Tee 2 Green with Barry Sharpe - - October 6/08

October 6, 2008

When private club members Kevin Spooner, Mike Marshall and 16-year-old Matt Cavelti won their respective Men's, Senior and Junior Club championships at West Vancouver's Capilano Golf & Country Club this summer they had no idea that their victories would lead to playing a round of golf with former Masters champion Mike Weir Tuesday morning (Oct. 7). Thanks to Weir's sponsor, TaylorMade and management company IMG, the eight-time PGA TOUR winner will stage a clinic for invited guests and members at Capilano prior to teeing-off on architect Stanley Thompson's celebrated mountain-side layout, then participate in an auction and wind up his visit with a private reception.

2008 has been a lucrative year for the 38-year-old Weir. He earned $2,719,179, 15th on the PGA TOUR money list, finished second twice, been in the money in 18 of his 24 tournament starts, finished in the Top 10 six times and the Top 25 11 times with a scoring average of 71.06.

The native of Bright's Grove, Ont., is the winner of the 1999 Air Canada Championship; 2000 World Golf Championships-American Express Championship; 2001 THE TOUR Championship; 2003 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Nissan Open and Masters Tournament; 2004 Nissan Open and the 2007 Fry's Electronics Open. In 286 events Weir has amassed $23,558,894 in total winnings. He is currently 22nd on the Official World Golf Ranking.

Since Ottawa-born Karl Keifer's victory in 1914, Mike Weir's playoff loss to Vijay Singh in 2004 is the closest any Canadian-born player has come to winning the Canadian Open championship.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Port Alberni, BC's Jack Little has one more title in her sights before closing out the 2008 season. The diminutive dynamo from Vancouver Island, who has already claimed the Canadian Women's Senior Championship, along with the British Columbia Senior and Mid-Amateur crowns, is just one shot off the lead following the opening round of the 23rd Pacific Northwest Golf Association Senior Women's Championship going on at Illahe Hills Country Club in Salem, Oregon.

In a field that includes four PNGA Hall of Famers and accomplished contenders like four-time Canadian Senior Women's Amateur Champion, British Women's Senior Open Amateur medalist and three-time Irish Senior Women's Amateur Champion (Alison Murdoch of Victoria), USGA Senior Women's Amateur Runner-Up (Anne Carr), U.S. Women's Amateur Champion (Mary Budke), and seven-time PNGA Senior Women's Amateur Champion (Joan Edwards-Powell), it was Loree McKay Portland, Ore. who carded an opening round of 1-over par 73 and leads Little and the rest of the field by a single shot. Murdoch is T5 after recording a 77. The final round goes Tuesday.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Sincere congratulations to Chris Thulin of Prince George, B.C who has won the 2008 above-knee championship at the Canadian Amputee National Open at Crown Isle Golf Club in Comox. Balancing on one leg, without crutches, Thulin's steady stance, fluid golf swing and accurate putting stroke allowed him to shoot 85-82-85--252 and place seventh overall at the Canadian Amputee Golf Association-sanctioned event. Forty-seven golfers from Canada, the U.S. and Europe played in the event, separated into seven different amputee classes. Thulin competed with seven others in the above-knee category.

"Tournament rules make it so tough -- it's not like playing with the boys," Thulin said. "If you're at the tee and launch it into the woods out of bounds, you don't go to the point of entry, you have to reload shooting three off the tee. It's brutal, but everyone has to play by the same rules."

A four-time National Open winner, Thulin took up golf 22 years ago. He's a former silver medalist in downhill skiing at the Canadian Amputee Alpine Ski Championships who competed for 12 years in provincial and national ski events before quitting and taking up golf.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Bryn Parry left a challenge for Mike Weir to match his score of 64 following Monday's first round of the Srixon Tour at Capilano Golf Club. Parry, who won the Vancouver Golf Tour's 2008 Order of Merit prize--an expense paid entry into the PGA TOUR's first stage of qualifying school--opened up a four shot lead over Dan Swanson on a cool fall day with his tidy round of 8-under par. Weir is scheduled to play Cap Tuesday in a private exhibition with club champions Kevin Spooner, senior Mike Marshall and junior Matt Cavelti.

At the same time, Tuesday's second and final round of the Srixon Tour's last event of the 12-tournament season is slated for Coquitlam's Vancouver Golf Club and the final threesome will consist of Parry, who won three Srixon tournaments his season, Phil Jonas, a two-event winner who is also headed to PGA TOUR school in California later this month, and Dan Swanson, another multiple Srixon winner.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Fifty-one-year-old Spaniard Seve Ballesteros is reported in a stable condition and undergoing tests in La Paz hospital in Madrid after suffering dizziness and briefly losing consciousness. The golfer's family has apparently requested that no more information is to be made available.

The charismatic Ballesteros, one of European golf's greatest players with 87 worldwide titles, won the British Open in 1979, 1984 and 1988 and the US Masters in 1980 and 1983. He also played an inspirational role in the Ryder Cup, winning 20 points from 37 matches and also captained Europe to victory at the Spanish course of Valderrama in 1997.

He was plagued by arthritic back and knee problems in the later stages of his career and retired in 2007.