Qualicum Beach was well represented at the B.C. Senior Men’s Golf Championships.
Played at Eaglepoint Golf Resort in Kamloops July 29-31 with 126 golfers age 55 and over.
Capturing the 36-hole Zone Team Championship was the four-man contingent from Zone 6 (North Island) of Brian DeBiasio and Kim Hay out of Pheasant Glen in Qualicum Beach, with Terry Hatchwell and Sandy Harper from Nanaimo — with a two day total of 440. Six strokes better than second place Zone 2 Thompson Okanagan.
In provincial playdowns the players compete as individuals, with their scores from the first two rounds going towards the team competition.
This is the second straight year DeBiasio and Zone 6 has won the team title.
In the overall individual standings, DeBiasio, 60, finished second overall with a 3-under par 213 — three strokes back of legendary Canadian amateur golfer Doug Roxburgh from Vancouver who won it all.
DeBiasio was grouped with Roxburgh and Kelowna’s Norm Bradley who finished one under for fourth.
“I’ve chased him many a time over the years,” DeBiasio chuckled when asked about his decorated playing partner. “I’ve actually finished second to (Roxburgh) in the B.C. amateur twice before. He’s legendary for sure; he’s won many B.C. championships and a number of Canadian championships as well, it was a treat to play with him again, to compete with him. I stayed in the ball park, but just couldn’t quite catch him.”
“It was very good, very rewarding,” DeBiasio said of the results, adding the weather “was a little breezy at times but we got lucky, it wasn’t the usual 40 degree Kamloops weather, it was only low 30s.
The course itself he said “played very well. It’s an interesting course — a lot of dog legs and a lot of elevation change, lots of ups and downs, so you have to plot your way around the golf course. It was a good challenge, a real fair test of golf.”
The result secured DeBiasio the second of three spots (he’s the lone Islander) on Team B.C. heading to the Canadian Sr. Men’s championships Aug. 27-30 at the Briars Golf Club, located on the southern shores of Lake Simcoe in the town of Jackson’s Point near Barry, Ontario.
A UBC grad, he grew up in Trail and spent 33 years in the education system in Nelson as a teacher and principal before moving to Qualicum Beach about 16 months ago.
A veteran of the game to be sure with a plus one handicap, this will be DeBiasio’s third trip to the senior nationals.
He’s been to a number of Canadian Amateurs and Mid Amateurs as well.
He’s represented B.C. 20 times both nationally and internationally, and highlights of his career include winning the 1998 Canadian Mid Amateur championships and claiming the B.C. Mid Am in 1999.