Canadian Tour’s qualifying school returns to Vancouver Island

Canwest News Service

VICTORIA — Morningstar Golf Course in Parksville, B.C., is getting back on the Canadian Tour’s map.

From May 26 to 29, Morningstar will again be the site of the tour’s spring qualifying school.

For five years — from 1993 to 1997 — Morningstar was home for spring qualifying. The likes of former Masters winner Mike Weir of Bright’s Grove, Ont., and American Notah Begay both earned their Canadian Tour cards at Morningstar.

“We knew that if we got this (Q-school), it would put pressure on us to be a better course,” said Mike Loftus, the general manager at Morningstar. “The logistics worked out for us and the Canadian Tour and we are excited to have it back.”

Since April of last year, Morningstar has new ownership with the Golden West Golf Group taking over, headed by Paul and Shane McCracken from Edmonton.

“An event like this will help market our place,” said Loftus. “Down the road, we are going to look at trying to add another Canadian Tour event on the Island at Morningstar. We feel that the Island is big enough to have two events.”

The current stop on the Canadian Tour is the $200,000 Times Colonist Open, which runs from June 4-7 at Victoria’s Uplands Golf Club, right after the Q-school.

Graduating college players from the United States as well as Australians and Canadians are expected to make up the majority of the 65- to 70-player field at Morningstar, which is a 7,018-yard, par-72 course. From that group, 12 per cent will receive Canadian Tour cards and about the same number will get conditional cards. To try for the Canadian Tour card, a player must have a two handicap or less.