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Vincent Blanchette wins the Machinex Open with a stellar second round

Machinex Open - Get the complete results

Princeville, July 24, 2022 – Vincent Blanchette was in a class of his own on Sunday during the second and final day of the Machinex Open presented by the City of Princeville. The representative of La Vallée du Richelieu shot the best round of the tournament with a -8 (64), which allowed him to climb to the top of the general ranking to win the event with a cumulative score of -9 (135).

Blanchette started the day strong at Club de Golf Laurier, dropping four strokes from par on the front nine. He found himself amid an all-out battle for the title and the $5,000 purse, which seemed to motivate him even more.

He followed up with a birdie at the 10th, before making his second eagle of the day three holes later and a final birdie on the 15th. He then watched the 12 golfers still in contention make their way to the 18th, after which he was able to dedicate his victory to his caddie and his family, who have suffered a difficult loss in recent weeks.

"I'm very proud of the way I played in the last two days. It means a lot to me to win the Machinex Open for my caddie and good friend Sam, who lost his daughter Raphaëlle a while back. Even in the toughest moments of the tournament, she was with us, and I knew we were going to make it," said the winner, still emotional after his triumph.

First round leader Max Gilbert (St-Georges) also had a good day with a -3 (69), but his 136 total strokes (-8) were just enough to force a playoff. He finished tied for second place in the Professionals' division with 2021 champion Vaita Guillaume (St-Georges), who joined the party with a second round of -7 (65).

“The competition was fierce this weekend, especially with guys like Max, Vaita, and all the others," said Blanchette. “It was a great battle right to the end and I'm very happy to walk away with the title.”

 

Spectators in attendance also witnessed a comeback in the amateur category, where defending champion Jonathan Vermette managed to retain his title. The Victoriaville golfer finished Sunday at -4 (68), which brought him to -5 (139) in the end.

“It's always nice to win at home and if all the tournaments could be here, I would be happy," he laughed. “It's a course that works for me and I was able to take advantage of it. It's quite narrow and straight, which fits my game very well. It helped me a lot and it's really fun to win for the second year in a row.”

Not far behind, Jeremy Godin (Victoriaville) and Ryan Galbraith (Elm Ridge) rounded out the top-3 in the division with respective cumulative scores of -3 (141) and -2 (142).

Heading to the Canada Cup and Québec Open

In addition to the various titles awarded on Sunday, the Machinex Open was intended to be a qualifier for the Sani Marc - Fenergic Canada Cup, which will be held from August 8 to 14 at the Victoriaville Golf Club.

No less than ten (10) passes, five (5) for professionals and five (5) for amateurs, were distributed according to the global ranking and the athletes who had already secured their participation in the event.

Professionals Vincent Blanchette, Valérie Tanguay (Vallée du Richelieu), Baptiste Mory (Royal Québec), Loïck Laramée (Royal Québec), Laurent Giroux (Le Grand Portneuf), and Joey Fraser (Summerlea) will be participating in Canada's largest independent tournament, as well as amateurs Jonathan Vermette, Jeremy Godin, Ryan Galbraith, Charles Raymond (Ottawa), and Luc Bergeron (Longchamp).

Finally, Blanchette and Pierre-Alexandre Bédard (Royal Québec), fourth in the standings at -7 (137), also obtained the last two tickets available to take part in the Québec Open, scheduled for August 1-7 at Le Blainvillier. "Honestly, I didn't have a lot of expectations when I came here, but the fact that I came out of the tournament with these two exemptions makes me very optimistic for the future," concluded the champion.

No less than 51 athletes, including golfers Valérie Tanguay, Sylvie Schetagne (Golf-Tonus PTMT), and Noémie Paré (Victoriaville), took part in this second edition of the Machinex Open. A total of $20,000 in prize money was awarded at the end of the tournament.

The Golf Québec team is now turning its attention to preparing for the competitions scheduled as part of the Québec Summer Games, which run until July 30 in Laval. There will be golfing action from July 27 to 30 on the fairways of the Saint-François Golf Club, where athletes from each region of the province will try to win a medal.

About Golf Québec – Initiate passions, build dreams

Founded in 1920, Golf Québec is the provincial sport federation whose mission is to increase participation in golf and develop excellence. Some of Golf Québec’s core services include the Golf in Schools Program, First Tee as well as Get Linked initiatives, the Introduction Tour, Junior Golf Development Centres (JGDC), Rules of Golf, World Handicap System, course rating services, Golf Fore the Cure, as well as the Québec Golf Hall of Fame. In addition, Golf Québec conducts regional and provincial championships to bring the local golf enthusiasts to surpass themselves and eventually reach the upper spheres of professional tours. For more information, please visit https://www.golfquebec.org.

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Sources:

Éric Couture, Competition Director
514 252-3345, exté 3394; Cell.: 514 269-3054 – ecouture@golfquebec.org

Émilie Bérubé, Marketing, Communications and Business Partnerships Manager
Cell.: 514 463-5229 – eberube@golfquebec.org