2009 Vancouver Golf Tour Ledgeview Open

Saturday, Sunday - July 4, 5th
“HADWIN HOT AT LEDGEVIEW OPEN”


Twenty-one year old rookie Professional Adam Hadwin of Morgan Creek and Ledgeview stormed a field of 176 golfers at the 2009 Ledgeview Open to win his maiden Professional victory, earning him $2,800 and vaulting him into 7th place on the CLEVELAND GOLF/SRIXON CANADA Order of Merit on the Vancouver Golf Tour. After scaring the Ledgeview course record on day one with a flawless round of 63, Hadwin fended off a number of past champions including Bryn Parry, Ray Stewart and Andrew Smeeth to go on to win by 5 strokes over Northview’s Matt Palsenbarg with his 2-day total of 9-under par. Palsenbarg finished solo second with scores of 67, 69, good for a $2,000 cheque.

Round two kicked off as solidly for Hadwin as day one finished, birdying hole #1. Palsenbarg also birdied hole #1 after launching his drive to the back of the 344 yard par 4 green. From here however, things got a bit unsettled for Hadwin, making bogeys on #2 and #4 to go back to -6 for the tournament. With Palsenbarg making pars on 2 thru 4, he was now at -4 and only 2 shots back. Meanwhile, up ahead, some players were putting down early challenges on the front nine. Seymour Creek’s Bryn Parry rattled off 4 birdies on the first six holes to get to -3 for the tournament, but would eventually fall back with a double on 8 and bogeys on 10 and 12 to finish even for the tournament. Morgan Creek’s Jeff Dagg also burned the front nine up with five birdies to get to -1 for the day. He would end up making two more birdies for a fantastic round of 64 to finish in a tie for 3rd place at -3. Local Pro Andrew Smeeth was also on a tear through 15 holes at -5 for the day, but a bogey on 16 slowed the charge and he would shoot a 66 on the day and also tie for 3rd.

After some more solid play through the front nine and birdies on #9 and #10 by Hadwin, he now had a lead of 4 shots with 8 to play. A fine birdie by Palsenbarg on the par 3 – 12th diminished his lead to three shots with 7 to play. The turning point, however seemed to be when Palsenbarg airmailed the 12th green with a 9-iron, leaving himself a near impossible up and down to the back pin. After a miraculous hybrid chip under a tree and through the rough, Palsenbarg lipped out his 15 foot par putt and Hadwin’s lead went back to 4 shots with only 6 holes remaining. Two more bogeys by Palsenbarg on holes 14 and 15 after errant tee-shots left this tournament in the hands of the young Professional who grew up learning his golf around the Ledgeview track. Hadwin played steadily in through the final holes, parr-ing in to take the overall Championship title in front of a local gallery surrounding the 18th green.

In a post round interview, Hadwin commented on his steady play from tee-to-green on day one that set-up a number of birdie chances that were capitalized on with a very solid putter. “Round two wasn’t quite the same on the first four holes”, stated Hadwin. “I hit it in a couple of places that let’s just say you don’t want to be when playing at Ledgeview”. “Beyond that, I settled down and played some great golf again and I am very happy with my first ever Professional Win”.

The Ledgeview Open was only Hadwin’s 4th ever Professional event. After successfully making it through to the weekend in both Canadian Tour stops in Victoria (t58th) and at the City of Surrey Inviational (t35th) and a 12th place in his first VGT event at the Guildford Open, it looks like Hadwin is heading the right direction after pocketing his first professional victory in only 4 tries. He will continue to play the remainder of the VGT schedule and chase down the Order of Merit leaders in search of the winning award of a free entry down to PGA Tour Qualifying School. Hadwin will tee-it-up at next Monday’s Hadassah Wizo Pro-am at the Richmond Country Club.

This day couldn’t have been better for Hadwin’s father (Gerry), who managed to make it (from Morgan Creek where he resides as a PGA Club Professional) for the back nine to caddy for the younger of the two Hadwins in the final group. Yes, that’s right, two Hadwins in the final pairing of this Ledgeview Open as 18-year old Kyle Hadwin stunned the field with a personal best score of 68 off of a 7 handicap! The day was a great learning experience for young Kyle, who definitely took a few holes to settle his final group nerves, but he played some great golf on the back nine himself and should be commended on getting into the final group with his great opening round. This was the first ever competitive round that the Hadwin brothers had played together so it was a pretty special day for the whole family.

In the amateur end of the tournament, it was Ledgeview’s own Kevin Stinson who took home the coveted Amateur Title and trophy with some great golf over the two days, shooting 69, 70. Stinson edged Kelowna’s Norm Bradley by a mere one shot after Bradley narrowly missed his birdie chance on 18 to force a playoff. Overall Low Net in this year’s Ledgeview Open went to Joe Cocker with a two-day net score of 135. Congratulations to all Professional and Amateur winners at this year’s Open!

TAYLOR SIGHTING!

Well it wouldn’t have been the same Ledgeview Open without having its biggest celebrity around for one of the days. He was unfortunately unable to attend the tournament in a playing sense, but local sensation Nick Taylor (ranked #1 Amateur in the world) was spotted caddying for his brother Josh on day one, which was pretty cool for the fans to see and for his brother to have him on the bag. This is a total reversal of roles for the two as it has been brother Josh who has been playing a big part in Nick’s playing career, having caddied for him at two consecutive U.S. Open’s, most recently at this year’s where he opened the eyes of the world shooting an amazing 65 on day two and finishing Top Amateur in the U.S. Open field (t36th overall). Taylor recently won another illustrious event - the Sahalee Invitational just days before the Ledgeview Open. He will be making his way back east to prepare for the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey which starts July 23rd. VGT would like to extend its congratulations to Nick for his wonderful season this year and for making such a statement on the world golf scene. All the best at the Canadian Open and the remainder of the ’09 season!

GREAT SHOTS!

There were many great shots witnessed this Ledgeview Open weekend. Two in particular will be remembered for being especially NICE:

Mike Smith – Hole-in-one on Hole #14 - Sunday

Fraser Mulholland – Hole-in-one on Hole #17 – Sunday

Congratulations to Mike and Fraser (yes, that’s me!!) for their great swings!

THANK-YOU’S:

VGT would like to thank the following individuals for making the 2009 Ledgeview Open such a great success:

Head Professional Jason Smith and all his support staff – Thanks for co-ordinating everything so smoothly throughout the event. You make our work SO MUCH EASIER!!!

General Manager Kevin Poland and the Clubhouse staff – Thanks for the great service upstairs and down and all the work behind the scenes preparing for this event.

Club Captain Mike Fisher and all the Ledgeview volunteers – Thanks for all the support in organizing the 1st and 10th tee the whole weekend and for assisting play with all the hole-spotters who make this event happen. Thanks to all of you who volunteered your time!

Superintendant Chad Burns – What can I say? What a fantastic job getting the golf course in SUPERB SHAPE the whole weekend. Those greens were awesome and the whole course was in great shape from tee-to-green. Well done to you and your support staff for all your hard work this year!

Tom Hall – Great work with your rules book this weekend Tom. You also did a great job keeping the pace-of play to a very comfortable speed!

All VGT staff and volunteers – (Heidi, Mike, George, Brian, Bill and Fanny). Thank-you for working as hard as you do keeping the scores up to date as LIVE as possible and giving the players this great experience.