Rockway Vineyards set to host Niagara’s first senior tour final

By Mike Williscraft
NewsNow

What started out as chatter over a beverage or two in the summer of 2020 has now blossomed into Niagara Region’s first seniors golf tour.

“Our tour will be called The Niagara Senior Men’s Golf Tour sponsored by Moose-head Breweries,” said Derek Divok, who is organizing the event along with Bill Bodfield.

“We have a regular group of guys who play golf together and one day after golfing and sitting down to enjoy a few cold ones last summer, someone mentioned that what Niagara needs is a Senior golf tour. With all the restrictions of COVID and virtually every planned event cancelled, the idea of starting a Niagara Senior Men’s Golf Tour grew from an idea to, ‘yes, let’s make it happen’.”

No event would happen without support from local courses and the feedback they got helped greatly.

“We called a few golf courses last fall letting them know what our plans were for 2021 and they were all accommodating and asked us to call them back in the spring. We followed up from last year and have lined up the five events starting at Bridgewater Country Club, Sawmill Golf Club, Grand Niagara, Legends on the Niagara Battlefield and our closing event will be at Rockway Vineyards,” said Divok, noting Bridgewater kicks things off May 31. The final is at Rockway Sept. 20.

“Now that we have Moosehead as our major sponsor locked in, we are now pursuing additional “closest to the pin” sponsors and 18 “hole sponsors” along with three more “closest to the pin” sponsors for all five events.

The entrance fee, covering everything but carts, is $380 and 80 is the maximum number golfers.

“We will be awarding both Gross and Net cash prizes along with closest to the pins and cash skins at each and every event,” said Divok.

Capacity for the field is limited and booking quickly, so anyone interested in playing or sponsoring should contact Bodfield at: bodfieldbill@gmail.com.