Canadian Pro Tour to hit Whitney Oaks Golf Club

Rocklin?s Whitney Oaks Golf Club will host the Greater Sacramento Open, a Canadian Professional Golf Tour event, on April 12-18.It will be the first Canadian Pro Tour event ever held in California. Following the men?s tournament in Rocklin, the tour moves on to Brookside Country Club in Stockton April 19-25.Rhonda Richards, owner of Golf Sacramento, which is hosting the event, and the tournament director of this month?s tournaments, was contacted by the Canadian tour in March of 2003. She immediately went to work to find the perfect spot for the Greater Sacramento Open and Whitney Oaks turned out to be the best choice.?It took Whitney Oaks less than one day to agree to do it,? Richards said. ?We will pay them a fee to help them out with the care of the course and the greens because they are losing some of their normal business because of the tournament. They are one of the 15 courses that we (Golf Sacramento) are responsible for and we like to bring people from out of the area to play our courses.?There are several reasons why the Canadian Tour hosts events in the United States. ?The golf channel owns eight Canadian Tour events and they were looking for places to play in the United States because it is less expensive than broadcasting from Canada,? Richards said. ?Also the weather doesn?t get good in Canada until about June and they have five million people in Canada who watch the golf channel, and this is a chance to let them watch a Canadian Tour event.?Forty percent of the players on the tour are Canadian, 40 percent American and 20 percent international.The tournament will feature a field of 156 players, 138 from the tour, eight from the April 12 qualifying event and eight from exemptions. Many of those playing on April 12 are trying to qualify for the tour.Shawn Kelly, from The Ridge in Auburn, will play in the tournament. He was Northern California?s player of the year in 2002. Robert Hamilton, from the Winchester Country Club, will also be given an exemption for the tournament.Exemption choices are split between Richards and the golf channel.There will be a $150,000 purse for the event, with $16,000 going to the winner.On April 15-17, there will be a closest-to-the-pin contest that anyone can join. Each player can get 20 shots for $20 and the top four golfers from each day will compete on Saturday in a hole-in-one contest. The contest will be held on the ninth hole, with the tee set up 165-yards from the cup. Anyone who sinks the shot will receive $1 million.The event is free to the public and caddies are still needed. Caddies will be paid about $35 per day and those interested should call Whitney Oaks at 632-8333.For more information about the tournament call 1-866-790-3978 or visit golfsacramento.com.