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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

Air Canada Championship

The Greater Vancouver Open was a professional golf tournament in Canada on the PGA Tour, held in southwestern British Columbia from 1996 to 2002. It was played after the majors in late summer, at the Northview Golf & Country Club in Surrey, a suburb southeast of Vancouver.

History

For its first three years, it was an alternate event in late August, concurrent with the NEC World Series of Golf at Firestone in Akron, Ohio. In 1999, the new Reno-Tahoe Open became the alternate event for the WGC-NEC Invitational at Firestone. The Vancouver tournament was promoted to a regular tour event and scheduled a week later, as the Greater Milwaukee Open moved up to July. Renamed the "Air Canada Championship," sponsored by the country's leading airline, it was coupled with the Canadian Open for consecutive tournaments north of the U.S. border in early September.

Mike Weir won that year for the first of his eight tour wins; he became the first Canadian to win a PGA Tour event on home soil in 45 years.

The purses grew substantially during the run of the event, from $1 million to $3.5 million in six years. It was replaced on the schedule in 2003 by the Deutsche Bank Championship in Massachusetts, near Boston.

This was not the first time the PGA Tour included a stop in British Columbia on their schedule. Dow Finsterwald won the unofficial 1955 British Columbia Open Invitational, and Jim Ferree was victorious at the 1958 Vancouver Open Invitational.

Winners

Year Winner Score To par Margin of
victory
Runner(s)-up Purse
(US$)
Winner's
share ($)
Ref.
Air Canada Championship
2002 United States Gene Sauers 269 −15 1 stroke United States Steve Lowery 3,500,000 630,000
2001 United States Joel Edwards 265 −19 7 strokes United States Steve Lowery 3,400,000 612,000
2000 South Africa Rory Sabbatini 268 −16 1 stroke New Zealand Grant Waite 3,000,000 540,000
1999 Canada Mike Weir 266 −18 2 strokes United States Fred Funk 2,500,000 450,000
Greater Vancouver Open
1998 United States Brandel Chamblee 265 −19 3 strokes United States Payne Stewart 2,000,000 360,000
1997 United States Mark Calcavecchia 265 −19 1 stroke United States Andrew Magee 1,500,000 270,000
1996 United States Guy Boros 272 −12 1 stroke United States Emlyn Aubrey
United States Lee Janzen
United States Taylor Smith
1,000,000 180,000
1959–1995: No tournament
Vancouver Open Invitational
1958 United States Jim Ferree 270 −18 1 stroke United States Billy Casper 42,000 6,400