Vernon North knocked off Kelowna for the second straight year in the ninth annual Ryder Cup Monday at Canoe Creek Golf Course in Salmon Arm.
The format saw 24 of the Okanagan Valley’s best golf pros battle in match play.
In the morning best ball matches Vernon North jumped out to a fast 4-2 lead.
Justin Baillargeon (Vernon Golf & CC) and Mark Aven (PGA of B.C.) beat Brodie Carle (Two Eagles) and Grant Oben (Callaway Golf) 3&2 in the opening match.
In match two, Adam Blair (Talking Rock) and Keith Vandenbrink (Hillview) bounced Brice McDermott and Robertson Fait of Black Mountain 2&1.
The third match had Douglas Goubault (Predator Ridge) and Jesse Crowe (Canoe Creek) topple Mark Lindsay (Norman/Puma Golf) and Russ Latimer (Gallagher’s Canyon) 4&2.
Match 4 saw Kelowna get on the board when Jon Kadin (Gallagher’s) and Dan Danis (Deer Hunter Golf) took down Jason Wizniak (Royal York) and Dale Machesney (Salmon Arm) 4&3, and then Sheldon Tuck (Two Eagles) and John Jacoby (Shannon Lake) beat Myles Johnson (Spallumcheen) and Shannon Glenesk (Vernon Golf).
In the anchor match of the morning, Jeff Wills (The Rise) and Ryan Stockford (Salmon Arm) beat Rob Anderson (Kelowna Golf Course) and Jeff Kelly (Black Mountain).
In the afternoon singles matches, Vernon North put the event away and took the trophy home for the sixth time with a convincing 7-5 win in the singles, to make it 11-7 overall.
Aven brushed back Carle 2&1, Machesney downed Latimer 2&1, Glenesk halved with Anderson, Vandenbrink lost to Oben and Stockford bowed to Kadin in singles action.
Wills doused Danis 3&2, Blair bowed 2 down to Lindsay, Goubault lost to McDermott 1 down, Johnson jolted Kelly 5&4, Crowe birdied No. 18 to beat Jacoby 1 up, Baillargeon turfed 5&4 and Wizniak and Robertson halved with Robertson withdrawing with illness.
Meanwhile, the annual Canada Goose Coca-Cola Invitational features $10,000 in prizes this weekend at Spallumcheen.
Kyle Wiebe of Spall said approximately half of the 108 entrants are from out of town. Wiebe, who isn’t playing this year, won the tourney last year, while Wayne Schaeffer of Kelowna took low net. Both men pocketed 50-inch plasma TVs.
Jeremy Osborne of Salmon Arm and Gord McGarva of Kelowna are the low gross favourites this weekend. Osborne was the runner-up in the July Ogopogo Invitational in Kelowna and finished 43rd in the B.C. Amateur in Kamloops after taking the early lead with a 68.
“Both of them can obviously go low,” said Wiebe, who went 70-71-141 in the rain last fall to beat Osborne by two strokes.
Players begin tee times Saturday at 7:30 a.m. with a 10 a.m. shotgun starting play Sunday.
