Tee 2 Green with Barry Sharpe - - September 26/09

In the wake of a damning report by Bear Mountain's former auditor accusing management at Bear Mountain of misappropriating funds, the Toronto Globe and Mail and a Tampa newspaper report that they've been told by a reliable source that Canada Revenue Agency is looking into the development's finances.

Barrie, who has been accused in the report and by a member of the development's executive committee of improperly financing at least part of his share of the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning team with Bear Mountain funds, has lately been making himself unavailable for comment.

The Globe's David Shoalts reported this week that Bear Mountain is limping along with some housing sales, although at least one condominium project has been halted and a large financing deal has not materialized. Barrie had said an agreement with Siraj Capital, a company based in Dubai, was to inject $350-million U.S. in to the development by October but, according to Shoals, it has not come to fruition.

Although Barrie is still listed in the Tampa Bay Lightning's media guide as a co-owner of the NHL team, there are those close to the team that say he is no longer in the picture. What has become of Barrie's investment in the club is uncertain, and is now apparently a topic of which his many Bear Mountain investors and partners are interested in finding out.

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Bill Wakeam, head professional at Victoria's Royal Oak Golf course is now a member of the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. The honour was bestowed at a sold-out induction ceremony in the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence at the Camosun College Interurban campus on November 21.

A winner of the B.C. and Canadian amateur championships at age 16 in 1957 and back-to-back B.C. Opens at Shaughnessy in 1968 and Uplands in 1969, Wakeham has won more than 50 amateur and professional golf titles throughout Canada.

Already inducted into the BC Hall of Fame of Golf in 2007, Wakeham is particularly proud of his latest achievement.

"This is more special in a way because it's my hometown Hall of Fame and I think back to starting golf at age 11 under my dad, who was the only coach I ever had," said Wakeham in an interview with the Times Colonist's Cleve Dheensaw.

A member of the silver-medallist Canadian team at the 1962 world amateur championships in Japan and on the Canadian team for the 1963 Commonwealth championships in Australia, Wakeham played briefly on the PGA TOUR in the 1960s and appeared in five Canadian Open championships.

Also inducted last weekend were NFL veteran and Super Bowl winner Mo Elewonibi, multiple Olympic gold and silver medalist Jessica Monroe-Gonin, legendary boxing coach Mike Caird, the familiar voice of horseracing, Jack Short, Herb Bates for his world championship softball dynasty and the century-old Victoria Lawn Bowling Club.

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Nine PGA TOUR tournaments were honored this week with 13 "Best Of" Awards by the TOUR's year-end Tournament Advisory Council (TAC) Meetings. The RBC Canadian Open was named 'Best Main Tournament Entrance', because "it provided excellent branding for RBC, the tournament and other key sponsors, was designed to tell the long-standing history of the Canadian Open, as well as provided information about the RCGA and what the organization does for golf in Canada." In addition, entering fans had the opportunity to have their photo taken with the tournament trophy, as well as experience the Expo Village placed along the path of the main entrance. Despite allo of this Tiger Woods has yet to make a return visit since capturing the Canadian Open in 2000.

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