Vancouver\u2019s Belle rings up golf win over Vernon rivals<\/p>\n
Published 4:30 pm Monday, July 13, 2026<\/p>\n
It was, indeed, a beautiful Sunday in the Okanagan for Michael Belle.<\/p>\n
The Vancouver Golf Club member held off a late charge from Matthew Kreutz of the Vernon Golf and Country Club to capture the 73rd annual Ogopogo Invitational Men\u2019s Tournament at the Kelowna Golf and Country Club July 12.<\/p>\n
Belle finished the 54-hole championship at 14-under par, with Kreutz the runner-up at 12-under. Kyle McMurphy of Vernon\u2019s Predator Ridge Golf Resort posted a solid final-round 69 to finish third at 10-under par.<\/p>\n
A thrilling final round capped off the tournament, with outstanding golf on display throughout the day.<\/p>\n
The leading foursome remained tightly contested through the front nine, but Belle began to pull away with birdies on holes 11, 12, and 14. <\/p>\n
Standing on the 16th tee, Belle held a three-shot advantage with just three holes remaining.<\/p>\n
The door of victory cracked open just for a moment on the 16th hole when Belle\u2019s tee shot found a stand of trees to the left of the fairway, forcing him to chip back into play. Kreutz, meanwhile, delivered an excellent drive and approach, leaving himself a 10-foot putt for eagle.<\/p>\n
Belle recovered to save par, while Kreutz narrowly missed the eagle attempt and settled for birdie, trimming the lead to two shots.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s as close as Kreutz or anyone else got to Belle. Both golfers played the final two holes in even par.<\/p>\n
Overall Low Net honours were claimed by Kerry Grittner of Chilliwack Golf & Country Club. The Low Interior Amateur Trophy was awarded to Oakley Mayner of Kelowna Golf & Country Club, while the Low Senior Trophy went to Bryan Killins of Vancouver Golf Club.<\/p>\n
Top honours among the Kelowna Golf & Country Club competitors went to Oakley Mayner and James Casorso, who both finished at 6-under par. Mayner also recorded the low round of the day with an impressive 67.<\/p>\n
Off the course, the Annual Ogopogo Barbecue raised $3,180 for the Kelowna Community Food Bank, while the Special Events Night generated $1,000 in support of the KGCC Junior Development Fund.<\/p>\n
The success of the tournament would not have been possible without the tremendous support of the club\u2019s volunteers. <\/p>\n
Approximately 100 volunteer shifts were filled by dedicated club members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vancouver\u2019s Belle rings up golf win over Vernon rivals Published 4:30 pm Monday, July 13, 2026 It was,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-800225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}