BC's NPJLTM Squad Are No Strangers To Success On The Golf Course. Clockwise From Top Left: Angela Arora, Yeji Kwon, Luna Lu, Martina Yu, Tina Jiang & Katherine Hao 

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The long wait is over for Team British Columbia in its quest for a ‘five-peat’ in the North Pacific Junior Ladies Team Matches. 

It was way back in 2019 that British Columbia won its fourth straight title in the annual competition that features junior teams from B.C., Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

B.C.’s drive for five was put on hold when the 2020 and 2021 matches were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, finally, the matches are a go and scheduled for May 28-29 at The Home Course in Dupont, Wash.

Coquitlam's A.J. Ewart Picked Up His 5th Win Of The Year Last Week - Photo/Ethan Lowe VSU)/Barry U

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

A.J. Ewart is the top-ranked player in NCAA Division II golf and the Coquitlam native keeps showing us why.

Ewart won again, in most impressive fashion, at the NCAA South/Southeast Regional tourney in Valdosta, Ga. Ewart, a junior at Barry University in south Florida, closed with a six-under 66 on what was his 23rd birthday (on May 7) and beat the field by six shots with a 54-hole total of 13-under par.

Proctor, BC's Jackie Little - Image Credit Brad Ziemer/BC Golf

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Jackie Little and Shelly Stouffer wouldn’t want to change a thing after their two matches Wednesday at the PNGA Lamey Cup team competition at Bellingham Golf & Country Club. Well, maybe one thing. 

Little and Stouffer won both of their matches in convincing fashion after something of a scare just prior to their morning four-ball match. That’s when a cart attendant plowed into Little’s push cart, which then banged her and sent the British Columbia Golf Hall of Famer flying into a rock wall.

Little, who now lives in the small Kootenay community of Procter, played both matches with a sore lower back, but you never would have known it.

Chilliwack Golf Clubis hosting a ParaGolf Canada adaptive golf clinic on Saturday, May 14, 2022.

There are a limited number of spaces available, so those interested should register through Chilliwack GC's website.

The cost is $25 and the clinic runs from 1:30pm to 3:30pm, followed by a “Trick Shot Show” by Todd Keirstead.

Participants are also welcome and invited to join CGC for a dinner banquet in the Canex Pavilion at 5pm. See more details in the poster below. 

Mid-Amateur Champions Craig Doell & Shelly Stouffer Head Up BC Golf's PNGA Lamey Cup Team

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The PNGA Lamey Cup is named in honour of Dr. Jack Lamey, a former president of the Pacific Northwest Golf Association who started the Ryder Cup-style team competition featuring players representing the Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia golf associations 16 years ago.

Kelowna’s Norm Bradley, a former B.C. Senior Men’s champion, considers it his good fortune to have played in nine of them. He’ll make his 10th appearance in early May when the Lamey Cup resumes after a two-year Covid-induced hiatus at Bellingham Golf & Country Club.

Kim Cowburn Plays A Shot During The Official Opening Of The Back 9 At Hirsch Creek Golf Club in 1991 - Image Courtesy Kim Cowburn-Evans

By Kim Cowburn-Evans

I grew up in Kitimat, a small, isolated town in Northwestern British Columbia. Winters were exceedingly long and gargantuan snowfalls were the norm. Summer seemed to stop by for a short visit and then disappear as quickly as it arrived.

I wasn’t quite 11 in the spring of 1978 when golf was introduced to me. I most definitely did not display any natural talent for the game at all, but it would soon become the centre of my universe.

I've never been the sun worshipping type. The pursuit of a tan was not conducive to my pasty, fair skin and blue eyes. As it happens, chronic sun exposure and playing golf go hand-in-hand. I have burned, blistered and peeled so many times that it’s a wonder that I have any skin left.

Riley Wheeldon Has Fully Exempt Status This Year On The PGA TOUR Canada - PGA TOUR Canada Image

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Riley Wheeldon will tell you it was a lot more than home course advantage that propelled him to his impressive performance at last week’s PGA Tour Canada qualifying school at Crown Isle Golf Resort. 

Sure, his intimate familiarity with the Crown Isle layout that is located not far from his childhood home in Comox came in handy, but Wheeldon credits an attitude adjustment with his solid play. 

“My game has always been there,” Wheeldon said. “My attitude hasn’t. That was one thing I said to myself last summer, that if I was going to keep doing this, my attitude has to change. Having a little refresh this winter, I was able to come out and focus on attitude and let everything else fall into place and behold, this game is pretty fun.”

Riley Wheeldon Has Fully Exempt Status This Year On The PGA TOUR Canada - PGA TOUR Canada Image

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Riley Wheeldon will tell you it was a lot more than home course advantage that propelled him to his impressive performance at last week’s PGA TOUR Canada qualifying school at Crown Isle Golf Resort. 

Sure, his intimate familiarity with the Crown Isle layout that is located not far from his childhood home in Comox came in handy, but Wheeldon credits an attitude adjustment with his solid play.

“My game has always been there,” Wheeldon said. “My attitude hasn’t. That was one thing I said to myself last summer, that if I was going to keep doing this, my attitude has to change. Having a little refresh this winter, I was able to come out and focus on attitude and let everything else fall into place and behold, this game is pretty fun.”

Reigning Women's PGA Of Canada Champion  Christine Wong - Image Courtesy PGA of Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The Vancouver Golf Tour has been a stepping stone for the likes of Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin to the PGA TOUR and commissioner Fraser Mulholland would love to see it help provide a path for female players looking to make their way to the LPGA Tour.

Mulholland hopes the inaugural GolfBC Group B.C. Women’s Open, to be played June 4-5 at Mayfair Lakes Golf & Country Club in Richmond, is a significant first step.

BC's Chris Crisologo (R) And Lawren Rowe (L) Are Set To Tee Off On The PGA Tour Canada Circuit

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Lawren Rowe and Chris Crisologo have punched their tickets to this summer’s PGA Tour Canada circuit and this week several other British Columbians will be hoping to follow suit.

Rowe, a former University of Victoria standout, and Crisologo, who had a stellar collegiate career at Simon Fraser University, both earned solid status for the upcoming season at a PGA Tour Canada qualifying school at The Home Course in Dupont, Wash.

That was Q-school No. 6. The seventh and final Q-school goes this week at Crown Isle Golf Resort in Courtenay.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Doug Hawley and his staff couldn’t help but get a little emotional as the final shots were struck Easter Monday at Redwoods Golf Course. 

The Langley course is being forced to close for a few months due to construction of the TransCanada pipeline. Hawley, Redwoods’ managing director, knows the course he has run for the past 28 years will emerge better than ever. But he acknowledges it’s going to be tough to watch some of the fairways get ripped up for the pipeline project.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Doug Hawley and his staff couldn’t help but get a little emotional as the final shots were struck Easter Monday at Redwoods Golf Course. 

The Langley course is being forced to close for a few months due to construction of the TransCanada pipeline. Hawley, Redwoods’ managing director, knows the course he has run for the past 28 years will emerge better than ever. But he acknowledges it’s going to be tough to watch some of the fairways get ripped up for the pipeline project.

“You spend 30 years making fairways and growing grass and it just gets completely destroyed,” Hawley says. “It’s like watching a natural disaster happening. It’s kind of heart-wrenching, but once the restoration work is done it will be better than it was. . .When we re-open it will be in the best shape it’s ever been in the past 28 years.”

Team Canada L-R Back Row: Jeff MacDonald (Coach), Cooper Humphreys, Ethan Wilson, Jean Phillippe Parr, Felix Bouchard, Robert Ratcliffe (Head Coach), L-R Front Row: Jennifer Greggain (Coach), Michelle Liu, Yeji Kwon, Nicole Gal - Image Courtesy Golf Canada

Via Golf Canada

VICTORIA, B.C. – Team Canada’s National Junior Squad boys and girls teams both finished with top spots on the leaderboard at Royal Colwood Golf Club to secure the opportunity to play in the 2022 Toyota Junior Golf World Cup.

Kaleb Gorbahn - Image Credit Chuck Russell/Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Kaleb Gorbahn earned conditional status at last week’s PGA Tour Canada qualifying school in California, but the Smithers native was in no mood to celebrate. Gorbahn knows conditional status and a couple of dollars will buy you a cup of coffee.

He’s not guaranteed any starts this summer. Maybe he gets some, maybe he doesn’t. Gorbahn acknowledges the grind of chasing his pro golf dream has been difficult. “It has been hard,” he says. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I have had doubts about whether I should be doing this or not.”

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Greg Moody has a rather simple explanation for why he spends considerable time giving back to the game of golf. “I just enjoy volunteering,” Moody says. “I think you’re either born with a volunteer gene or you’re not.”

Moody clearly has his. A highly respected rules official and a longtime champion of junior golf, Moody is the new president of British Columbia Golf. Moody was officially elected by the BC Golf board on April 3rd. He jokes that it is not a position he expected or coveted.

“I never aspired to this position,” says Moody, a North Vancouver resident who has been a member of Seymour Golf & Country Club since the mid-1980s. “I just like volunteering. This is something I started to do when I retired and I have especially enjoyed working with the kids.”

Homestead Farms GC Is Offering Some Great Deals For Canadians Ready To Play Down South Again - Image Courtesy Homestead Farms GC/Pixabay

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The British Columbians are back and no one is happier about that than the folks at Homestead Farms Golf Course in Lynden. Homestead has always relied heavily on British Columbia traffic, so when the border closed more than two years ago due to Covid-19, it had a devastating effect on the course. 

“I would say it is at least half of our business,” says Trevor Parsons, who works in the Homestead pro shop. “We’re right on the border so the last couple of years have been tough. We have been missing the Canadians.” 

As of April 1, costly Covid testing requirements that kept B.C. golfers north of the border, were dropped. Whatcom County courses are obviously hoping to see lots of B.C. golfers this spring and summer.

Kaleb Gorbahn - Image Credit Chuck Russell/Golf Canada

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Kaleb Gorbahn earned conditional status at last week’s PGA Tour Canada qualifying school in California, but the Smithers native was in no mood to celebrate. Gorbahn knows conditional status and a couple of dollars will buy you a cup of coffee.

He’s not guaranteed any starts this summer. Maybe he gets some, maybe he doesn’t. Gorbahn acknowledges the grind of chasing his pro golf dream has been difficult. “It has been hard,” he says. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I have had doubts about whether I should be doing this or not.”

The Dawson City Golf Course is looking to fill two major positions at their facility. Please see the postings below seeking a Clubhouse Manager and Grounds Superintendent. 

The Dawson City Golf Course, situated across the Yukon River in Dawson City, Yukon, features nine-holes, a driving range, a clubhouse, and hosts multiple special events throughout the season. The course is operated by the Dawson Golf Association (DGA), a non-profit association.

Two BC Amateur Champions, Tristan Mandur (L) & Nolan Thoroughgood (R) ReceiveTheir Team Silver Medals At The 2017 Canada Summer Games - Image Credit: 2017 Canada Summer Games/Anthony_Fernando-Golf-1715

The  British Columbia Golf selection committee will use the NextGen Pacific Championship, taking place at Nanaimo GC May 13 - 15, 2022, as a competition to start the process of selecting the top performance juniors for the 2022 Canada Summer Games to represent British Columbia in Niagara Falls in August. 

royalty free photo used with permission

Due to high demand and limited supply in the local market because of extensive flooding in Abbotsford during November of 2021, two of British Columbia's major turf farms have been severely affected.

Western Turf Farms saw their farm and equipment submerged under water for an extended period of time. It is taking quite some time to assess whether any turf is recoverable, which it is likely not, and they in all probability will have to start from scratch from the soil beds up.

Bos Sod Farm is in a very similar situaton and both of these family-run operations are major suppliers of athletic fields, residential requirements and golf courses. In an effort to help these businesses get back on their feet the Canadian Turf Research Foundation, in conjunction with Golf Canada and the Golf Canada Foundation, have created a donation page.