Bill Big Canoe has seen it all in the Victoria Open since his involvement began in 1990 as the person in charge of updating the leaderboards for the pro golf tournament. That’s including in the 1997 tournament at Gorge Vale when Mike Weir’s pregnant [now-ex] wife, Bricia, collapsed on the course while caddying for the Masters champion-to-be. A paramedic by trade, Big Canoe jumped into action to stabilize Bricia and get her to hospital, where she was fine.
“From Steve Stricker to Mike Weir, I remember all those guys from the earlier years,” said Big Canoe, now general manager of the $200,000 Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by the Times Colonist, which runs Thursday to Sunday at Uplands Golf Club.
Those included the likes of eventual PGA Tour players Stricker, Weir, Craig Parry, Brandt Jobe, Todd Hamilton, Ken Duke, Stuart Appleby, Kirk Triplett, Chris DiMarco, Scott McCarron, Tim Clark and Tim Herron with Weir, Hamilton and Michael Campbell having gone on to win majors.
The recent generation hasn’t been too bad, either, with the likes of Tony Finau and Corey Conners coming out of the Victoria tournament. The last normal pre-pandemic Victoria Open in 2019 at Uplands produced winner Paul Barjon and runner-up Doc Redman, who both went on to the PGA Tour.
“We continue to have a great crop of upcoming young players,” said PGA Tour Canada executive-director Scott Pritchard recently.
The PGA Tour Canada, supplanting previous versions of the Canadian pro tour, began in 2013 as the PGA Tour’s second international development tour. A total of 54 PGA Tour Canada alumni have advanced to play on the PGA Tour since 2013 with 16 PGA Tour victories between them. More than 300 PGA Tour Canada alumni have gone onto play on the Korn Ferry Tour, the entry point to the PGA Tour, since 2013 with 49 victories between them.
The Royal Beach Victoria Open this week kicks off the 11-event 2022 PGA Tour Canada season. The overall season points champion will win the Fortinet Cup and receive a full-season exemption to the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour and the top-two season finishers, and top Canadian, will earn exemptions into the PGA Tour’s 2023 RBC Canadian Open.
The Victoria pro tournament, established in 1981, is the longest standing event on the PGA Tour Canada.
“Victoria continues to shine as our traditional lead-off event and we’re definitely pleased to have a list of 11 strong events as we get back to a normal Tour season,” said Pritchard.
The 2020 PGA Tour Canada season was restricted by the pandemic to four tournaments, two at Bear Mountain and two at TPC Toronto. The regular Victoria stop at Uplands returned in 2021, but it was abbreviated to mainly Canadian golfers as part of a truncated Tour due to travel restrictions and it was moved back to early October from its usual June slot.
The task of getting the Victoria event back to normal has fallen to Big Canoe, who takes over from the previous long-serving general manager Murray Thomas.
“From course to tents to bleachers to scheduling and everything else in-between that it takes to put this on, it’s come together pretty well with no issues,” said Big Canoe, who steps up to the manager position from his previous role as volunteer co-ordinator.
Big Canoe is well known in Island sports circles from his involvement in both golf and curling, in which he has become a fixture.
“I was quite flattered to be asked [to become the new tournament manager],” he said.
“The objective hasn’t changed: Get the event done and done well. The key to success at the managing level is delegating the right people to get it done right.”
Which is what the Victoria tournament organizers have been doing since 1981. All in the spirit of sportsmanship, with the Victoria tournament having been voted the best on Tour by the players themselves.
“I’ve been in sports all my life. I love the comradery of sports and how it brings people togeher,” said the 66-year-old Big Canoe.”
There will be a built-in one-week Tour break after the Royal Beach Victoria Open because of the RBC Canadian Open next week at St. George’s in Toronto. The PGA Tour Canada will resume June 13-19 at the ATB Classic in Edmonton, followed by the Elk Ridge Open from June 23-26 in Waskesiu, Sask., with home-province Olympian and former PGA Tour player Graham DeLaet the honorary chair.
The Prince Edward Island Open in Cardigan is from June 30-July 3, the Osprey Valley Open at TPC Toronto from July 21-24, the Ontario Open at Woodington Lake from July 28-31, the Quebec Open from Aug. 4-7 at Blainville and Manitoba Open Aug. 18-21 at the Southwood Club in Winnipeg.
The only non-Canadian stop, the CRMC Championship in Brainerd, Minnesota, is Aug. 25-28 with Minnesota-product and British Open champion and Masters and U.S. Open runner-up Tom Lehman involved with the tournament.
The Tour returns north of the border with the GolfBC Championship from Sept. 1-4 at Gallagher’s Canyon in Kelowna and the Fortinet Cup Championship at Deer Ridge in Kitchener, Ont., from Sept. 15-18. All the tournaments carry a minimum $200,000 purse.
The Fortinet Cup points champion for the season will also earn $25,000 from the $100,000 bonus pool to be shared among the top-10 players in the season standings.
Seven qualifying tournaments were held throughout the spring, six in the U.S. and one at Crown Isle in Courtenay (won by home-course product Riley Wheeldon), to fill out the 2022 PGA Tour Canada field.
Island players performing this week at Uplands include Wheeldon, veterans Jim Rutledge and Cory Renfrew, touted teen Jeevan Sihota, Maxwell Sear, Zach Anderson and last year’s breakout player, Callum Davison.
