Canadian Tours Greater Toronto Open Preview
Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:42:31
The Tour's 16th official event of the campaign will be held at Mandarin G&CC, with $24,000 going to the winner on Sunday afternoon. Floridian Hank Kuehne nailed down his second win of the season last weekend at the TELUS Quebec Open to move into top spot on the money list with $105,959. Should Kuehne win this week, he would set the Tour record for most money earned in one season. Trevor Dodds of Namibia took home $129,158 in 1996. Kuehne can finish no worse than second on the Order of Merit, meaning he is assured of an exemption into the second stage of PGA Tour Qualifying. The top three, plus the next two Canadians, will be also exempted into the Bell Canadian Open and Air Canada Championship.
Derek Gillespie of Oshawa, ON, who won Canadian Rookie of the Year honours last year, currently sits fourth in earnings and will make one final charge at Jeff Quinney, who is in second spot heading into this week. Two-time Tour champion Steve Scott will also try to put the heat on Quinney when opening-round action gets underway Thursday.
It has been a banner year for rookies this season, with eight first-year players winning a total of ten events through last week. Another four were first-time winners in 2002.
While the GTO will be the final official event of '02, the Casino de Charlevoix Cup, an unofficial match-play tournament pitting the Canadian Tour against the Quebec PGA, will be held later this month in northern Quebec.
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