A rich history — and top pros — beckon at Victoria Golf Club tourney
The historic P.D. Ross trophy, handed out to the top PGA of Canada pro is on the grounds at the historic Victoria Golf Club.
A total of 64 of the best professionals in the country will tee it up beginning Monday in the PGA Championship of Canada sponsored by Mr. Lube and presented by Taylor-Made and adidas.
Among the field will be Victoria head man Lindsay Bernakevitch as well as Olympic View head pro Kevin Maxwell and his assistant Gordy Scutt; Gorge Vale assistant Edd Boudreau; and Bill Kelly, head pro of Glacier Greens in Comox; and former winner Jim Rutledge.
“It’s one of those championships that seems a little unassuming, but when you look back at the history — it’s steeped in so much history and that’s pretty cool,” said Bernakevitch.
“The trophy has been sitting here in the shop. I’m looking at it and Arnold Palmer won it in 1980, Lanny Wadkins, Lee Trevino and Raymond Floyd have won it. You just look at that and say: ‘Holy crap. I have a chance to get my name on a trophy with those guys.’ You start thinking about that and you get goosebumps.”
The first two rounds, Monday and Tuesday, are stroke play with first tee time at 7:30 a.m., on Day 1 before a drastic cut-down after Day 2 to the top 16 players, who then go out into match-play competition.
Bernakevitch is paired in a strong group with Mike Belbin of the Royal Mayfair in Edmonton and Scott Allred of Elbow Springs in Calgary. The trio goes out at 11:08 a.m. on Monday.
“Our course is playing so hard and firm right now — it will be interesting to see, if the wind blows at all, I don’t know how low the numbers will be. I don’t think it will be crazy. The wind hardly blows out here though,” he said sarcastically. “We had our yearly Ironman tournament the other day [with the toughest tees and pin placements]. No one broke par.
“If the wind is up and they do anything crazy with the pins … the greens will be running at about 11.5 on the stimp meter [which measures speed of greens], so it will be fun to watch,” said Bernakevitch.
“It’s the kind of course where, if you have the knowledge of the course, you can probably play well. These local guys should have a bit of an advantage. Hopefully, there will be a few of us playing great and moving on to match-play.”
Unlike the past, when Palmer and Co. competed, all competitors are now PGA of Canada members.
Danny King is back to defend his title and to become the first back-to-back winner since the famed George Knudson won in 1976-77. In 2015, King defeated Oliver Tubb 1-up in the final match at Cabot Links in Inverness, N.S.
Past champions also include Bob Panasik, Moe Norman, Dave Levesque, Eric Laporte, Bryn Parry, Al Balding, Tim Clark, Wilf Homenuik and stan Leonard.
Former champs King, Rutledge, Levesque and Parry are all in the field at Victoria Golf Club, which welcomes fans to attend, free of charge.