Brayden Eriksen is about to begin the next phase of his professional golf career, as he’ll head overseas to Spain to take part in the Gecko Tour from October through December.
Eriksen, who hails from Qualicum Beach, will make his way to Spain today after spending some quality time searching for the next destination in his professional career on the golf course.
After playing in two tournaments on the Vancouver Golf Tour, Eriksen will take his game across the Atlantic to the Gecko Tour and his first event, the Torrequebrada GC tournament on October 27.
“I’m really excited about it,” Eriksen said. “I’ve never been to Spain, so that’s exciting in itself but I won’t have much time to spend vacationing.”
“There are lots of tournaments, I’m going to be in six tournaments in a five-and-a-half-week stretch, so it’s going to be busy. It’s going to be good though, I’m really looking forward to the opportunity of being there and getting in some more tournaments as a professional.”
The road started at Pheasant Glen Golf Club in Qualicum Beach on September 19, where a fundraising event took place for Eriksen to help start him out with his journey as a professional golfer. Plenty of businesses and individuals stepped up as sponsors to support him in the process.
“It was really great to see the support from everyone,” Eriksen said. “I’m very fortunate that there were so many people that not only came out to the event, but wanted to help me out as well.”
“I was lucky enough to strike a deal with Tigh-Na-Mara as a major sponsor, so I’m really looking forward to wearing their logo while I’m out there on tour.”
Along with Tigh-Na-Mara, other sponsors included Top Shelf Feeds from Duncan, Nanaimo Toyota, RBC Dominion, Parksville Chrysler, Stormin Golf, Widdifield & Associates, Doyle Construction, Crystal Pacific Glass, Island Restoration, Laird Wheaton, Knight Advisory Group, McGorman MacLean, Bluenose Auto Sales, Coast Auto, Keith Gibson, Karen Roberts, Coastal Colour Printing, Nanaimo Honda, Harbourview Volkswagen, Campbell Fairweather Psychology, Qualicum Foods, Windward Homes, DBM Realty, Coast Environmental and Polz Holdings.
With all of those sponsors off the course, Eriksen was also able to start a business relationship with a major player on the course as well.
“We’ve been able to connect with Taylor Made golf too,” Eriksen said. “So that’s pretty cool, I’ll be wearing their gear, using their gloves, balls and clubs too. It’s a pretty cool thing to be able to rep their gear, for sure.”
“I’ve been looking at trying the new Taylor Made M1 woods too, so it’s all been a pretty cool process from the fundraiser tournament, which I’m so thankful for, to getting everything ready leading up to this first tournament in Spain, it’s been amazing.”
Should Eriksen perform well, the top two finishers in the Gecko Tour would qualify for the Alps Tour qualifying school, taking place in the first two weeks of December.
“There’s lots of options heading into the New Year,” Eriksen said.
“Depending on how the Gecko Tour goes, I could either head back to Europe or find something in the United States to start off 2016, so we’ll see what happens.”
