Vancouver Golf Tour - Johnston Meier Insurance Open

MARKETPLACE IGA - VANCOUVER GOLF TOUR

TOURNAMENT REVIEW
2009 Johnston Meier Insurance Open
Aug.1 - 2nd
Sandpiper Golf Resort
Harrison Mills, BC

“HADWIN RED-HOT AGAIN AT SANDPIPER”

In blistering hot weather, 21 year old VGT Rookie Professional Adam Hadwin of Morgan Creek continued his run of near flawless golf this weekend at the 2009 JOHNSTON MEIER INSURANCE OPEN. Hadwin’s two round total of 66, 69 (-9) was good enough for a 2-shot victory over Seymour Creek’s Bryn Parry to win the title and collect $1,600 towards the Cleveland/Srixon Order of Merit standings.

After 27 holes of this Championship, it looked like Hadwin would be a shoe-in to win his third VGT event in only five tries. Sitting at 9 under par Hadwin had a five shot lead over Parry and seven shots over any third place chasers with 9 holes to play. Hadwin’s five shot lead however diminished over the first six holes on the back nine as two groups ahead John Shin made a late charge on the back nine including four birdies on the front nine, an eagle on the par 5 #15 and a hole-in-one on #16 to get himself to -7 for the day and the tournament. A late bogey on #17 would put Shin back to -6 for the tournament and in 3rd place overall, good for $900.

A CLUB CAR ACE: John Shin’s Ace on #16 WON him a CLUB CAR Precedent POWER CAR (www.clubcar.com) valued at $8,000!!! Thanks to Kevin Orton of Club Car, one of VGT’s Official Hole-in-one sponsors this year!

In the final pairing of the day Parry was also making a slow but steady charge of his own. After opening with a front nine score of 34 (-2), Parry continued his steady play with three birdies in a row on 13, 14 and 15 to get to -7 for the tournament. Hadwin made a birdie of his own on 11 to get to -10, but all of a sudden made this tournament quite interesting when he attempted to flop it from the side of the green on #15 and after two swings only advanced his ball a couple of yards. This lead to a bogey on his card and with three holes to play his lead had shrunk to only two shots over Parry.

Although Parry made a valiant run over the next three holes, including a great pitch shot from the side of the 18th green that nearly went in for birdie, Hadwin was hailed the Champion after he pitched up to 2 feet from the side of the green to win his third VGT Championship in only six starts. Hadwin continued his march up the CLEVELAND GOLF/ SRIXON CANADA Order of Merit but could not catch Parry who took home $1,100 for his 2nd place showing. After 13 VGT events, Parry leads Hadwin by only $462 with $9,937.50. More impressively is that both players have continued to battle for 1st and 2nd place in four of the last five events on the VGT schedule – Hadwin with three wins and two 2nd place finishes in as many events.

STROKE AVERAGES “IN THE RED”:

Both Hadwin and Parry are boasting incredible stroke averages so far this year on the Vancouver Golf Tour schedule. Hadwin has posted a remarkable stroke average of 67.27 over 11 tournament rounds and a whopping 46 under par for this stretch. Parry definitely battled some challenging winter/spring conditions on the earlier portion of the VGT schedule, but still holds a very solid stroke average of 69.16 over 18 rounds. He is also a total of 41 under par for the same 11 rounds of Summer VGT events and 43 under for all 18 tournament rounds since the start of the year. “These two are definitely separating themselves from the rest of the field on the Vancouver Golf Tour the past five events. It’s going to take a big challenge from any of the remaining 8 players in the top 10 of the CLEVELAND/SRIXON Order of Merit to knock either of them off the top. The Vancouver Open (final event to determine who will be awarded a paid entry down to the 2009 PGA Tour Q-School) will sure be a climactic end to the season” stated VGT Commissioner Fraser Mulholland.

AMATEUR HEADLINES:

It took a very impressive final round of 68 by Coquitlam’s Matt Rohatensky to take Amateur honours at the JM Open this year. Rohatensky finished t4th overall in the tournament at -4 with rounds of 72, 68 to win the Amateur title by 2 shots over Mission Golf Club’s Stu Dunaway and three shots over Sandpiper’s own Yves Bisson. This was Rohatensky’s third Amateur win on the VGT schedule, pushing him over 1,000 points ahead of his next competitor in the Championship Amateur Division of the CLEVELAND/SRIXON ORDER OF MERIT. In the Low Net side of the tournament it was Dave Dodsworth who stole the show with his impressive second round score of 77 (net 65). Both Rohatensky and Dodsworth took away winners’ trophies, a Sun Mountain Speed cart and $200 in Perfect Lies Gift Certificates.