CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Max Homa traded in a shovel for a ladder to get places he always thought he could reach.

Two years ago in his second try on the PGA Tour, he made only two cuts the entire season and played only one round on a Sunday. Eight months ago, he was on the verge of going back to Q-school and an uncertain future until closing with four straight birdies to make the cut in a Web.com Tour event that gave him another shot at the big leagues.

It made Sunday all that much sweeter in the Wells Fargo Championship.

In a three-way tie for the lead, in the final group on the PGA Tour for the first time, with Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia right behind him, Homa outplayed them all with a 4-under 67 for a three-shot victory at Quail Hollow and his first PGA Tour title.

“I used to say when I hit rock bottom I found a shovel and kept digging. I went to some low, low places,” he said. “I’d use a shovel and dig deeper. I went to some low, low places. I realized in that year or two when I started to play bad that my attitude was going to have to get a lot better. … I’m very proud I finally found a ladder and started climbing, because it was getting dark down there.”

Suddenly, the immediate future is bright as can be.

He has a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour, a tee time at the PGA Championship in two weeks at Bethpage Black and a spot in the Masters next year.

A former NCAA champion at Cal, Homa has “Relentless” in block letters tattooed on his right forearm. The 28-year-old Californian also has a signed photo from former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who once told him to look at the picture and be reminded to believe in himself.

The trophy at his side, Homa’s press conference was interrupted for him to take a call from the 91-year-old Lasorda.

“I guess my whole world is different,” he said.

Golf felt so hard for Homa for so many years after he left Cal, and then he made it look so easy in a final round that made him so nervous he wanted to throw up, except when he had his hands on a golf club. He pulled away with two birdies to start the back nine for a four-shot lead. He didn’t make a bogey until it only affected the final margin. But it was a one-hour rain delay that tested Homa the most.

He was leading by three when he nearly went in the water on the 14th hole and chipped up to 6 feet when the horn sounded to stop play. With time he didn’t need on his hands, he called his fiancee and his coach and can’t remember what either of them said.

And then he returned and buried the putt.

“I knew in the back of my mind if I made that putt, I win this golf tournament,” he said.

Joel Dahmen, who pushed Homa as hard as any major champion, saved par with a tough chip over the creek for a 70 and finished three shots behind.

“I didn’t beat myself today, which was kind of the goal,” Dahmen said. “Max is playing awesome. He’s a good friend. I think we’re going to celebrate tonight.”

Homa effectively sealed it with a perfect play to the green on the par-5 15th for a two-putt birdie, and a 10-foot par putt on the 17th to keep a three-shot leading playing the tough closing hole at Quail Hollow. He made a 10-foot par there, too, and the celebration was on.

Homa finished at 15-under 269.

“Over the moon, man,” he said before going to sign his card. “It means a lot to do it under pressure, and job security is great. I haven’t had that.”

The victory was worth $1,422,000, about $454,000 more than he had made in his previous 67 starts.

Justin Rose (68) finished alone in third and moved ahead of Brooks Koepka to No. 2 in the world.

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., was the top Canadian. He shot a final-round 73 to finish 1-under. Fellow Abbotsford native Nick Taylor (72) was 2-over.

Rory McIlroy was primed to join Tom Weiskopf as the only three-time winners at Quail Hollow, starting the final round two shots behind. He never got anything going until it went the wrong way. He turned a 20-foot eagle attempt into a three-putt par on the par-5 seventh, failed to get up-and-down on the reachable eighth for a birdie, and then went bogey-double bogey around the turn to take himself out of the mix.

No one else was much of a threat either, just two guys who had never come remotely close to winning on the PGA Tour.

Former PGA champion Jason Dufner, part of the three-way tie for the lead to start the final round, made consecutive bogeys early and had no bearing on the final round. A double bogey on the 18th gave him a 73 and dropped him into a tie for fourth.

Rose pulled within two shots with a birdie on the par-5 10th, only to settle into a series of pars. By the time Sergio Garcia reached double digits under par, Homa was well on his way.

Homa and Dahmen were at 13 under until Dahmen blinked first. He found a fairway bunker on No. 9, couldn’t get to the green and made bogey and dropped another shot on the 11th. Homa, playing behind him in the final group, holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 10th for a two-shot lead, made birdie from the left rough on the 11th with a 12-foot putt and escaped more trouble off the tee on the 12th with a two-putt from 80 feet.

He survived the rain delay, the nervy finish.

Homa has endured a lot more than that over the last few years.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Rory McIlroy was in position to become the first three-time winner of the Wells Fargo Championship.

McIlroy celebrated his 30th birthday Saturday with a 3-under 68 to pull within two shots of leaders Max Homa, Jason Dufner and Joel Dahmen.

“I’m right there going into (Sunday), so I’m excited for that,” McIlroy said after a round that was delayed twice by weather. “I’m three shots closer to the lead than I was starting off the day, so that’s a good thing.”

Nobody finishes the Wells Fargo Championship better than McIlroy.

He’s been dominant on Sundays at Quail Hollow Club, which he calls one of his favourite courses. In his seven previous final rounds at the tournament he is a combined 19-under par, including a 62 in 2010 when he won the first of his two trophies.

His average final round score at the Wells Fargo is a 68.7, better than any other player. He’s trying to join Tom Weiskopf as the only three-time winners at Quail Hollow. Weiskopf won the old Kemper Open three times on this course before the tournament moved to Washington.

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McIlroy has experience on his side entering Sunday, too.

He’s up against two players – Homa and Dahmen – who’ve never won on the PGA Tour, and Dufner, who is looking to break out of a lengthy slump and who appears to be just barely holding on after shooting 71 on Saturday. Pat Perez also was in contention, one shot ahead of McIlroy, but he’s coming off a torn calf muscle.

As he walked from hole to hole, McIlroy was repeatedly greeted by fans wishing him happy birthday.

“I felt the love,” he joked.

But there were no gifts for the star from Northern Ireland early in the round.

He opened with pars on his first six holes. It wasn’t until the par-5 seventh that McIlroy drained a short putt for his first birdie. He finished the round with four birdies and one bogey.

Ironically, the bogey came after his best shot of the day.

McIlroy nearly holed out from the middle of fairway 99 yards away on the par-4 12th when ball just missed rolling backward into the cup with some backspin. It appeared McIlroy was building some momentum, but the second horn sounded suspending play again as he was lining up his birdie putt and he had to go all the way back to the clubhouse again. When McIlroy returned to the course, he three-putted for bogey.

“That one sort of got me a little bit,” McIlroy said about the second delay. “But it’s the same for everyone, we just have to deal with it the best we can.”

But McIlroy pulled it together, making birdie on the short par-4 14th hole and the reachable par-5 15th hole to claw back to within two shots of the leaders, none of whom could separate themselves from the pack coming down the stretch at Quail Hollow’s difficult three closing holes called the Green Mile.

McIlroy said the key for him Sunday will be patience, something he learned after winning the Players Championship earlier this year. During that victory he started the final two rounds 2-over before battling to get on track.

“I told myself I’m right in the thick of the tournament but you have to stay patient and almost let it come to you rather than try to chase it,” McIlroy said about The Players Championship. “That was on thatgolf course. I think it’s similar here. You have to pick your spots to be aggressive and make your birdies, the par 5s, the two short par 4s. If you can do that and pick those off and you don’t make many mistakes, you know, 68 or 67’s always going to do you pretty well around here.”

It’s no surprise that McIlroy is in contention.

He’s in midst of another outstanding season. He’s made the cut in all nine events he’s entered and not finished worse than a tie for 21st,at the Masters.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Rory McIlroy looked every bit like a player who has won twice at the Wells Fargo Championship.

He just didn’t feel like one.

Twice when he was out of position off the tee, he managed to make birdies. He missed a 4-foot birdie putt after his most amazing recovery of all. And late in his round Thursday, he ran off three straight birdies for a share of the lead with Joel Dahmen at 5-under 66, his lowest start in 10 appearances at Quail Hollow.

Walking to the scoring area, he smiled and said, “Managed my game.”

His translation of that?

“Get the most out of your round, turn 70s in 66, like I did today,” he said. “I felt like I hit it like I should have shot 1- or 2-under par. I didn’t feel like it was a round that I deserved to shoot 5 under, but I got the most out of it, which is nice if I’m able to continue to do that sort of stuff.”

He wasn’t complaining. In his first start since tying for 21st at the Masters – his only finish out of the top 10 this year – McIlroy got out of trouble and made enough key putts to keep moving in the right direction. His only bogey came after a drive that bounced into a creek, and there’s no recovering when a ball is in 4 feet of water.

Dahmen, a cancer survivor who tries not to take himself too seriously, played a more steady game. Playing three groups behind the large crowd following McIlroy, he kept bogeys off his card and holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th for his 66.

They were a shot ahead of a group that included Patrick Reed, who is having the opposite year of McIlroy. The former Masters champion has yet to finish in the top 10, and he hopes a bogey-free round like Thursday morning will be a signal that his work on his swing is done and it’s time to start hitting shots.

Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., was the low Canadian, in a tie for third with Reed, Adam Schenk, Dylan Frittelli and Martin Laird.

Defending champion Jason Day led a large pack at 68.

Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., was tied for 47th at even-par 71. Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., were tied for 83rd at 2 over, David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., were tied for 103rd at 3 over. Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., was 4 over to tie for 116th.

Dahmen tied for 12th at The Players Championship and earned just over $250,000, which made him feel like “the richest man alive.” He decided to grow in a moustache, which he kept for good luck until hitting a ball in the water last week at the team event in New Orleans. So he shaved.

But he’s still playing well enough to think this might be the week he at least gives himself a chance.

“I want to be in the hunt with nine to play. That’s the goal,” he said. “I haven’t really been there yet. I’m good enough to. I should be there. I should have chances by now. I just kind of need to get out of my own way and let it go.”

McIlroy was in the trees on the second hole when he punched out low and let the ball run across the sun-baked, fast fairway and onto the green about 20 feet, setting up a long birdie putt. He got out of minor tree trouble on the par-5 10th to set up a birdie. He was out of position left of the 11th fairway and hit that to 2 feet.

His best shot was from a suspect lie in the right rough, blocked by a tree, facing an elevated green with a back pin. The idea was to dump it in a front bunker and try to get up-and-down for par.

“That’s where I assumed it was going to go, but it came out perfectly, had a little more cut on it than I thought it was going to out of the rough, took a nice couple of hopes and got up there very close,” he said.

Not close enough, for he badly pushed the birdie putt.

“Probably didn’t deserve to make the putt after the tee shot,” he said.

And then in a three-hole stretch, he moved to the top of the leaderboard. It started with a long bunker shot to 6 feet for birdie on the short par-4 14th. His 3-wood on the par-5 15th went over the green and he chipped weakly to 12 feet and made the putt. And then he smashed a driver that bounced off the ridge next to a bunker and down the fairway, leaving a chip 9-iron to 8 feet for a third straight birdie.

Good golf usually goes his way at Quail Hollow.

This is where McIlroy won his first PGA Tour title in 2010, closing with a 62. He lost in a playoff to Rickie Fowler and D.A. Points two years later, and won in 2015.

“I’ve got some great memories here,” he said. “Every time I step onto this golf course, I feel like I have a chance to shoot a good score. I didn’t play my best today. I managed my game well, scrambled well. But it added up to a good number at the end of the day.”

It’s not that Michael Gligic doesn’t care about his results anymore. He’s just learned to keep golf in its proper perspective, helping him relax on the course.

That laid-back approach has helped the Canadian stay near the top of the Web.com Tour’s rankings and close in on his first PGA Tour card. Entering play at this week’s Nashville Golf Open, Gligic is sixth in the regular-season points list, largely thanks to winning the Panama Championship.

“I used to get a little too caught up in what other people were doing, what they were shooting, what I need to shoot at the start of the week to win, or what’s the cut going to be,” said Gligic. “Now I don’t really look at the board. I just go out and play and add them up at the end and see how we did.”

Gligic’s win in Panama on Feb. 10 was a prime example of this new mindset.

He entered the final round tied for seventh, three shots back of third-round leader Ben Taylor. Gligic fired a 5-under 65, including a four-foot putt on the 18th hole, to win.

“I didn’t really have nerves because I didn’t know it was to win, I had no idea where I stood,” said Gligic. “If you watch the video of me making the three- or -four-footer, as soon as it goes in I said to my caddy ‘how did we do?’ because I had no idea.

“That’s where I want to stay. In my own little world and I’ll just go play golf and see where I how I do at the end of the week.”

Gligic is partly inspired by PGA Tour veterans Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood, who have been open about the benefits of leaving their golf game on the course and being a “human being” in their down time.

“My wife Natasha’s coming down this week and regardless of what happens on Thursday we’re going to go for a nice dinner in one of the coolest cities in the United States being in Nashville,” said Gligic after taking in a practice round at the Nashville Golf & Athletic Club on Tuesday. “Have a beer somewhere, it’ll all be good.”

The top 25 players on the second-tier Web.com Tour’s points list at the end of the season earn PGA Tour cards. Given his strong start to the season, Gligic is already closing in on being mathematically guaranteed a promotion for next season.

Many Canadians on the Web.com Tour skip the RBC RBC Canadian Open in favour of playing on their regular circuit to keep earning points toward a PGA Tour card. Gligic is hoping to be in a strong enough position that he can opt into Canada’s only PGA Tour event.

The RBC Canadian Open is being held at Hamilton Golf and Country Club from June 6-9, right by Gligic’s hometown of Burlington, Ont.

“I’ve put a lot of thought into it and talked to my team and gotten a few opinions and I think we’re going to do it,” Gligic said. “I haven’t gotten a call for an exemption, I haven’t gotten anything official yet, but we’re hoping for it and if I do get the call, I’m planning on being there.

“I’m just hoping I can put a few good weeks together and lock up a PGA Tour card before the RBC Canadian Open.”

Ottawa’s Brad Fritsch, Calgary’s Ryan Yip and Toronto’s Albin Choi are the other Canadians in the field at the Nashville Golf Open.

Golf Canada is proud to celebrate the 66 adoptions that occurred during Adopt a School Week thanks to the efforts of golf enthusiasts and industry partners across the country.

In total, the figure translates to an additional 7,920 students being introduced to the sport through the Future Links, driven by Acura Golf in Schools program. The coast-to-coast campaign was elevated by support from Canadian industry partners—the Provincial Associations, PGA of Canada, the National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA), Canadian Society of Club Managers and Canadian Golf Superintendents Association.

A matching program for the first 30 adoptions was made possible by the Canadian Seniors Golf Association, who continue to be a leader in supporting Adopt a School Week. In the campaign’s four years of running, the CSGA has helped to adopt over 100 schools in Canadian communities from coast-to-coast.

Since the program’s inception in 2009, adoptions have accounted for close to 50% of over 3,800 registered schools delivering the curriculum. For Jeff Thompson, Golf Canada’s chief sport officer, that number presents a great opportunity to build community relationships.

“The vision is to help establish a connection between golf facilities and schools in respective communities across Canada through the Golf in Schools program,” said Thompson. “Nurturing these relationships will enhance the delivery of the program and build a connection that will last for many years to come.”

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GOLF IN SCHOOLS.

All players are expected to play in the spirit of the game by acting with integrity, showing consideration for others and taking care of the course.

Click here to learn more on the Modernized Rules of golf.

OTTAWA – On the second annual National Golf Day, the Canadian golf industry, represented by We Are Golf, is launching a national campaign to encourage Canadians to get involved in the sport. Industry leaders are meeting with Parliamentarians throughout the day, while golf stakeholders are working to spread the word in municipalities nationwide.

“Golf is a sport that brings so many benefits to Canadians – not just through the health aspect, but as a significant economic driver,” said Kathryn Wood, Chair of We Are Golf and COO of Canadian Golf Superintendents Association “Golf in Canada sees $14.3 billion in annual economic impact, and supports over 300,000 jobs – nearly 40% of which are summer students.”

“Our counterparts in the USA are undertaking a similar initiative in Washington, with the goal to broaden participation in the sport across the continent,” added Laurence Applebaum, CEO of Golf Canada, “On National Golf Day, we’re encouraging all Canadians to get involved by playing a round of golf, enjoying family time at the local course, introducing a new player to the game, adopting a school in their community through Golf in Schools, taking a lesson, or making a purchase at their local pro shop.”

#Golf‘s economic impact in Canada ????#WeAreCanadianGolf pic.twitter.com/tWpfhdTCUz

— Golf Canada (@GolfCanada) May 1, 2019

We Are Golf launched the inaugural National Golf Day in 2018 with advocacy meetings in Ottawa, a public junior golf activity on the Parliament Hill lawn, and various golf activities at clubs across Canada. The continuation of National Golf Day in Canada in 2019 will again incorporate meetings by We Are Golf stakeholders with MPs, Senators, and government officials.

“We are looking forward to building upon the success of our 2018 National Golf Day and government advocacy efforts in Ottawa, and hope to continue to bring the positive value of the game of golf to the forefront,” said We Are Golf chair, Kathryn Wood.

LOS ANGELES – Minjee Lee won the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open on Sunday at Wilshire Country Club for her fifth LPGA Tour title, closing with a 3-under 68 for a four-stroke victory.

The 22-year-old Australian was projected to jump from fourth to second in the world ranking Monday after her fourth top-three finish in her last seven starts.

“Coming in, the first half of the year that I’ve had, I’ve been hitting it pretty solid and playing pretty solid,” Lee said. “I felt like it was close. I feel pretty good with this one.”

Lee made a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 18th to finish at 14-under 270. She led the last three days, shooting 66-69-67 to take a one-stroke advantage over Nanna Koerstz Madsen into the final round.(backslash)

Lee won a year after tying for seventh in the inaugural event.

“It’s definitely a second-shot golf course,” Lee said. “I feel like my iron play is pretty solid and usually I can be accurate with them. I think it suits me and my game. If my putter is running hot then I have a good chance.”

Sei Young Kim was second. The South Korean birdied Nos. 13-15 to pull within two strokes, but parred 16 and 17 and bogeyed the 18th for a 66.

“This golf course is not easy, even regular tournament,” Kim said. “The greens are really fast. If I miss the wrong side, it’s tough to up-and-down. Even that, I’m very satisfied with my playing. I’m very happy with my score.”

Lee easily held on after Kim’s rally stalled.

“I was just going to carry on playing my own game,” Lee said. “I had a couple birdie opportunities coming in, so I didn’t get rattled up or anything.”

Annie Park (67) and Morgan Pressel (68) tied for third at 9 under.

Koerstz Madsen shot a 76 to finish 13th at 5 under. She was trying to become the first Danish winner in LPGA Tour history.

Canada’s Brooke Henderson followed her win a week earlier with a T10 finish at 6 under par.

AVONDALE, La. – Ryan Palmer had to find a teammate if he was going to get back to New Orleans, one of his favourite PGA Tour stops for reasons ranging from the food to his friendship with Saints coach Sean Payton.

Palmer’s past partner at the Zurich Classic team event, Jordan Spieth, had changed his schedule and was taking the week off, and Palmer knew Jon Rahm’s previous teammate, Wesley Bryan, couldn’t play because of shoulder surgery. So Palmer reached out to Rahm, unsure if a 24-year-old Spaniard wanted anything to do with a Texan nearly two decades his senior.

The odd couple from different continents and generations combined for a 3-under 69 in the alternate-shot final round Sunday to win the tour’s only team event by three strokes over Sergio Garcia and Tommy Fleetwood.

“I shot him a text, hoping he would bite,” Palmer recalled. “When a 42-year-old player is calling him, he’s probably like, ‘Why does he want to play with me?’ But he accepted and what an awesome week.”

The victory was the fourth on the tour for Palmer, but first in nearly a decade. Having last won in 2010 at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Palmer waved and gave a thumbs-up as he walked up the 18th fairway with a throng of fans applauding the impending triumph.

“It was nice playing the last hole with a three-shot lead. That’s for sure,” Palmer said.

Rahm took his third PGA Tour victory – one each in his first three seasons. He finished in the top 10 for the seventh time this year, including a tie for ninth at the Masters a couple weeks earlier.

“When Wesley told me he was having shoulder surgery a few months before the event, I was in no-man’s land,” Rahm recalled.

“I’m really happy I said yes” to Palmer’s proposal to team-up, Rahm continued. “I can say to Jordan and Wesley: ‘Sorry, we already have a partner for next year.”’

Palmer-Rahm finished at 26-under 262 at the TPC Louisiana, which had dried out considerably since heavy rain delayed the first round by more than seven hours and forced many players to play more than 18 holes on Friday and Saturday to get the event back on schedule.

Canada’s David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., finished with a share of 5th alongside Ireland’s Seamus Power. The duo finished at 20 under par, six back of the champions.

Opening the final round tied atop the leaderboard with Scott Stallings and Trey Mullinax, Palmer and Rahm surged to a two-stroke lead in just two holes after Stallings-Mullinax bogeyed the first hole and Rahm nearly holed out from the fringe to set up Palmer’s 1-foot birdie putt on the par-5 second. Palmer and Rahm never lost the lead after that, making birdies on 13 and 14 at virtually the same time Garcia and Fleetwood were making birdies on 17 and 18 – highlighted by Garcia’s 29-foot birdie putt in front of the grandstand on 17.

“Proud of how well we played,” Fleetwood said after he and Garcia’s final-round 68. “Neither of us hardly missed a shot. … To shoot 68 that easy in foursomes is a very, very good day.”

The teams of Kyoung-Hoon Lee-Matt Every and Brian Gay-Rory Sabbatini tied for third, five shots behind. Four teams tied for fifth at 20 under, four more for ninth at 19 under and defending champions Billy Horschel and Scott Piercy were among five teams at 18 under.

The winners each took home $1.05 million, moving Rahm up to nearly $3.1 million this season and Palmer to about $2.3 million.

Three days of sunshine made the greens increasingly “crusty” Palmer said, and faster. A number of players struggled to adjust Sunday, regularly rolling putts past the hole.

Yet Palmer and Rahm handled it well. Palmer made two putts from around 6 feet, one from 7, one from 8 and one from 11.

“What got us going for the most part was a lot of those par putts that Ryan made,” said Rahm, who figured out the greens on the back nine, making a 13-foot birdie putt on 10 and a 24-footer to save par on 15.

“It’s hard when you play slower greens that have been wet for three days and you come to these,” Palmer said. “But what a day to buckle down and make the ones we needed to.”

The Zurich format was best-ball in the first and third rounds, allowing players to be more aggressive. But bad shots held the potential to derail alternate-shot rounds because players had to deal with the lies their teammates left them.

Palmer and Rahm didn’t misfire often, but when one did, the other responded well.

The burly, powerful Rahm slammed his driver into the turf after pulling his tee shot through tree branches on the left side of the fairway and into the waste bunker on 12. But Palmer followed with a 195-yard shot that landed just short of the green, and sank a 6-foot putt two shots later for par.

Rahm’s psyche appeared restored when he bounced a 71-yard chip off the flag on 13 to set up Palmer’s short birdie putt.

Palmer gushed afterward about the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Rahm’s combination of strength and finesse.

“It’s really fun to play with a guy that can not only hit the ball the way he does, but watching his short game,” Palmer said. “I learned so much from watching it – the shots he hits when he’s got a bump-and-run or flop. … He’s got a special art.”

Stallings-Mullinax faded on the back nine, where they bogeyed 11 and 13 and double-bogeyed 16 after Mullinax’s tee shot went into the water. They finished with a 5-over 77 and tied for 13th.

Two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson, playing a three-hours’ drive from his native Bagdad, Florida, appeared primed to make a run with partner J.B. Holmes after they’d birdied the fourth, seventh and eighth holes to move to 20 under. But Watson left an approach shot short on 10, which the tandem bogeyed.

Holmes narrowly missed a birdie putt on 11, and then pulled his drive on 12, forcing Watson to chip back to the fairway while leaning against a tree. They bogeyed that hole and three more to finish 13 shots back.

The Canadian golf industry represented by We Are Golf (formerly the National Allied Golf Association) has officially announced that May 1, 2019 has been tabbed as National Golf Day in Canada.

The date aligns with the We Are Golf initiative spearheaded out of the United States—also set for May 1, 2019—and will bring further attention to the game of golf and its significant community impact within not only Canada, but across North America.

We are Golf is comprised of all the national golf associations within Canada—Golf Canada, the Canadian Society of Club Managers, the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association, the PGA of Canada and the National Golf Course Owners Association Canada.

Planning for National Golf Day is underway with several activities to build upon the success of the inaugural 2018 event which included government advocacy and discussion with MPs in Ottawa, a public junior golf activity on the Parliament Hill lawn and various golf activities at clubs across Canada. The continuation of National Golf Day in Canada in 2019 will again incorporate meetings by We Are Golf stakeholders with MPs and government officials.

“We are looking forward to building upon the success of our 2018 National Golf Day and government advocacy efforts in Ottawa and continue to bring the positive value of the game of golf to the forefront,” said We Are Golf chair, Kathryn Wood. “National Golf Day will be a tremendous catalyst for golf enthusiasts to rally and celebrate what the sport of golf means to them and their community.”

Each member association representing We Are Golf is also encouraging their respective memberships, partners and stakeholders to participate in National Golf Day in their own way to celebrate the significant economic, health, recreational, charitable and tourism benefits that golf drives in communities from coast to coast.

We Are Golf is calling on the entire golf community as well as partner associations and golfers to engage in National Golf Day as a can’t miss event on the Canadian golf calendar.

Golf enthusiasts across Canada are encouraged to get involved in National Golf Day by playing a round of golf, visiting a course or practice facility, enjoying family time at the course, introducing a new player to the game, adopting a school in their community through Golf in Schools, hosting a school golf field trip, taking a lesson, or making a purchase at their local pro shop.

Please visit http://wearegolf.ca/ to learn more, and to access a social media toolkit to promote the day and get involved!

Golf in Canada – A Snapshot:

In Canada, more than five million golfers play close to 60 million rounds annually at nearly 2,300 golf facilities from coast to coast—the most participated sport in this country.

Golf is a significant economic driver generating more than $14.3 billion in economic impact and employing more than 300,000 jobs, nearly 40% of which are summer students. Direct revenues generated by golf courses and their facilities ($5.0 billion) rivals the revenues generated by all other participation sports and recreation facilities combined ($4.8 billion). Golf courses also steward essential greenspace in the community in addition to hosting more than 37,000 charity events that raise more than $533 million annually to support important causes.

The health benefits of moderate-intensity physical activity, burning 850 to 1,500 calories as well as muscle endurance, blood circulation, flexibility and mental health along with respiratory, metabolic and cardiovascular improvements can’t be discounted. Golf as a safe and inclusive family sport is good for our children, instilling etiquette and values such as integrity, honest, fair play and the spirit of camaraderie.