Adam Hadwin, Canada’s newest golf star, is on his way to the PGA but first he has to make a stop in West Vancouver.
The Abbotsford resident will headline the third annual Vancouver Golf Tour – Golf West Vancouver Shootout scheduled for Sept. 27 at Gleneagles Golf Course. Other golfers set to shoot it out include a pair of North Vancouver stars in young PGA Canada phenom Eugene Wong and Vancouver Golf Tour dominator Bryn Parry.
The unique event will once again feature a do-or-die format with all 12 participants teeing off at the same time on the first hole. The two players with the highest total scores after holes No. 1 and 2 combined will be eliminated and then, starting on No. 3, the player with the highest score on each hole will be out of the competition. The event will culminate in a two-player showdown on the ninth hole.
Throughout the shootout all ties will be broken with one-shot closest-to-the-pin competitions from pre-selected locations — on the green or off — on each hole.
Hadwin will be playing in the tournament as a newly minted PGA player, having received his tour card in late August after clinching a top-25 finish on the Web.com Tour’s money list for 2014. He’s currently fourth on the list heading into the playoffs for the Web.com Tour, the circuit that is one step below the PGA.
“(Having) Adam Hadwin, arguably Canada’s hottest pro golfer, in the field will really make this year’s event exciting,” said Vancouver Golf Tour commissioner Fraser Mulholland in a release. “It is such an amazing opportunity for fans to watch Adam up close and in person and see just how talented he and all the pros in the field really are. I know Adam is pretty keen to knock last year’s champion — and good friend — Nick Taylor off the podium at this year’s event. It should prove to be a great battle between Canada’s golf superstars.”
The players will tee off at 2 p.m. with the final showdown expected around 5 p.m. The winner will receive $1,000 of the $2,500 total purse while the player with the longest drive on No. 1 will receive a $100 prize.
The Shootout is fan friendly event, with free admission for all spectators and free hot dogs and Haagen Dazs ice cream for the first 200 through the gates. The event will also give four fans a chance to compete alongside the pros in a hole-in-one contest with $100,000 up for grabs: $75,000 for the ace-maker and $25,000 being donated to Lions Gate Hospital. Other funds raised through qualification fees and on-course sales and donations will also go to LHG.
