The Barrie Golf and Country Club is hosting the Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship beginning on Tuesday.
156 golfers from across the country and around the world will be playing in the tournament, including seven members of the host course.
“These are golfers who qualified for the championship within their own provincial mid-am championships and it’s amazing the caliber of golf they play,” says David Carin of the Barrie Golf and Country Club.
The Club has been expanding and improving their course for the last three years in preparation of this tournament.
Organizers are expecting up to 400 people at the event each day to watch the amateurs compete for a spot at the 2015 Canadian Open.
Along with this tournament, Barrie and Simcoe County have been home to many elite sporting events.
In 2011, the Canadian Women's Hockey Championship was here, and last year the Ontario’s Curling Championship took over the Barrie Molson Centre.
Looking ahead to 2015, the area will have several venues for the Pan Am Games.
Barrie's mayor Jeff Lehman says sports tourism is big business: “Some of it is just having the infrastructure for what’s needed for these events. We've got more than two thousand hotel rooms in Barrie so that can support a larger audience.”
Pam Am and Parapan Am organizers expect athletes and tourists will spend $3.7 billion across Ontario.
The Canadian Mid-Amateur begins Tuesday September 16th and runs four days .
