CANADIANS
ON
TOUR

September 29, 2003

Thirteen years and eight months, playing 366 tournaments on the PGA TOUR without a victory all came to screeching, record-breaking halt Sunday when Tommy Armour III completed an amazing week of shotmaking with a (64-62-63-65—254) 26-under par score --breaking the TOUR's 72-hole scoring record by two shots -- that earned him a seven-stroke victory in the Valero Texas Open. Loren Roberts, the defending champion, who closed with a 62 to reach 261---the same score he won with last year---and Bell Canadian Open champion Bob Tway---who shot a 9-under 61 in his first round---finished tied in a distant second place.

“I’ve always felt like I’ve underachieved for the talent I have,” said Armour, who more than tripled his season’s earnings with a winner’s cheque for $630,000. “I take it serious but it’s not the end-all.” His previous Tour victory was the 1990 Phoenix Open. Armour made his first bogey on #10 in the final round, ending a personal streak of 90 consecutive holes at par or better. In this tournament he one putted 35 times and three-putted just once. “I’m telling you it was scaring me a little bit,” said the 43-year-old Denver native “Every putt went in the hole.”

Glen Hnatiuk, of Selkirk, MB (left) moved up to 120th from 140th on the money list after tying for 7th at (65-68-64-68—265) 15-under par with six others who each earned $98,291. Hnatiuk’s total for the season is now $468,083. Ian Leggatt of Cambridge, ON (right) lost an opportunity to gain some ground becaused of a bogey-filled final round and went to the end of the field (T68) following his (67-69-68-73—277) 3-under par total which was worth only $6,930. Leggatt sits in 157th place after 22 tournaments with $263,027. Six tournaments remain on the regular TOUR schedule between now and November 2.

With birdies on five of his first seven holes to start his final round, Craig (The Walrus) Stadler overcame a two shot deficit to claim the Greater Hickory Classic for his second Champions Tour win of the season Sunday. Stadler’s bogey-free closing round helped him to a (66-69-66—201) 15-under par two shot triumph over Larry Nelson in his 12th senior event since turning 50 in June. In July The Walrus won the Ford Senior Players Championship and the following week won the BC Open on the PGA TOUR, the first TOUR member to win on both the regular and senior TOURS in the same season. The former Masters Champion (1982) has now won nearly $1.6 million from the two tours combined.

Despite a final round that included a double bogey and a triple bogey on the front nine, Dave Barr of Kelowna battled back with determination and five birdies on the back nine to post a respectable T16 at (69-74-69—211) 5-under par which earned him $20,083 for $682,701 on the season. Barr dropped down two spots to 26th on the Champions money list but because of Sunday’s strong finish Dave is a shoe-in to retain his playing card for next season. The top 31 players from this year’s money list are fully exempt for 2004 and the three-time BC Open champion (1975-77-78) is $133,530 ahead of the number 32 spot.

However, with only the Turtle Bay Championship in Oahu, HI October 10-12 remaining on the regular calendar that is still going to make for a pressure packed weekend. Barr slipped from 31st to 33rd on the rich Charles Schwab Cup race where only the top 30 point-getters qualilfy to tee off in the season-ending $2.5 million event. Currently No. 30 and last spot is held by Hubert Green with 411 points. Jay Sigal and Mark McCumber, tied with 396 points, both moved ahead of Barr into No. 31 this past week while Barr is alone at No. 33 with 393 points. Players earn Charles Schwab points by finishing in the top 10 (and ties) of each tournament with points equating to 1/1,000th of the official money earned for that event. Next week Barr may need a top five finish to climb past Green. Fortunately, there’s a 144 point spread between Green and #29 Carl Mason. Currently, Tom Watson leads the points race with 3,783.

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Name the legendary golfer who once said:
"Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course, the space between your ears."
(Answer at the end)

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Back-to-back eagles helped Annika Sorenstam win for the fifth time this year on the LPGA TOUR as the Swedish Ace successfully defended her Safeway Classic title and recorded her 47th career TOUR victory. BMO Canadian Women’s reigning champion Berth Daniel finished just one stroke off the pace after opening the tournament at Portland’s Columbia Edgewater course in 10-under par 62.

“I love coming down the stretch, when it's exciting. I mean, obviously it's fun to know that you win, but to see if you can hit the great shots when you need to, it's a thrill that I love. And, you know, winning never gets old. It's almost addictive, you know. So I'm very, very pleased.”

Sorenstam holds down the leading spot in the money race with $1,497,622 after 12 events.

Charlottetown, PEI’s Lorie Kane T6th after posting an (71-67-71) 8-under par worth $35,131 and moving to 14th over all at $523,905. Dawn Coe-Jones seemed headed in the wrong direction during the second round but turned it around and finished T34 at (70-76-70—216) even par (84th, $67,117). A.J. Eathorne (101, $55,582) and *Gail Graham (192nd, $2,720) and Nancy Harvey (118th, $35,582), all missed the cut. The 13-year-old amateur sensation, Michelle Wie, took another couple of days off from her grade 9 studies to play in Oregon and finished T28 at (69-73-72—214) 2-under par. She’ll now return to her classes in Hawaii for a couple of weeks before going to Korea for the Sports Today CJ Nine Bridges Classic, which will be her seventh and final LPGA Tour event of 2003.
*Gail Graham Feature Below

Althea Gibson, a great pioneer in both golf and tennis, twice voted Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, died Sunday (September 28) of respiratory failure at a hospital in East Orange, N.J. She was 76. Having taken up golf in 1960, she became the first black woman to play on the LPGA tour in 1962. BMO Canadian Open champion Beth Daniel, a member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, spoke Sunday about her relationship with Gibson:

“I played with Althea Gibson when I was an amateur. Althea played in the U.S. Open in Philadelphia when I was an amateur, I was paired with her. Unbelievable athlete. Both of us come from South Carolina, so I know a good bit about her career and followed her. Unbelievable athlete. There are very, very few athletes who can cross over in sports and she was able to do that. I know Joan Joyce tried do it on our Tour, to go from softball to golf, and it's hard. But Althea was a tremendous athlete and a tremendous ambassador to tennis and golf.” Gibson, who broke the colour barrier in tennis in the 1950’s, was a humble Wimbleton and U.S. national champion who once told an interviewer: “I always wanted to be somebody. If I made it, it's half because I was game enough to take a lot of punishment along the way and half because there were a lot of people who cared enough to help me.”

GAIL GRAHAM -- COMING HOME TO RETIRE
Her final journey down the road to fame and glory in the world of golf won’t exactly be like the year-long Nancy Lopez farewell tour of last year. For Gail Graham, who is retiring this Fall after 14 years as a member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, competing against the best female golfers in the world, her last days on the road will be spent quietly saying thanks and goodby to some of the close friends she met and worked with while playing inside the ropes and attending meetings during the years she spent on the Executive Committee and as a past president. But now at age 39, Gail Graham is coming home.

“Right away I think I just want to do some things at home and be with my family and be in the Okanagan. Maybe travel a little bit and do a few things.”

Gail will miss the friendships she’s developed over the years but there are some things she certainly won’t be missing.

“I’m not going to miss a lot about being out on tour. Having to do your laundry Friday nights in a crummy laundremat, eating out all the time, travelling. I’m looking forward to sort of a normal life.”

A two-time winner on the LPGA TOUR (1995 Fieldcrest Cannon Classic, 1997 Alpine Australian Masters) Gail admits her life playing a sport she loves has been outstanding.

“That’s very true and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed pretty much every moment of it but it's had its definate times where I’ve thought, 'what am I doing out here?' Everyone thinks it's very glamorous, and at times it can be, but it's a lot of grind and it wears on your body and it wears on your mind and wears on your relationships and so you really need to be strong to be able to carry things on like a person is at home, going to work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday, to do the scene at home with relationships and stuff, so its something that that part of it I won’t miss. I will definately miss the people, the Tournamant Directors, the volunteers, the players, our officials, the Commissioner. I’ll miss all those people. Certainly, I won’t loose contact with them but . . . just not being around them every day, that’ll be hard, but the rest of it, being at home, will be great.”

It’s easy to look at Gail’s playing records to see where her happy moments may have come, like winning the Manitoba Amateur championship in 1983 and 1985; recording her first professional hole-in-one on Canadian soil in the 1993 du Maurier at London, ON; her first double eagle in 1996 or tying for 4th at the 98 du Maurier Classic. However, on a less publicised scale what about her accomplishments in the boardroom on behalf of her fellow LPGA members?

“I think probably being involved in and then seeing come to fruition the Players’ summit and the building of the strategic plan for the LPGA and having the players buy into that plan and know that they understand where we need to go, what we need to do, over and above playing golf. That was really a pround moment to see the players buy into a program that we’d all worked so hard to make sure was appropriate for every player, not just for the top players and not just the bottom half of the field. It was something that everyone was going to benefit from and itturned out great.”

Adding to the pressure of being away from home during long periods of time, Gail and husband Terry came dangerouly close to loosing their home in the Kelowna region.

“We had a spot fire in our front yard, about 50-feet from our front door, so that was pretty close and within 150 yards of us is pretty much total devastation. So we were very, very fortunate to walk away with a little bit of smoke in the house and really lucky things didn’t go much worse for us. We know a lot of people and a lot of golfers in Kelowna who were affected by the fires. No golf courses in Kelowna were lost but a lot of golfers lost their homes.”

Things have a way of working for a greater cause than we often realize. This year Jocelynne Bourassa retired from the role she performed so well for the RCGA, du Maurier and most recently the Bank of Montreal as Tournament Director for the Canadian Women’s Open programs. Perhaps Gail Graham is coming home at just the right time.

When Chuck Milne of Vancouver, Washington was forced to spend part of a morning in hospital because of an unusual numbness in his left side it was uncertain whether he would be able to play or even show up at the Kelowna Golf & Country Club for the opening round of the G & G Golf BC PGA Senior’s Championship. However, when Milne was finally given a doctor’s approval to go ahead and play he rushed off to the course, arrived just moments before his scheduled tee time and proceeded to shoot an impressive 3-under par 69 to take a one shot first round lead. Apparently feeling much better the next day, Milne then toured the lush 6,276-yard Kelowna layout in 5-under 67 –lowest round of the tournament-- to finish the championship with a commanding 8-under par eight shot lead. Milne is the first international winner in the nine-year history of the G & G Golf http://www.gandg-golf.com/ BC PGA Seniors’. (photo: Corey German, Milne, Gord German, KGCC))

Dan Trevisan from Squamish Valley G&CC (70-74), Oregon’s Mike Miller (71-73) and Harold Simkins of Kamloops G&CC (74-70) all tied for second at even par 144. Miller was another American in the field of 33 active and retired senior professionals who put on an impressive final round performance, scoring a hole-in-one and posting two birdies in his final four holes to capture the G & G Golf Super Senior title. One shot back and tied for 5th were two-time winner and defending champion Neil Green of Kelowna, Dan Rosengren from Surrey’s Morgan Creek G&CC, Mike Grass, Kamloops G&CC and Laurie Pierce, Prince George G&CC. Rounding out the Top 10 another shot back were Mike Renshaw from Oregon’s Prineville G&CC and host professional Greg Pidlaski, Kelowna G&CC.

http://www.bcpga.org/resultsseniors.html

The G & G Golf BC PGA Seniors’ Championship was scheduled to have been played last month, howver, due to the unprecedented fire situation in the picturesque Okanagan the event was delayed until September 22-23. Fortunately, the 77-year-old 18-hole Kelowna course sustained no damage whatsoever and, like the shimmering cliffs in this Brian Sprout photo suggests, the Kelowna G&C http://www.kgcc.bc.ca/ continues to stand as one of the giant cornerstones of golf in British Columbia’s interior. As far as the fire situation is concerned there are no reports of any of BC’s golf courses or resorts experiencing any physical damage. In a few cases courses in Kelowna and Kamloops were considered potential targets of the wild fires and a couple were closed temporarily but, as one greens superintendent explained, the brief rest his course experienced in the middle of a busy season did wonders for the greens.

POPULAR NO-SHOW: . . . . one of the PGA TOUR’s most popular players is unquestionably John Daly, the ‘grip-it-and-rip’ hero of the 1991 PGA and ‘95 British Open Championships. However, the TOUR’s legendary long hitting champion will soon have to start finishing some of the tournaments he starts if he wants to maintain any credibility. Daley has entered 21 events so far this season and won a meagre $220,647 from the seven he’s finished. However, not including the many charity and special events he participates in where he has won the hearts of children and volunteer workers alike, Long John has not finished his last six events, missing the cut in two and withdrawing from three of his last five. According to a dispatch in the Pittsburg Post Gazette, Daly, the official host of the 84 Lumber tournament two weeks ago, was apparently suffering from dehydration and his hands were trembling when he withdrew and left the course in his motorhome. This past week he played three rounds before being disqualified for signing an incorrect card. The last time Daly earned a TOUR cheque was August 3. Although he averages 314.6 yards off the tee---2nd best on TOUR---he ranks 196th in driving accuracy hitting fairways only 49% of the time. Of course the reason so many love watching him are for those occasions when he unleashes a ball 381 yards, this year’s 4th longest drive . . . . Hanke Khune is the TOUR’s current driving leader, averaging 319.5 yards, reaching the fairways 53.2% with one measured blast at 385 yards. Although Hammerin’ Hank has two Canandian Tour victories but no PGA TOUR titles he has managed to finish second and third this year and pocket nearly $900,000 in winnings . . . . Tommy Armour is certainly remembered in Las Vegas. In 2001 at the Invitational Armour had to settle for a second round of 12-under par 60 as a result of missing a 2 1/2-foot putt for birdie on the 14th hole, becoming the only PGA TOUR member 40 or older to shoot a 60 on a par-72 course . . . . Armour’s TOUR win was the 10th this season by a player age 40 or over.

CRITIQUING KELOWNA’S COURSES: . . . . One of golf’s top travel writers, Robert Thompson, Travel Correspondent for GolfWeb on the PGATOUR.COM web site, wrote a column this past week full of praise for some of the newer Okanagan courses near Kelowna, namely Predator Ridge Golf Resort, which he describes as Canada’s diamond in the rough. Thompson also was impressed with most of the other tracks like the Harvest, the Quail and the Bear from The Okanagan and the older Gallagher’s Canyon golf course and what they all have to offer. However, he did bring to light what many visiting golfers have said about the proliferation of cramming big homes on courses and the loss of some of nature’s local ambiance. Writes Thompson: “like Gallagher's Canyon, the Quail has several holes where it feels like you're playing in the front yards of the homes that sit near the fairways on the final nine.” And the travel consultant offered: “At its best, like its series of spectacular par 3s, Gallagher's Canyon is among the best courses in Canada. However, real estate is a big factor at Gallagher's Canyon and some of the homes encroach on the course, looming a little too close to some fairways.” Thompson, certainly no stranger to Canadian golf courses, added: “Perhaps all that the area is lacking is another world-class course similar to Predator Ridge. But even without another championship caliber track, Kelowna is quietly becoming an alternative for golfers looking to break away from other tried and true destinations.“

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The legendary BobbyJones, golf’s only same-season Grand Slam winner, is quoted as offering the coment:
"Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course, the space between your ears."

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