For all the economic doom and gloom that we continually hear about, the Canadian Tour appears to be ready for its most successful season to date in 2009. Since Rick Janes came on board a number of years ago the tour has added events and increased purses in Canada, expanded its schedule to not only include late winter and early spring events in the United States, but has even gone as far south as this week’s event in Costa Rica. Canadian Tour members now have the opportunity to work on their games in a year round competitive environment because of Janes and the Canadian Tour.
On June 17th, the Tour announced that it was increasing its flagship event, the Canadian Tour Championship, purse from $200,000 to $235,000 with the winner receiving $37,600. “With a solid schedule of events that continues to grow we are entering a new phase in the development of our product as evidenced by prize money increases and the new Players Cup in Winnipeg. This is not only a measure of commercial success, it is fundamental to our positioning in the international golf community,” said Canadian Tour Commissioner Richard Janes. It seems that the Tour has been able to make headway by creating strategic partnerships rather than just continuing to reach out to the corporate community. Great idea!
About a week later work on the 2009 schedule, partnerships and sponsorship was well underway. It looked like it was going to be tough for the Greater Vancouver Charity Classic to survive past the 2008 event. Then the City of Surrey, West Coast Golf Group and a number of private investors announced they were stepping in to ensure that the Greater Vancouver Charity Classic would be around for another three years and the event in 2009 will feature a purse increase of $50,000 bringing the total to $150,000 and that is great for golf in the Lower Mainland!
In September, at the conclusion of the Tour season, Rick Janes and the Canadian Tour were there again handing out additional money to players from the Canadian Bursary. Created in 2006, the Bursary is designed to recognized consistency over the Tour season and provide additional funds to the top players for furthering their development. The Canadian Tour allocates $25,000 each to the Canadian and International divisions with the top 5 players in each divisions winning an additional $7,500 for a first place finish to $3,000 for a 5th place finish in the standings.
A little over a week ago, the tour announced it was taking its 2009 Canadian Tour Championship to St. Catherine’s Golf and Country Club. It should come as no surprise that again, the purse was increasing from $200,000 in 2007 to $250,000 in 2009 with the winner taking home $40,000.
Congratulations to the Canadian Tour and Rick Janes – keep up the great work!
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