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The competitive season is in full swing

Montréal, July 25, 2022 – In August, the intensity of the competitive season will be at its peak at Golf Québec with an impressive number of high-calibre events for both amateurs and professionals. Some fifty days of activities is scheduled!

Professional Tour

The largest professional event of the season, the Québec Open, will be held at Club de golf Le Blainvillier from August 1 to 7. Players from the PGA TOUR Canada will be collecting Fortinet Cup points to earn a spot on the Korn Ferry Tour. Brendan Leonard of Cambridge, Ontario, will defend his 2021 title. He will be up against some of the best players in Québec today, including Joey Savoie (Pinegrove), Étienne Papineau (Pinegrove), Brandon Lacasse (Knowlton), and Keven Fortin-Simard, who had the lowest score by a Québec golfer at the last edition of the event.

This international competition will also be the backdrop for numerous activities focused on the pleasure of playing and discovering golf. In particular, on August 3, the 15th edition of the Bolloré Fundraiser Tournament/Pro-Am will allow participants to live a unique experience with the players registered for the Open while raising funds to support sport development initiatives for families and children.

We will then have the chance to witness and appreciate the talent of our rising stars during the Junior Skills Challenge, which will be presented as part of the Québec Open on August 6 at Le Blainvillier. One hundred young athletes between the ages of 5 and 18 are expected to participate in this competition consisting of three approach shots, three putts and three tee shots that could earn them a spot in the 2023 National Finals Event.

Also on August 6, spectators will be invited to dress up to create a big red tide for the Sortez, golfez Day. Our partner belairdirect will be on-site with its wheel of fortune to offer a multitude of prizes to all visitors.

The following week, from August 11 to 14, the Sani Marc - Fenergic Canada Cup will be presented by the City of Victoriaville at the Victoriaville Golf Club. A contingent of 156 players is expected, in which the best amateur golfers from our province will have the chance to compete against professionals from across the country.

The 2019 champion, Eric Banks of Nova Scotia, as well as Ontario's Lee Curry, who won the honours in 2015, have both confirmed their attendance. Keven Fortin-Simard, who shot the lowest score by a Québec professional at the 2021 Mackenzie Investments Open, Marc Hurtubise who was named the 2021 Québec PGA Head Professional, and Yohann Benson who was the 2021 Québec PGA Player of the Year will also be in the field. On the amateur side, we will keep an eye on the performances of our host club's representatives, Charles-Érick Roux, Serge Breton, Thomas Vallières, Maxime Chabot as well as Francis Rouillier who recorded the best amateur score in 2021.

Men's Provincial Tour Presented in Collaboration With belairdirect

The Provincial Senior Men's Championship will be held at the Boucherville Golf Club from August 16 to 18. Close to 120 players will take part in the event and will try to obtain one of the 15 spots for the Canadian Senior Men's Championship, which will be held at the Red Deer Golf Club in Red Deer, Alberta, from September 6 to 9, 2022. Of these, the top three will form the senior team that will represent Golf Québec in the inter-provincial competition.

Our 2021 champion, Luc Bergeron (Longchamp), will be on-site to defend his provincial title. He will have to compete with François Bissonnette (Le Blainvillier) who won in 2017 and 2020, Jean-Guy Garnier (Royal Québec) who was crowned in 2015 and 2019, and Shawn Farrell (Summerlea) who captured the title in 2018.

We will also be looking to our Québec teams in the inter-provincial competitions that are making a comeback as part of the national championships after a two-year hiatus.

William Forgues (Royal Québec) will join Team Canada players Christopher Vandette (Kanawaki) and Laurent Desmarchais (Vallée du Richelieu) to compete for the Willingdon Cup at the Canadian Men's Amateur Championship to be held August 1-4 at Point Grey Golf & Country Club in Vancouver, British Columbia. Fifteen other golfers from the province have also been granted a pass to the individual national competition.

Corey Eccles (Royal Montreal), Warren Sellors (Windmill Heights G&CC), and Luc Guilbault (Drummondville) will travel to Thornhill G&CC in Ontario for the Canadian Men's Mid-Amateur Championships August 23-26. A total of nine Quebecers will be competing individually.

Women's Tour

On the women's side, Marie-Thérèse Torti (Vallée du Richelieu), Suzanne Ricard (Royal Montreal), and Marlene Desbiens (Murray Bay) will form the Québec three-player team at the Canadian Mid-Amateur and Senior Women's Championship inter-provincial competition scheduled for Headingley, Manitoba, August 30-September 1. This will be Torti's 21st appearance in a Canadian event and she was inducted into the Québec Golf Hall of Fame earlier in May.

Provincial Junior Tour

Before they return to school, August will be a busy month for our youngest competitors, aged 9 to 14, who will first return to action at the Bantam, Pee-Wee and Mosquito Championship on August 1 and 2 in Drummonville. Zack Bourgeois (Le Blainvillier), who won the pee-wee division of the Assante Optimiste Classic in May and the Pee-Wee and Bantam Classic in June, will be among the players to watch. It will be the same for Charly Pinel (Royal Québec) who had the same success in the bantam division this year. The 2021 pee-wee champion, Chase Jerome (Royal Ottawa), will test his luck in the bantam division. Mosquito champion Florence Ho (Ottawa Hunt) will defend her 2021 title. Léonie Tavares (Glendale) who was crowned in the mosquito category in 2020 will now make the jump to the pee-wee category where she will try to succeed the 2021 champion, Claire Hu (Beaconsfield) who will compete in the bantam girls’ category.

Félix Bouchard (Vallée du Richelieu), James Newton (Royal Ottawa) and Jean-Philippe Parr (Ki-8-Eb), all members of Team Canada's junior squad, will attempt to defend the inter-provincial title that Québec won in 2019 when they compete at the Canadian Junior Men's Championship in Kamloops, British Columbia, from August 6 to 10.

The Match Play Championship will then take our juniors to the Knowlton Golf Club from August 15 to 17. A total of 16 girls and 32 boys, among the best of the year's orders of merit, will play a minimum of two rounds in the championship or consolation flights depending on their performance in the first round. The boys will want to engrave their name on the Édouard-Grondin trophy created in memory of the young Knowlton member who passed away in a car accident in 2017.

The Canada Games, a high-calibre junior event, is making a highly anticipated return to the sporting scene. The competition will be held at Legends on the Niagara, August 17-20, in Ontario, with each province represented by a team of four. In the girls' division, Anne-Léa Lavoie (Lorette/Team Canada/16) will join our rising star, Léonie Tavares who, having just celebrated her 12th birthday, could well be the youngest athlete ever to represent Québec at the Canada Games. In the men's division, Malik Dao (Summerlea/Team Canada/17) and Guillaume Paquette (Le Blainvillier/17) will complete our delegation. Malik will be looking to follow in the footsteps of his sister, Céleste, who won the individual and team gold medals in 2017.

The Golf Château-Bromont will host the Graham Cooke Junior Invitational on August 20 and 21 and will be the scene of intense competition between the girls and boys of the bantam, juvenile and junior divisions. Just back from the Canada Games, Léonie Tavares (Glendale) will be defending her 2021 juvenile title. Lydia St-Pierre (Royal Québec) who was crowned in 2018 and 2019 in the juvenile division will now aim for the junior title. She will face Alexandra Botsis (Rosemère) who won the Assante Optimiste Classic this year. Chad Huber (Summerlea), the 2019 Juvenile Men's Champion, will also be looking to add the junior crown to his list of accomplishments. He will be competing against Team Canada member Mathieu Lafontaine (Summerlea) and Jake Houston (Royal Montreal) who won the Assante Optimiste Classic in May.

The provincial junior competitive season will end on August 27 when the Inter-Regional Championship is presented at the Cornwall Golf Club. Each of the regions that make up Golf Québec's Provincial Junior Tour will be represented by a team of two juveniles, two pee-wees and two bantams for the boys as well as two girls. A Junior Skills Challenge will be held in the morning with tee shots and putts. An 18-hole round will then be played in a two-player Vegas Stableford format. At the end of the day, prizes will be awarded for each of these activities, in all categories. The Ottawa Valley region won the last edition of the event in 2019.

Hall of Fame

After a pause forced by the pandemic, we are now celebrating the Québec Golf Hall of Fame inductees. Mary-Lee Cobick, the 2020 Builder Inductee, will be honoured on August 5 at an annual event hosted by the Cobick family at Club de Golf L'Oiselet d'Amos.

Doran "Duke" Doucet's celebration dinner in honour of his long professional career will be held August 25 at the Summerlea Golf and Country Club. Tickets can be purchased online.

Many Thanks to Our Partners

Throughout the golf season, the Golf Québec volunteers, referees, and employees will be dressed by adidas. Competitors will not be forgotten as TaylorMade will supply them with the official TP5 and TP5X golf balls in main provincial events.

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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. Golf Québec provides discovery and introduction programs such as First Tee – Premier départ Québec as well as core services such as the Rules of Golf, Course Ratings, World Handicap System, and 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:

François Roy, Assistant Executive Director
Philanthropy, Partnership, and Communication
514 252-3345, ext. 3392; cellphone 514 349-4653 – froy@golfquebec.org

Guylaine Sirois, Communication Manager
514 252-3345, ext. 3745 – gsirois@golfquebec.org

Émilie Bérubé, Marketing, Communications, and Business Partnerships Manager
514 252-3345, ext. 3393 – Cell.: 514 463-5229 – eberube@golfquebec.org