By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

BALFOUR - Amy Lee is no stranger to winning British Columbia Golf championships. The 16-year-old already had B.C. Bantam, Juvenile and Junior titles on her resumé and came to Balfour for the 119th playing of the B.C. Women’s Amateur hoping to add a fourth provincial championship.

Mission accomplished. Lee closed with a two-under 70 on Balfour Golf Course and her 54-hole total of 11-under par was good for a three-shot win.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

BALFOUR - Jenny Guo has all 14 clubs in her golf bag at this week’s B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship, which is a bit of a change. At a recent Maple Leaf Junior Tour event at The Hills at Portal Golf Course in Surrey, the 12-year-old West Vancouver resident played the first round with only seven clubs — three wedges, her 8-, 6- and 5-irons and a 5-wood. She shot an 84.

The second day, Guo used nine clubs — she added her putter and driver — and shot 71 and won her age group. Her coach Noah Lee, who is in Balfour to caddy for Guo at the Women’s Amateur, came up with the idea to help relieve some stress.

“She started having a little bit of anxiety about playing in high-level tournaments,” Lee said. “So I wanted her to just try to go out and have fun and at the same time give her some problem-solving skills because when you have fewer clubs to work with you have to figure out something else.”

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

BALFOUR — There’s a poster on the wall outside the entrance to the pro shop at Balfour Golf Course thanking the corporate sponsors who stepped forward to support the B.C. Women’s Amateur and Mid-Amateur Championships.

It’s a rather long list as more than 20 businesses have pitched in to make contributions to the event, which began on Tuesday. That corporate support, along with an army of about 50 keen volunteers from the golf club and Balfour area have truly made this a community-driven tournament.

And that makes Jackie Little smile. Little, of course, is a bonafide B.C. golfing legend. Her numerous provincial and national titles have earned her a spot in the British Columbia and Pacific Northwest Golf Association Halls of Fame.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Adam Hadwin’s third-place finish at the Memorial Tournament booked him a spot in next month’s Open Championship at Royal Troon and also put Hadwin in great position to join fellow Abbotsford native Nick Taylor at the Summer Olympics in Paris.

Canada’s two-man Olympic golf team will be determined by the Official World Golf Ranking after this week’s U.S. Open Championship in Pinehurst, N.C.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

In what is a B.C. first, two all-girl teams have won British Columbia High School Golf Championships.

The girls from Vancouver’s Crofton House School captured the Double-A Championship played at Pheasant Glen Golf Course in Qualicum. Up the road in Nanoose Bay, the York House School all-girls team from Vancouver was winning the Single A provincial title at Fairwinds Golf Course.

This is the first year that Crofton House, which is an all-girls private school, has had a golf program. Nothing like starting out on top.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

A She Plays Golf festival designed to get women and girls feeling more comfortable about getting out on the golf course is being held in Metro Vancouver the week of June 17.

The festival features four Women’s Try Golf clinics and two Junior Girls Tee It Up sessions that are open to women and girls who have little or no golf experience. The festival made its debut last summer in Calgary and is now being rolled out in the Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto markets.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Austin Krahn was about 10 years old when his parents bought the local par 3 course in Christina Lake. It was a dream come true for a kid who had already caught the golf bug.

“You think, oh, man, how nice would it be to live on a golf course and all that and then they go buy a par 3 course,” Krahn said. “For me, if I’ve got 15 minutes of free time I can just get out there and hit some chips, hit some putts. You’re always practising and it keeps you in a groove.”

All that practice and playing on the family’s Cascade Par 3 Course the past few years is paying dividends for Krahn, who has developed into one of British Columbia’s top junior golfers. He’s also now a two-time winner of the B.C. Indigenous Championship.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

She began the final round four shots back and as Kylie Jack contemplated the challenge ahead of her, she thought of words her mom had drilled into as a junior golfer.

“I had 18 holes and 18 chances,” Jack said. “You never know. My mom always told me anything can happen in golf.”

Turns out, her mom was right, anything can happen and sometimes it happens in a most dramatic fashion.

Austin Krahn & Christina Proteau Are The Leaders In The 2nd Indigenous Championship BC

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The second B.C. Indigenous Championship is being played this week at University Golf Club in Vancouver and Christina Proteau will tell you it feels a lot different than last year’s inaugural event.

Proteau was absolutely immersed in last year’s tourney at NK’Mip Canyon Desert Golf Course in Oliver. She was the tournament chair, helped organize the event, recruited players and handled numerous media requests.

“This year, I have not done anything,” Proteau said. “It was nice in a sense not to have to do a bunch of radio interviews this morning and do a CBC video in the middle of my round like last year. But at the same time it is really nice to see that even without all the fanfare of the inaugural event, we still have a solid field and a lot of participants here this week.”

Leah John Is Set For Her Pro Debut On The Epson Tour  

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

With a kinesiology degree in her back pocket and loads of great memories of her time at the University of Nevada, Vancouver’s Leah John begins a new chapter of her golfing life this week as she makes her first start as a professional.

“I am really excited,” says the two-time B.C. Women’s Amateur champion. “It’s kind of like the feeling you have before going to the best concert of your life.”

(Vancouver, BC, May 21, 2024) – Registration is open for She Plays Golf Festival, a citywide celebration of golf for women and girls taking place across the Greater Vancouver Area alongside the GOLFBC Group BC Women’s Open from June 17 – June 22, 2024.

The weeklong festival features inclusive programming for women and girls who are recreational golfers or exploring the sport for the first time. Host partners include First Tee BC, and Province of British Columbia, supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

No matter how well things go at this week’s RBC Canadian Open, Kevin Stinson knows playing the event at Hamilton Golf & Country Club will not be the highlight of his year.

That happened on April 15, when Stinson’s wife, Allison, delivered their first child, a son named William. “He is perfect,” his proud dad said before heading east for what will be his second Canadian Open.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

It has been a tough few years for Bald Eagle Golf Club, the Point Roberts layout that was forced to close during the Covid pandemic, then re-opened in 2022 only to close again for the 2023 season.

It is now scheduled to re-open sometime early this summer with a new, but familiar name and a new owner. The course is returning to its former name, Point Roberts Golf & Country Club, and has targeted June 15 as a re-opening date, although there is a good chance it could be a week or two after that.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

It all started six years ago in a friend’s garage, which is where Haywood Golf built its first clubs. Back then, the Vancouver-based company was a one-club specialist that produced wedges only. Lots has changed since then.

Haywood can now fill your golf bag. They manufacture full iron sets, drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, a driving iron and putters. Oh, they can now sell you that golf bag, too. The company’s remarkable growth forced Haywood out of that garage four years ago and into their own facility in North Vancouver. It was tiny, but it was a place of their own.

Now, Haywood has moved again into larger digs in Burnaby that company founder Josh Haywood says better fits its needs for the future.

- New Economic Impact Study Released -

For Immediate Release

OTTAWA, May 23, 2024 – After a four-year pause due to COVID-19, the National Allied Golf Associations (NAGA) are on Parliament Hill leading National Golf Day and discussing with Parliamentarians the many positive benefits of golf for Canadians.

The golf industry representatives are also releasing the results of a new Canadian Golf Economic Impact Study highlighting golf’s financial contributions and incredible popularity as the number one participation sport in Canada.

National Golf Day also celebrates golf’s physical and mental health benefits, its safe sport attributes, social merits, environmental stewardship, diversity, life skills for youth, and economic value to the business community.

National data indicates that hundreds of thousands of Canadians have entered the sport since Covid-19, totaling six million Canadian golfers and further strengthening golf’s status as the number one participation sport in the country.

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Things get a little busy late Wednesday afternoons this time of year at Sheep Pasture Golf Course in Lillooet.

In addition to the herd of 80 or 90 sheep and lambs grazing on the course, there are almost as many kids swinging clubs on the nine-hole layout. “We have created a bit of a monster,” club president Bob Sheridan jokes as he discusses the club’s popular junior golf program.

The 2024 Women's Golf Day celebration, with events being held in various locations from May 28th - June 4th this year, is now underway.

British Columbia Golf is pleased to direct anyone wishing to take part at a facility event to the posters below. We will add more as they become known.

Meanwhile, everyone can find out information on the WGD website HERE.

UBC's Women's Golf Team Finished 3rd At This Year's NAIA Championship

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

You can’t win them all, which the University of B.C. women’s golf team discovered last week in Illinois. The Thunderbirds entered the NAIA national championship tourney at TPC Deere Run looking for what, officially, would have been a three-peat.

Unofficially, they were attempting to win their fourth straight title. In addition to their 2022 and 2023 crowns, the T-Birds also won the national championship in 2019. The event was not played in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic and UBC was not permitted to travel to the tournament in 2021.

Doug And Janet O’Mara Crossed The Century Mark Of Their Epic Golf Journey Deep In The Amazon Rainforest In Manaus, Brazil

By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Doug and Janet O’Mara really didn’t set out to play golf in 100 different countries. It kind of just happened.

The Whistler couple love to travel and are also avid golfers. After a number of different trips to all corners of the globe, it suddenly occurred to them that they had played a lot of golf in a lot of different places. So they started counting.