PALM CITY, Fla. – With the Web.com Tour season opener just two weeks away, Young Pro Squad member Adam Svensson added another trophy to the shelf on Thursday with a win at the Palm City Classic—a Minor League Golf mini tour event.

Just one month removed from earning medalist honours at Web.com Tour Qualifying School, the 22-year-old fired an 8-under 63 for a one-stroke victory over Syracuse, N.Y., product Dan McCarthy in Thursday’s 18-hole event at the Martin Downs Osprey Creek in Palm City, Fla.

The Surrey, B.C. native will take home $1000 (USD) from the win, his first Minor League Golf Tour victory in two starts. He tied for sixth earlier in the week on Tuesday at Fountains Country Club in Lake Worth, Fla.

Sharp and focused, Svensson will embark on the next step in his career at the Panama Claro Championship from Jan. 29 – Feb. 1 at the Panama Golf Club.

Click here for full scoring.

JOHANNESBURG – Justin Walters made birdie on the last hole to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the European Tour’s Joburg Open on Thursday.

The South African made his sixth birdie of the day on No. 18 for a 7-under 65 on the East Course at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington. That gave Walters a narrow advantage over six men tied for second on 6 under.

That tie includes English pair Anthony Wall and David Howell, and Zimbabwe’s Mark Williams, who all carded 65s on the easier par-71 West Course.

Also tied for second are Haydn Porteous and Swedes Johan Carlsson and Michael Jonzon.

After missing the cut at the South African Open last week, Ernie Els opened with a 1-under 70 on the West to be tied for 69th.

The health of the game in this country relies on a myriad of factors, most notably, a commitment to put the golfer’s interests above all else. With the golfer in mind, I am sincerely thankful to the many organizations and individuals that drive the success of golf in Canada.

That gratitude starts with the 5.7 Canadians who play 60 million rounds of golf annually. Consumers make tough decisions with how to spend their recreational dollars. Golf as a sport is fortunate to have a strong base of loyal customers and casual enthusiasts that enjoy the game at 2,346 facilities from coast to coast.

Being a customer-centric business means listening to the golfer and searching for innovative ways to create meaningful engagement. It’s encouraging when golfers share their passion for the game. I’m just as appreciative of the customers who share constructive criticism. It means they care and are willing to hold the golf industry accountable.

To the 3,700 PGA of Canada professionals who represent the frontline of our industry—thank you for committing to the golfer through instruction and program delivery at the club level; for helping avid golfers, new enthusiasts, lifelong members, families and juniors get the most out of their golf experiences.

A tip of the cap goes out to the golf course superintendents who put in extremely long days to deliver a golf experience that balances playability, enjoyment and sustainability. Meeting and exceeding golfer expectations can seem insurmountable and I have a tremendous respect for the commitment of maintenance staff that are so much more than experts in growing grass.

Golf is big business. To the course operators, manufacturers and member clubs that represent an $11.3 billion impact to the Canadian economy—thank you for underwriting the risk of the Canadian golf industry. For most of us, golf is a game but for operators, club managers and other industry partners with a financial stake in our game, golf is a competitive business uninsulated from economic uncertainty.

No single factor has a greater impact on the game than weather, so a debt of thanks is owed to Mother Nature for shining a kind eye on the 2015 golf season. Conditions in most regions of the country were exceptional, and it showed with 9.8% uptick in rounds played nationally versus 2014 based on Rounds Played and Weather Reporting from the National Golf Course Owners Association Canada. The highest increase in rounds played was Alberta (13.2%), followed by Saskatchewan/Manitoba (8.4%), British Columbia (6.5%), Ontario (6%) and Quebec (5%). The lone dark cloud was an 11. 6% decline in Atlantic Canada based on an extremely late start to the season. Overall it was a season of sunny skies for course operators which fuels great optimism for 2016.

To the 37,000 charity events held annually at golf courses—thank you for leveraging our sport to raise funds in communities across Canada. Each year, more than $533 million in charitable giving is generated through golf and I applaud participants and charity event organizers for being a part of this wonderful story.

To the talented professionals, competitive amateurs, rising stars and legends of Canadian golf—thank you for inspiring us with your play and for showing the world that Canada can be a force on the international golfing stage.

Volunteers have long been the driving force behind golf in this country and enough can’t be said to thank the tens of thousands of individuals that give their time to make the game better. The same is true for the many sponsors and local supporters that align their brands and their businesses with Canadian golf.

Kudos as well to our closest partners—the staff and volunteers at the 10 provincial golf associations with whom we share a vested stake through membership, program delivery, junior golf and player development. I would be remiss if I did not extend a heartfelt thank you to the staff at Golf Canada for their enthusiasm and commitment to both our sport and our association.

Finally—to the individual members and member clubs that Golf Canada has the honour to represent, a most sincere thank you for supporting golf in this country and for sharing in the celebration of this great game.

HONOLULU – Jordan Spieth has an endorsement with another major company, signing on as a brand ambassador for Coca-Cola.

Spieth is No. 1 in the world and is coming off an eight-shot victory to start the new year. The Masters and U.S. Open champion has his second endorsement with a Fortune 100 company. He also has a corporate deal with Dallas-based AT&T.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Spieth last year rose to the top of golf with two majors and the Tour Championship, which Coca-Cola sponsors, that gave him the FedEx Cup title and a $10 million bonus.

The partnership with Coca-Cola will cross all forms of advertising, including the “6-Pack of Olympians and Paralympians” leading up to the Rio Games. Golf is back in the Olympics for the first time since 1904.

Proud to join Team @CocaCola and partner with such an iconic American brand. https://t.co/Nf3dhz9fCU

— Jordan Spieth (@JordanSpieth) January 13, 2016

When the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame welcomes its 2016 class, a long-time member of Golf Canada’s devoted group of volunteers will be among its five honourees.

Barbara Allan – who has volunteered with Golf Canada in several capacities and on a number of committees – has demonstrated a strong dedication to the game, not only in her home province, but also across the nation. For her commitment and service to golf, she will be inducted in the Hall’s builder category.

The former President of the Golf Association of Ontario works diligently at the club, district and provincial levels and is the Chair of Handicap and Rules at Garrison Golf and Curling Club in Kingston. She has served on the duty roster of officials at each of Canada’s National Open Championships – the RBC Canadian Open and the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.

In 2014, Golf Canada presented Allan with its Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her tireless efforts and boundless passion in the promotion of Golf. This year, she will once again Chair the Amateur Championships Committee and will act as Tournament Chair for various Golf Canada championships.

Since its first induction class in 1996, the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame has welcomed the area’s most gifted athletes and its most earnest builders to commemorate their contributions to 33 sports and sport-related fields.

With the induction ceremony for its 21st class on May 6 at Our Lady of Fatima Parish Hall, the Hall of Fame’s membership will grow to 163.

Allan will become the 11th member of the Hall to be inducted in the sport of golf, joining:

• Allan Douglas Atkins – 2000 – Builder
• Ronald Brown – 1998 – Athlete
• Katherine Cartwright – 2000 – Athlete/Builder
• Jennifer Ellis – 2015 – Athlete
• Richard H. Green – 1996 – Athlete
• Jim Halliday – 2008 – Athlete
• Robert Londry – 2006 – Athlete/Builder
• Caroline Mitchell – 1996 – Athlete
• Katherine O’Neill – 2006 – Athlete/Builder
• Anne C. Turnbull – 2006 – Athlete/Builder

Motivated by his growing family and feeling better than he has in more than a year, Graham DeLaet is happy to be back on the PGA Tour.

The Canadian golfer will be in the field this week at the Sony Open in Honolulu, along with countrymen David Hearn, Nick Taylor, and Adam Hadwin.

DeLaet, who turns 34 this month, played three events in late 2015 as part of the PGA Tour’s Fall Series – the official start of the 2015-’16 PGA Tour season – and earned US$52,795.

After his final putt dropped at the Sanderson Farms Championship in November, the native of Weyburn, Sask., rushed home to more important matters. His wife, Ruby, gave birth to twins – Roscoe Fawce and Lyla Victoria – on the Tuesday after the tournament concluded.

DeLaet admitted he wasn’t grinding on the driving range after his kids were born, but he has played a few rounds with friends near his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“The last couple of weeks when I was home, my wife and I talked and I was like, ‘`I have to get working again, it has to happen,”’ DeLaet explained. “My game is feeling pretty good. Right after Christmas is when I got pretty serious again and did a lot of work in those few weeks.”

Now, DeLaet begins a new routine as both a professional golfer and a father. His trip to Hawaii was the first without his children.

“I was so lucky that they were born when they were and I was able to hang out with them for the first two months of their lives. It was tough to leave them, that’s for sure,” he said. “It’s pretty fun though. You have to be selfish as a professional golfer, and for the first time in my life I’m not being selfish and it’s pretty nice.”

DeLaet has also been able to recover from injuries he suffered last summer. A thumb injury forced him to withdraw from the RBC Canadian Open, miss the PGA Championship, and cause him to limit his schedule to 22 events – his lowest total since 2012.

He earned $988,349 for his efforts in 2015 with three top-10 finishes. But it was the first time since 2011 (when he suffered a serious back injury and only played in two tournaments) that he didn’t crack the $1-million mark.

“It was frustrating for sure,” he said. “It was not ideal timing by any means. It was disappointing for it to happen when it did.”

Now fully healthy, DeLaet said his biggest goal of the year is to represent Canada at the Olympics.

“It would be amazing, honestly,” he explained. “No matter who goes for Canada, it’ll be a great team. But I want to be on that team, 100 per cent.”

He sits second in the qualification standings behind Hearn, who is coming off his best season on the PGA Tour. The top two Canadian men in the Official World Golf Rankings at a certain point later this year will be Rio-bound, along with the top two women.

Taylor and Hadwin admit they have similar Olympic aspirations. Both sit within shouting distance of Hearn and DeLaet’s current standing.

“(The) Olympics are definitely a huge goal for me this year,” said Taylor. “I put myself in a position to make a run up the world rankings and hopefully have a chance heading into the summer. It would be an amazing experience.”

Hadwin concurs.

“(I want to) go out each week, put myself in contention and see what happens from there. If the Olympics happen for me this year, then I know I’ll be having a great year,” he said.

Hadwin and Taylor state they feel confident this year – their second season as full-time Tour members. Hearn and DeLaet, meanwhile, are both entering their seventh year on Tour.

And with a renewed sense of excitement on and off the course, DeLaet is eager to get things started.

“There’s a lot of pressure no matter what when you’re playing on the PGA Tour, but I know it’s going to be a lot easier if I play a poor round and my wife is there with our two kids and I can pick them up and hold them,” he said. “I think it’ll erase how bad rounds might feel pretty quickly. I want to play well for them.”

National Amateur Squad member Hugo Bernard of Mont-St-Hilaire, Que., has officially signed on as a member of the Saint Leo Lions golf team for the 2016 season.

Bernard, a former Quebec Men’s Amateur Champion, joins senior and fellow Canadian Joey Savoie (Montreal) in Saint Leo, Fla., as one of 12 on the Lions’ roster.

The smooth-swinging lefty joins the Lions on the heels of a season that featured Top-5 finishes at all three legs of the Quebec triple crown (Quebec Amateur, Duke of Kent, Alexander of Tunis) and a runner-up finish at the Canadian Amateur.

Bernard and the third-ranked Lions (Div II) are set to kick off competition in 2016 when they take on the field at the Matlock Collegiate Classic from Feb. 8–9.

Click here to view the Saint Leo Lions schedule.

Continued education of certified coaches delivers added benefits to the athlete, the parents, the teaching professionals themselves and ultimately, the future of Canada’s next generation of golfers.

National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) certified coaches belong to a select group that have chosen to pursue the highest education, giving them the knowledge to excel in all areas of coaching golf.

Click the below infographic to download live PDF version with videos.

CALGARY – Alberta Golf has announced the launch of She Swings She Scores, a program designed to introduce girls aged 6-12 to the sport of golf. She Swings She Scores focuses on girls currently participating in hockey by encouraging them to switch their hockey sticks for golf clubs at local hockey tournaments and community events. The goal of the program is to bring golf directly to girls and provide opportunities for players and teammates to learn the sport together in a fun, safe and developmental environment.

“Our goal over the next four years is to spark an interest in girls to try golf, bringing more of this key demographic into a game for life,” explains Matt Rollins, Executive Director/CEO at Alberta Golf.

Alberta Golf will set up an onsite hitting station and kiosk at hockey tournaments, where girls can try using golf clubs, enter in contests and get free swag. In addition to introducing the girls to golf, the program will educate parents and coaches about the Learn to Golf Field Trip Program.

“This initiative is a model for collaboration and partnership across provincial sport organizations in support of underrepresented and marginalized group’s participation in sport opportunities,” says Aaron Lavorato, Sport Consultant at Alberta Sport Connection. Support for the sport program is provided by Sport Canada and Alberta Sport Connection.

The first She Swings She Scores event will take place at The Olds Sport Complex in Olds on January 15th, 2016. For more information, click here or contact angela@albertagolf.org.

It is an inspired program that has the power to change lives—to send youngsters on a path to golfing stardom or to simply introduce them to a previously unforeseen athletic pursuit; to nurture confidence in a withdrawn individual and to instill the game’s greatest virtues at a key time in a student’s personal growth.

The (GIS) program has signed up more than 2,700 schools representing more than 315,000 students, but there are gaps that need to be filled as the program prepares for its next stage of evolution, the most prominent being with the end user.

For most of the year—and in many cases for years following a program’s initial implementation—equipment and teachers’ manuals sit dormant in gymnasium storage rooms. That’s not to say the responsibility lies entirely with the schools.

“We need more people, which is the answer to many of the challenges we have in growing golf,” explains the Golf Association of Ontario’s Executive Director Mike Kelly. “It’s the missing piece to what will allow programs like CN Future Links or Golf in Schools to take flight, or in growing the sport in general, for that matter—that we don’t have the infrastructure at the community level to support it.”

Within that framework, however, both Kelly and Golf Canada’s Chief Sport Officer Jeff Thompson see a need for volunteers to take the lead within their respective communities.

“The next step is creating relationships with schools and connecting them with local golf facilities,” says Thompson. “But that’s a big job to even expect from provincial associations.”

Consequently, Golf Canada is seeking to leverage the Community Golf Coach training program, which was designed in partnership with the PGA of Canada and the Coaching Association of Canada. “We also need to identify community ambassadors who have an interest and passion to support schools running a GIS program and who can connect to golf facilities,” Thompson adds.

Those community golf coaches can come from non-PGA members, notes Thompson. “Members of golf clubs who might be retired can take the community golf coach training, which arms them with the resources and intelligence to make them comfortable to go into schools and establish a relationship with the facility and the teachers, and help ensure that the roots run deep and that the program will continue over time.” The first of those community ambassadors will be Grant Fraser, founder of the Golf Management Institute of Canada and professor of the Professional Golf Management (PGM) program at Niagara College.

“We’re going to pilot an initiative where he goes to four or flve facilities and talks to them about how he’s planning to create golf communities, linking schools with golf facilities that are keen to get involved,” Thompson explains. “It would be great to have one of him in every 40-kilometre radius!” Fraser, whose third year Niagara College PGM students have conducted annual fundraisers for the past four years, raising an estimated $7,500 in adopting 11 Niagaraarea schools, is a natural and enthusiastic flt.

“My students take pride in helping to grow the game,” he says. “Up until now I’ve been satisfied doing that, but it’s not enough. Going forward, I want to have my students help introduce the program to the schools—to physically go there and help the teacher get the equipment into the hands of the kids.”

Other similarly impassioned individuals can be found throughout the country, from Hughendon Golf Course owner Lee Cooper offering free golf to students aged 13 and under at neighbouring Amisk Public School in rural Alberta, to Chris Veltkamp, founder and director of the Play Golf Junior Tour and athletic coordinator and Phys. Ed. Teacher at St. Mary St. Cecilia in Morrisburg, Ont., who has been providing golf to schools he’s worked in for 10 years, including developing a rudimentary four-hole golf course in a empty lot beside his current school. And there’s P.E.I. Provincial Golf Coach Dallas Desjardins, a legendary Golf in Schools and junior golf supporter, and Wayne Allen, head pro at Blomidon GC in Corner Brook, Nfld., who has recruited 16 schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. The list goes on, but many more—particularly at the community level—need to step forward if Golf Canada’s ambitious plans are to bear fruit.

No one is more passionate about addressing that issue than Kelly, who developed Canada’s first Golf in Schools program in 2001 at Ontario’s Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.

Kelly’s plan of attack involves creating new zones within Ontario, the purpose of each to grow local participation. “Each zone will be a combination of all of the partners in Ontario: the GAO, Golf Canada, the National Golf Course Owners Association, the PGA of Ontario, Ontario Golf Course Superintendents and Canadian Society of Club Managers. Golf Barrie is going to be the pilot. Now we have to recruit more people like Grant, who are passionate about Golf in Schools, can get out into the community and talk to the teacher once a month and be part of the program and give teachers reasons to do it.”

Making the game more visible and accessible is key to the plan, Kelly says. “Part of the challenge is that you don’t see golf anywhere but at a golf course. There’s a fear of what’s ‘over there.’ We need to make it part of community events. Golf in Schools is a ‘try’ activity. Then we can move it to the ‘learn’ side of things. If we can get people to play golf, they’re going to enjoy it and get hooked.”

Pay for Play

Funding the program is also a continuing focus. Currently, two-thirds of all new GIS participating schools are the result of ‘adoptions,’ whereby an individual or corporation donates to bring the program to the school. Golf Canada is consequently actively pushing further support by including it in corporate sponsorships. One example is the PGA Champions Tour’s Shaw Charity Classic, which, since its inaugural event in 2013, has made an annual $5,000 Golf in Schools donation to Alberta Golf. The association has, in turn, divided the funds into $300 parcels and donated them to multiple schools throughout the province.

Another high-proflle supporter is PGA TOUR player Graham DeLaet, who has adopted 37 Saskatchewan schools, including four in his hometown of Weyburn, through funds raised by the 2013 Graham DeLaet Charity Golf Classic, an event conducted in conjunction with Golf Saskatchewan. The contribution pushed the GIS program participation to more than 70 per cent of the province’s schools.

Golf Canada is making additional strides to explore the potential of the program. “This year we piloted an initiative around a Golf in Schools pass to 23 facilities around the country (who had made connections with schools),” says Thompson. “Those facilities can give the passes to kids to come back to their driving range to receive a free bucket of balls. The feedback we received has been positive— that those kids are not returning alone but bringing an adult or their brothers or sisters.

“And with the new Life Skills curriculum and intermediate schools program, two significant layers have been added this year,” Thompson notes. “Next year we will put together an evaluation process to see how the Life Skills curriculum is resonating with the schools.”As Kelly and Thompson point out, if the foundation can be improved and a community infrastructure added, the sky is the limit for Golf in Schools, not to mention other developmental programs. “We have more to offer families than any other sport,” says Kelly. “What we’re talking about is a massive change that will take time, but we need to start doing something. We can’t just sit and wait for people to come through the door.”

To learn more about Golf in Schools, visit www.golfinschools.ca.