‘PGA Tour Experience’ at Surrey golf course 30 years after first tourney
Published 3:36 pm Thursday, August 27, 2026
Pro-golf vibes returned to Northview Golf and Country Club during a four-day PGA Tour Experience, Thursday to Sunday (Aug. 27-30).
The seventh annual event celebrates PGA tournaments held at the Surrey course for seven years, from 1996 to 2002 — first as Greater Vancouver Open (1996 to 1998), then Air Canada Championship (1999 to 2002).
Players on the Ridge course are introduced on the first tee while “quiet” signs are held by staff members, like on the PGA Tour.
Scott Cranston, director of golf, says it’s a fun and popular way to celebrate Northview history.
“We do up all the signage and make sure it looks like an actual Tour event,” he said.
“The golfers can choose how they want to be introduced,” Cranston added. “It can be funny, serious, whatever they want, you know, ‘Next on the tee is Scott from Tsawwassen.’ That gets announced and there’s applause (from a speaker). It’s funny how it gets the heart rate up when you’re about to tee off.”
Northview’s PGA Tour Experience launched in 2020 during the pandemic, when golf exploded in popularity.
The promo includes tee gifts, official PGA Tour pin placements and signage including mock leaderboards.
“All four days are full now, all tee times,” Cranston said Thursday, seven days after bookings went live. “We’re up to 52 slots a day, from 6:30 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon, because we want to make sure people can get 18 holes in.”
The Air Canada Championship trophy, borrowed from BC Sports Hall of Fame, sits on a table at the first tee box, for photo ops.
“We set up the golf course the way it was on the day and year of the tournament we pick. This year we chose the 2001 year, when Joel Edwards won. So today it’s Thursday pins and tees from that year’s tournament, Friday is the Friday pins and tees, Saturday, Sunday, all four rounds, exactly the way it was in 2001. We also open up a bunch of tee boxes that we don’t normally use for normal everyday play, so we stretch it out to 7,000 yards, tees from the very tips. People love it.”
Notables who played PGA events at Northview include Payne Stewart, Sergio Garcia and Mike Weir, who in 1999 was the first Canadian in 45 years to win a PGA Tour event on Canadian soil.
“I was here the year,” Cranston recalled. “My dad got tickets through work, I think, and we were out here watching him on hole 14 when he sunk that shot, jarred it (for eagle). I remember being on (hole) 18 watching him win the event. It was very cool. I was pretty young at that time so I didn’t realize the significance of a Canadian golfer (winning), until I was more into the business. It’s a great part of the history here.”
On Monday, Sept. 14, Vancouver Canucks players, coaches, management and alumni will return to Northview course during another Jake Milford Charity Invitational Golf Tournament, a season-kickoff event for the NHL club prior to training camp in Penticton.