Vancouver Event No Longer on PGA TOUR Schedule
Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:46:33
The tournament began as the Greater Vancouver Open in 1996. It became the ACC in 1999 but the airline announced in the fall of 2001 it would not renew its agreement to be title sponsor past this year. That left Vancouver organizers scrambling to find a company willing to commit $20 million Cdn over four years to take over sponsorship.
""We had two or three options with different sponsors but the pieces didn't fit. TV is very important. We need national TV. We looked at every option possible. At one point there was hope the Royal Bank would come on board but Canada's biggest bank decided not to spend money on the tournament.""
Even as time ticked away Durand said prospective sponsors met with the PGA. ""We had three scenarios,"" he said. ""We had three different ways to run the golf tournament. We thought one of them would work and we ran out of time.""
The tournament's bright spot came in 1999 when Canadian Mike Weir thrilled the crowd with an eagle on the 400-yard, 14th hole to win his first PGA event.
""The Air Canada Championship was really special to me - not only because it was my first Tour win. But even before I was on the PGA Tour the organizers there gave me an exemption and I gave myself a chance to win that first one. Every player who's teed it up there will tell you that it's really a great tournament, that the folks who run it have bent over backwards to do it right. It's just really sad to think that we might have played the last one."" Mike stated.
Even though the ACC is gone, there will be professional golf in Vancouver next year. The LPGA Tour's Bank of Montreal Canadian Women's open is scheduled for the Point Grey Golf Club. There also are hopes the Royal Canadian Golf Association will bring the Bell Canadian Open to the Lower Mainland as early as 2004.
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