacy. 

TO: All Member Clubs; All Member Club’s Handicap Committees

Posting of Scores during COVID-19 Lockdowns

The information below provides guidance in response to questions received from golf course owners, administrators, tournament organizers and golfers. It is not the intended purpose of the below guidance to either encourage or discourage anyone from playing the game, but rather, in our role as administrators, to help golf course operators, committees and golfers better understand how the Rules of Golf and Rules of Handicapping apply to the various questions we have received.

British Columbia Golf would like to wish a Happy Passover (Pesach) to all of BC's Jewish Community beginning with sunset April 8th until Thursday, April 16th. “Chag Pesach Samech.”

Passover or Pesach is a major Jewish holiday and one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays. Together with Shavuot and Sukkot, Passover was one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals during which the entire population of the kingdom of Judah made a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. 

Following the recently completed Annual General Meeting, British Columbia Golf would like to welcome the three newest members of their Board.

Now on 'Board' as directors are Shayain Gustavsp, Joe Higgins and Michael Cook. Each brings with them a unique set of skills and experience that will only add to the quality of the existing Board Members. Below you'll find short bios of each of the new directors.

Click HERE or below to see a video of the AGM as presented online following social distancing protocol.

 World Handicap System Online Training Seminar

On behalf of British Columbia Golf, thank you for your interest in the World Handicap System!

The following four-part Online Training Seminar is being provided to help educate and authorize golf clubs in British Columbia to administer the World Handicap System. However, individuals are also permitted to view this content for their own knowledge.

Courtesy Golf Canada

With heightened uncertainty and global concern related to COVID-19, Golf Canada continues to evaluate all aspects of our business to operate and make informed and responsible decisions within the best interests of our athletes, staff, volunteers, host clubs, partners and other stakeholders health and well-being.

Today (March 30, 2020), Golf Canada is announcing its decision to cancel or postpone the events listed below.

^{image courtesy ISHA}

For Immediate Release
March 27, 2020

Vancouver, BC – The BC Sports Hall of Fame Induction Gala to celebrate the Class of 2020 has been officially postponed until the fall. The popular annual event, which was scheduled to take place on Thursday, June 4, at the Vancouver Convention Centre, will now take place Thursday, November 12.

“In light of the quickly-evolving situation surrounding the COVID-19 crisis, we have made the decision to postpone the 2020 Induction Gala”, explains Nicholas Cartmell, CEO of the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

Presented By Tyler McKay/British Columbia Golf, Manager - Participation

The following 7 drills are adapted drills from British Columbia Golf’s Playground 2 Fairways (P2F) school golf program and can easily be done at home.

In fact, we call this program “Home to Fairway” or H2F. Each drill comes with a written explanation on this page along with a video demonstration which will be linked here next to the explanation.

There are also written reasons on why each of the skills focused on in these drills will help with golf and other sports.

Re: Email Regarding Golf Travel Sent Earlier Today

British Columbia Golf would like to issue a sincere apology for the email communication sent earlier today promoting golf travel.

After the closure of all facilities earlier this month, we implemented a hold on all communications like this.

This one, however, had been auto-scheduled to distribute today prior to this decision and, in a clerical error, was not subsequently "unscheduled."

We fully appreciate the inappropriate nature of this transmission given the current situation and members can be assured no other emails of this nature will be sent until conditions change.

Again our sincere apologies,

British Columbia Golf

Cliquez ici pour lire la version française

Published Monday, March 23, 2020 12:03PM PDTLast Updated Monday, March 23, 2020 3:07PM PDT

VICTORIA -- The B.C. government has launched a COVID-19 support app to help provide residents with the latest information on the ongoing pandemic.

The app can be downloaded through the Apple Store or Google Play and is also available as a website online here. 

Besides acting as a platform for posting information and alerts, the app also features the B.C. government’s COVID-19 self-assessment tool that can help residents decide if they need to seek coronavirus testing.

The self-assessment tool can also be found as a standalone test online here. 

See complete article HERE.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO/OTTAWA (March 22, 2020) – The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC), backed by their Athletes’ Commissions, National Sports Organizations and the Government of Canada, have made the difficult decision to not send Canadian teams to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2020.  

The COC and CPC urgently call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone the Games for one year and we offer them our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring. While we recognize the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community.