Stakes are high as Bay Mills Open approaches

A CANADIAN PROFESSIONAL GOLF TOUR RELEASE:

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Plenty On The Line As Bay Mills Open Players Championship Nears

by Marty Henwood

Anderson: top Canadian heading into Michigan

August 12, 2005 -- BRIMLEY, Mich.--It’s getting down to crunch-time for some year-end perks as the Bay Mills Open Players Championship waits over the horizon.

With the $200,000 event slated to run August 25-28 at Wild Bluff GC in Brimley, Mich., players will be jockeying for position on the money list heading into the season-ending Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort Pro Am Classic in September.

The Niagara Falls event, a Pebble Beach-format, will feature the top 76 players from the Order of Merit playing for $100,000 purse.

Players lingering near the top of the money list will be making a final charge to grab one of the top two spots after Michigan, earning a coveted exemption into the second stage of the three-tiered PGA Tour Qualifying School later this fall. With the entry deadline for PGA Qualifying September 7, those exemptions will be awarded after Bay Mills.

Also on the line will be six berths in the Bell Canadian Open next month in Vancouver. Once the final putt falls in Michigan, the top half dozen players will be guaranteed a spot in Canada’s national championship to be contested September 8-11.

Eight players—money leader Jaime Gomez, Peter Tomasulo, David Mathis, Michael Harris, Stuart Anderson, Derek Gillespie, Stephen Gangluff and Scott Gibson—have already be guaranteed an exemption into the Nationwide Tour’s Alberta Classic in Calgary later this month. The eight were the top leaders on the Canadian Tour money list following last week’s Montreal Open presented by Lexus.

Last summer, David Hearn of Brantford, Ont. used one of those exemptions to win his first Nationwide title in Calgary. Hearn is now into his rookie campaign on the PGA Tour.

Once the season wraps up in Niagara Falls, awards will be dished out to the Order of Merit and Stroke Average winners, Rookie of the Year and Most Improved Player.

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