Four years ago I received a call from Elliott Kerr, an old friend of my pal the late Pat Marsden asking me what I could do to promote a new tournament he was sponsoring on the Canadian tour named after his beloved wife Jane Rogers to try and raise more money for cancer research, the disease that she fought so valiantly before it took her away.
Thus started my involvement with Elliott, his Landmark Group and his tourney up at Lakeview. I had many of the players on our Fairways show, and had Elliott on with Bob McCown on several occasions to try and make it go.
One Saturday after the radio show I drove out to Lakeview and was reminded yet again how fragile the line is on the Canadian tour between surviving and going under.
The gallery was sparse to be kind, admission was only 10 bucks and it was a sunny warm day as I took a seat behind the 1st green. I thought of a story I did on Jace Bugg, who with his girlfriend/caddie/fiance Misty drove a beat up old Winnebago from Kentucky to Victoria BC to qualify for this tour by a shot, then got in that Winnebago and drove right across Canada in it, playing in all the tour's events. They would roller blade around the course at night to learn where the holes were. He was playing in running shoes when I first met him at Diamond Back GC playing in the Samsung.
His dream was to make it to the Nationwide tour to make enough money to marry Misty.. He did finally, they got married and shortly after he was killed by leukemia, after Misty had donated her bone marrow to try a save him..
This tour is full of stories like that, Jane Rogers was one of them so I was saddened to see Elliott has had to pull the plug today on the event..
Here is the report
The Canadian Tour announced that the Jane Rogers Championship will not be on the 2011 schedule due to a lack of sponsorship.
The four year old tournament, which was a full-field Canadian Tour event, had raised more than $200,000 for cancer research. The tournament was held at Lakeview Golf Club in Mississauga its first two years and for two years at Greystone Golf Club in Halton Hills, Ontario.
“We are saddened that we are not able to continue,” said Elliott Kerr, President of the Landmark Group of Toronto, and husband of the late Jane Rogers. “We were just not able to secure a title sponsor for 2011.
“We will continue this search and we will not give up. If we can bring this event back we will and donate, dedicate and commit all of our resources to make the Jane Rogers Championship the best event ever. The Canadian Tour was near and dear to Jane’s heart.”
The Tour says it is in talks with potential sponsors for new event in the Greater Toronto Area but no further details were given at this time.
“This event was a labour of love for everyone involved. It existed in Jane’s honour to raise funds and awareness for how beatable and treatable colorectal cancer is,” Canadian Tour Commissioner Rick Janes said. “We need to find a major sponsor to bring the event back and hopefully that will be sooner than later.”
The Canadian Tour is set to swing back into action next month with a pair of co-sanctioned events in Colombia.
Bryan Angus
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