22nd Annual Jim Davenport Charity Golf Tournament    Photos

On Saturday, July 20th, the 22nd Annual Jim Davenport Charity Golf Tournament was held at the Wynyard Golf Club.

The event is named in honour of Garry Finnson's unrelated bone marrow donor, Jim Davenport, from Greendale Wisconsin, USA.

There were 48 golfers attending this year's tournament, which raised $500 for the MS Hit-A-Ball campaign, as well as $1,845 for the Canadian Blood Services Cord Blood Bank fundraising initiative.

This year's tournament also featured a unique, second 'bone marrow donor/recipient' combination!

Stafford Bzdel, who was diagnosed with the same AML Leukemia type as Garry Finnson, attended the tournament with his 'related' donor, . . his brother Clayton Bzdel!

Many thanks to Staff and Clayton for attending and supporting the tournament, and for their help in creating awareness for the need of bone marrow/stem cell donors throughout Canada.

Jim Davenport was also in attendance this year, and Doug Finnson presented Jim with a handcrafted "Saskatchewan Roughriders clock", as a "Longest Drive Award", . . in honor of Jim's 22 hour drive from his home in Greendale, to Wynyard!! (Jim, . . currently a Packer's fan, is quickly becoming a CFL fan, and a Riders fan in particular!! It should be an easy transition, . . from a CheeseHead to a MellonHead!)

The tournament features two rounds of golf, on the 9 hole golf course, with the first round being a 'qualifying round', where the participants card a score, to be used in the second, 'best-ball' partners' round.

It matters little, whether your a complete novice, . . or a seasoned professional, . . as partners are created from their first round scores, and matched up accordingly to create the teams.

The second round of play is followed by the prize handout, and then supper. This year, everyone took home a prize, . . or more likely multiple prizes, . . as the this year's sponsors were over the top, in their very generous donation of prizes.

The crowning jewel, . . and perhaps the most anticipated event of the day, . . was the legenary Putt-Around contest!! The golfers toss in a looney, and get paired up with a partner, to participate in an alternating shot (alternating putt!!) contest.

Each year, Keith Broad has applied his creative talents, and transformed the putting green into a gauntlet of challenging holes for the teams to manouver through, and this year was no exception!! The fun factor for this part of the day is off the charts, and it's all due to the efforts of Keith and his crew for continually making it a special event!!

Photo: Tayler Jordan, Sheri Johnston, Jim Davenport, Garry Finnson

Congratulations to this year's tournament winners . . Tayler Jordan and Sheri Johnston for their top best-ball play!!, . . .and also to Shelly Jensen and Garry Finnson for winning the putt-around contest!!

It was a great day for the golfers, and another great day for the charities being supported!! Thank you to all the golfers who participated in this year's event, and thank you to all the sponsors who were so generous in providing prizes and donations to the cause.

Thank you to Shelly Jensen and Renae Popowich, for attending the Hit-A-Ball For MS #3 hole! Another excellent response from all of our golfers to support the MS fundraising campaign.

A special thank you to Alli Hordal, and her top notch kitchen staff, for the excellent job they did in providing the food and beverage services throughout the day!! Well done!

Another year, and another successful tournament. Looking forward to seeing everyone again at next year's event!! (Bring a friend along!) 

Addendum - Warren Lorenz has attended all 22 Jim Davenport Golf tournaments!! Thanks Warren, for helping promote the cause. Much appreciated!