Just as PGA Canada president John Monday was about to launch into a verbal love letter to Victoria, someone handed him a bottle of beer from View Royal’s 4Mile Brewing Company.
It supports his theory that what’s off the green is just as key to making the Bayview Place DC Bank Open presented by the Times Colonist one of the most anticipated professional golf tournaments of the year.
“There’s a number of elements that go into a great event,” Monday said Wednesday night at the Roundhouse at Bayview Place during the sponsors’ reception. “It really centres around community support in the form of sponsorship and volunteers. And when you couple that with a golf course that is just phenomenal, and then you throw those things into being in Victoria, it’s everything and then some. The combination of everything that exists here is unsurpassed.”
The 36th annual tournament, held at the Uplands Golf Club, started June 3 and ends today. It’s the longest running Professional Golf Association Tour event in Canada.
Victoria is one of the few places in Canada where golf is on the table 12 months of the years, said Ken Mariash, the developer behind the Bayview and Roundhouse project, which has seen two multi-unit condo buildings go up and up to six more structures, including a hotel, planned.
Mariash and his wife, Patricia Mariash, have been title sponsors of the golf tournament since 2013. The Times Colonist is also a sponsor.
The 1886 heritage railway buildings and the Roundhouse will eventually be transformed into a retail marketplace but, for now, the open space and exposed beams are perfect for the western-themed reception.
As a band covered ABBA’s Waterloo on stage, hundreds of people milled about the Roundhouse, munching on burgers provided by the Strathcona Hotel and sipping on Merridale cider.
The party serves as a thank you to the “army of volunteers” who make the event possible, said Jeff Palmer, general manager at Highland Pacific Golf and a veteran golf coach.
“It’s a great thank-you to the community of volunteers who put in a lot of time to deliver the event,” he said.
One should not take for granted the economic benefits the tournament holds for Greater Victoria, Palmer said.
“We’ve got a lot of players in town. They’re spending dough, right?”
B.C. Golf has been successfully promoting the Vancouver Island Golf Trail, which is attracting golf enthusiasts worldwide, Palmer said.
“With Highland Pacific Golf and Bear Mountain, places like Olympic View, you can come, stay and play, do a four-day golf trip and experience some of the best golf in the world,” he said.
“And then do the whale-watching, the microbreweries. It’s such a vital part of our tourism industry.”
The Open supports the Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island, raising more than $180,000 in the past four years.
Veronica Carroll, the foundation’s CEO, said that funding supports Foundry Victoria, a clinic where youth can get help for physical, mental-health and addictions issues.
A news team from TSN were at the Douglas Street clinic Wednesday, which Carroll said provides great exposure for the topic of youth mental health.
About 75 kids a day are dropping into Foundry, Carroll said, which underscores the need for such support services.
“The support from the Bayview Place DC Bank Open has allowed us to initiate that program,” she said.
