Island golf courses and their pros were front and centre on Wednesday as the PGA of B.C. handed out their annual awards at a banquet at River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond.
Leading the way was Cordova Bay Golf Course which won the Golf Facility of the Year Award.
Royal Colwood assistant pro Mac McLeod was also a winner, named the winner of the Alvie Thompson Teacher of the Year Award. And Bear Mountain joined the winners with Doug Hastie being named the Davie Black Professional Development Award winner.
Gord Melissa of Pheasant Glen was honoured for his work with young golfers as he won the Jack McLaughlin Junior Golf Leader of the Year Award.
Victoria Golf Club member Connor Taiji was named the winner of the Jim Gibson Scholarship.
The Dick Munn Golf Professional of the Year Award went to Adam Blair of Talking Rock Golf Course.
Reaume returns to NASCAR trucks
After a two-week break, Victoria’s Josh Reaume is rarin’ to go for another NASCAR Camping Truck World Series race this weekend.
Reaume takes his Colonial Countertops Chevrolet Silverado into Saturday’s Coca Cola 250 at Alabama’s Talladega Speedway. Reaume is riding some momentum as he is coming off a career-best 16th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two week ago.
Qualifying at Talladega starts today with the race slated for Saturday morning.
U Sports runners hit Beacon Hill trails
Some of the top university cross-country runners will get a sneak peak at the course that will host the national championships this weekend when the Vikes Invitational takes place at Beacon Hill Park.
Host University of Victoria will face teams from Trinity Western, Thompson Rivers, MacEwan, Regina and Saskatchewan on Saturday as athletes begin to prepare for the U Sports nationals, which will take place at Beacon Hill on Nov. 12.
And for the Vikes women’s squad — Emma Bibault, Laurel Booker, Emma Edmonds, Georgia Ginther, Chloe Hegland, Chloe Hewitt, Alsion Hooper and Andie Wood — they’ll need to be in even better shape. This year, U Sports has changed the distance for women’s races to eight kilometres from six.
The UVic women are off to a fast start though, having won their first meet, the Charles Bowles Invitational.
The UVic men’s team, comprised of Mitchell Basher, Angus Brown, Derrick Evans, Brendan Hoff, Josh Kozelj, Timothy Longley, Alexander Nemethy, Matt Noseworthy, Thomas Oxland, Max Serviss, Jonathan Toombs, Brandon Vail and Ben Weir, is coming off a second-place finish at the Charles Bowles Invitational.
Junior tennis stars set to shine
Up-and-coming young tennis players will be in the spotlight over the next week at Panorama Recreation Centre.
The annual Victoria International ITF Junior Tournament begins this weekend with qualifying ahead of the start of the main draw on Monday.
More than 90 players from seven countries will take to the courts at Panorama, which will have court seating beginning Thursday with the quarter-finals and leading to next Friday’s semifinals and next Saturday’s singles finals. The doubles finals are also scheduled for next Friday.
Admission to the tournament is free.
