Bayview Place Island Savings Open presented by the Times Colonist:

More than 110 players will tee it up at Gorge Vale Golf Course looking for one of 10 positions open in Monday’s qualifying round for the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada Bayview Place Island Savings Open presented by Times Colonist.

“It’s a great turnout and it should be the start of a great week,” tournament director Murray Thomas said.

Among them will be Royal Colwood golfer Dylan Bell, who finished third at the recent Zone 5 Amateur championship. Bell held the lead after Day 1 of the 36-hole event in which the winner, Kevin Carrigan, secured the one and only exemption available from that event into the Bayview Place Island Savings Open.

“My game is good so I feel like I can do it, for sure,” Bell said of Monday’s upcoming round. “I’d like to give it a shot, absolutely. That was one of my goals coming in [to the Zone 5 Amateur] so I’d like to prove that I can be out there. I have been playing good golf.

“To be honest, I wanted to win [the Zone 5 Amateur] and get in the Times Colonist event, for sure,” Bell said after the recent event.

Also on the list of Monday entrants are a number of other locals including Michael Griffin and Lawren Rowe of the University of Victoria Vikes, Bryan Scott, Darren Hupfer, Darren Day, Eric Wang and fellow amateurs Saare Adams, Nate Ollis, Johnathan Sipos and Brock Holland.

Holland finished tied for fourth at the Zone 5 tournament and, along with Bell, will represent the Zone 5 team at the 2015 B.C. Amateur in mid-July in Oliver.

A number of Americans are also in the Monday qualifier, which begins with tee times at 7:30 a.m.

“All these players come in on the weekend to try and qualify for 10 spots Monday, which is also awesome for tourism and our hotels and restaurants,” said Keith Dagg, founder of the Vancouver Island Golf Society, which is the driving force behind the local PGA Tour Canada stop.

The Bayview Place Island Savings Open starts Thursday at Uplands Golf Club.