Smuggler’s Shootout Kicks Off
-New Elite Amateur Men’s Golf Tournament Plays Out May 30/31-
Gananoque, Ontario, May 28, 2009: A stellar field that includes some of the best male amateur golfers from Eastern Ontario and beyond will tee it up this weekend in a brand new elite golf tournament. The highly-acclaimed Smuggler’s Glen Golf Course will be the host for the Smuggler’s Shootout presented by Flagstick Golf Magazine.
The two-day stroke play event will start on Saturday, May 30th as day one of the 36-hole tournament gets underway. The winner will be crowned on Sunday, May 31st.
It is shaping up to be a highly competitive tournament with many top amateurs in the field. Leading the way will be players like two-time Ontario Junior Champion and member of the North Carolina State Wolfpack golf team, Brad Revell.
Also in the field are multiple past winners of the Garrison Open, another top local event. Those players include Peter Sauerbrei, Greg Knudsen, Jeff Crowe, and Allan McGee.
Sauerbrei recently graduated from Eastern Michigan University and is expected to head to Canadian Tour Qualifying this fall. McGee is a multiple-time Ottawa City Amateur Champion. Crowe is a re-instated amateur who competed collegiate golf at East Carolina and Virginia Commonwealth.
Some younger talent will be trying to be the first tournament champion as well. Cataraqui’s Brad Boyle (Indiana University of Pennsylvania and just returned from the NCAA Div. II Nationals), Simon Reyers (Detroit Mercy), and rising star Kyle Benford are also teeing it up.
The golfers will face a stern test in Smuggler’s Glen, a course that has garnered much praise since opening in 2005. At just over 6,500 yards and playing to a par of 71 the layout is marked by dramatic elevation changes, fairways playing parallel to exposed rock faces and many holes that provoke both thought and tension. In 2008 it was voted the Favourite Public Golf in the Flagstick Reader’s Choice awards.
“It is the first year but we expect this event to really grow,” says Flagstick Golf Magazine Publisher, Jeff Bauder. “The owners, the Seal Family are first class in how they run things and their Director of Golf, Doug Wark, has been tremendous in his efforts to get this event off the ground. We are proud to be associated with this exciting new event.”
