Mackenzie golf tour returns to Edmonton
The Oilers Entertainment Group is hitting the links this summer.
The company has teamed up with The Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada to bring many of the top up-and-coming golfers to Edmonton. The Oil Country Championship will be played at Edmonton’s Glendale Golf and Country Club, July 25-31.
“Having the Mackenzie Tour here at the end of July is going to open up so many opportunities for OEG and PGA Tour to work together, and that’s the type of branding and footprint we’re looking to build here with OEG,” said Bob Nicholson, the company’s CEO and vice-chair.
“Everyone is starting to understand here in Edmonton what the Ice District and Rogers Arena is going to be all about. We’re going to brand ourselves in so many ways with OEG.”
It’s a five-year agreement that will see the tournament played at Windermere Golf and Country Club in 2017, Edmonton Petroleum Golf and Country Club in 2018, Edmonton Country Club in 2019 and a location to be determined in 2020.
Since its inception, 185 golfers that played on the Mackenzie Tour have made it to the PGA Tour. Canadian Nick Taylor, a 2015 PGA Tour rookie of the year finalist, played on the Mackenzie Tour in 2013.
While the tour has provided many young golfers a platform to reach the next level of the sport, one of the other components of the tour is money raised for charity in the communities which host tournaments.
Money raised in the Oil Country Championship will go to the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation.
“The goals of the Mackenzie Tour are two-fold. It’s to provide an opportunity for our players to achieve their dream of getting to the PGA Tour, but just as important is having a positive impact on the communities in which we play,” Mackenzie Tour president Jeff Monday said.
“Last year, we had a 60-per-cent increase in our charitable donations from our tournaments to just under $600,000. In three short years, we’ve given over $1 million.”
Edmonton last hosted the Mackenzie Tour in 2012, when the Windermere Golf and Country Club hosted the ATB Financial Classic.
Having a tour stop back in Edmonton has allowed the Mackenzie Tour to have three tournaments in Alberta this year with other tour stops in Calgary and Fort McMurray.
“Our goal is to have a community event where there happens to be some golf played,” Monday said.
“We want it to be a weeklong celebration where there are all sorts of other activities that begin on Monday of tournament week.”
Tournament festivities are in the planning stages, but Nicholson said a Pro-Am tournament will play a large role on the charitable side of the event.
“We’re going to reach out to Oiler players, but we want to reach out further than that to other champions in Edmonton. We do have a lot of other excellent athletes that have been involved in Olympic Games, world championships, that have made their mark on sport and we want them to be part of this,” Nicholson said.