Golfers get shots at $50K payouts

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This article was published 11/07/2020 (2228 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Adam Hadwin, Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners are now teeing it up with the big boys on the PGA Tour. But the talented Canadian trio all got their golfing starts in the Great White North.

The quest to develop the next homegrown star got a boost Friday with news the Mackenzie Tour wasn’t completely cancelled this summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic after all. Instead, it will hold a four-tournament mini-tour in British Columbia and Ontario with plenty on the line.

The Canada Life Series will feature two 54-hole events at Bear Mountain Golf & Tennis Resort Community in Langford on Vancouver Island and two more at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley. Fields will consist of Canadian professionals and top amateurs, as well as Mackenzie Tour members, regardless of citizenship, who are already in Canada. Officials anticipate between 90 and 120 players, with purses set at $50,000 per tournament.

“This is a great opportunity for Canadian players to earn status on the Mackenzie Tour. Plus, it’s great competition and good purses on unreal courses,” Derek Ingram, the Winnipeg-based head coach of Canada’s national men’s amateur golf team and personal swing coach for Conners, told the Free Press.

“At a time where the border is basically closed, it’s great to be able to compete and improve in a safe country with a good carrot at the end of the circuit. It’s events like this that are the start for players making the PGA Tour like Adam, Mac and Corey.”

The top player through the four events is guaranteed at least six Mackenzie Tour starts next year, along with an invite to the PGA Tour’s 2021 RBC Canadian Open. Those finishing second through fifth will be guaranteed at least two Mackenzie Tour tournament starts, while Nos. 6-10 earn a discounted rate into one of the 2021 Mackenzie Tour Qualifying Tournaments.

Exempt players for the Canada Life Series include any Canadian professional who has held status on any of the PGA TOUR’s International Tours since 2018 (Mackenzie Tour, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR Series-China). Six sponsor exemptions will be used by Golf Canada for national team members. Canada Life will receive two sponsor exemptions, while both host facilities will have two sponsor exemptions each.

The Tour will fill the fields on a first-come-first-served basis if the exempt categories don’t reach their limits.

That could be good news for Manitoba golfers such as Mackenzie Tour veteran Aaron Cockerill (currently on hiatus from the European Tour), along with other local pros and amateurs such as Travis Fredborg, Devon Schade, Austin Dobrescu, Colwyn Abgrall and Justin McDonald, who have all competed in previous Players Cups, which is the local event on the Mackenzie Tour.

The full slate of Mackenzie Tour tournaments, including the recently renamed Manitoba Open that was set for next month at Southwood, had to be scrubbed earlier this year due to difficulties in getting enough players from outside Canada to play, along with restrictions on fans, which would severely impact revenues for hosts.

But work on a possible alternative continued.

“We were poised for a great summer of golf, but we never lost sight of the purpose for this tour, which is to give players opportunities to play tournaments on quality golf courses,” Scott Pritchard, the executive director of the Mackenzie Tour, said Friday in a statement

“To be able to promise the top player from the Canada Life Series additional playing opportunities next season on the Mackenzie Tour only enhances what we’re trying to do, and we’re extremely pleased that will happen,” Pritchard continued.

The Bear Mountain: Mountain Course event is set for Aug. 10-12, while the Bear Mountain: Valley Course event goes Aug. 17-19. The scene then shifts to Ontario, where back-to-back Heathlands course tournaments run Sept. 2-4 and Sept. 9-11.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

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