Zach Hallborg, pictured above, organizes the Niagara Men’s Golf Tour along with Ryan Dyck.

The Niagara Men’s Golf Tour continues to trend upward and onward.

“It is definitely changing from when Mike (Bedard) and Stew (McEachern) ran it. It was a little more casual then and maybe not as competitive but, in my opinion, it is quickly becoming the best competitive golf tour in Southern Ontario,” said Zach Hallborg, who took over running the tour with Ryan Dyck in 2021. “We have nationally and provincially ranked golfers coming from Burlington, Kitchener and even some GTA guys coming down now for the Sunday events.”

At least 10 of the tour’s members qualified for and played in the Ontario Men’s Amateur last year.

“Our field is getting really strong and I think in Niagara it is showcasing the courses we have, the options we have to play and the talent we have down here for amateur golf,” Hallborg said. “We don’t even have the Matt Grahams and the Adam Creightons and those guys playing but if we did it would make our field even stronger.”

Hallborg feels the tour is a good option for players who want to be semi-competitive but don’t want to travel to the distant tournaments.

The tour attracted out-of-region golfers through word of mouth and Hallborg and Dyck putting their recruiting hats on when they played in invitationals and larger amateur events in the province.

“We told them in was a great deal — $100 an event — and if you come in the top 10 the prizes are really good with gift cards and stuff like that. It was a little bit of recruiting but I think also that guys appreciate the more laid-back competitive golf,” he said. “When you go to the Ontario amateur, you don’t drink, you are prepping, you are going to the gym in the morning and it is serious for them. But in this, guys can have a couple of beers on the course or after if they want to. It is a little more casual than what other competitive golf offers.”

Hallborg, who finished fourth in the overall points race last season on the tour, agrees it is a balancing act to be both an organizer and competitor on the tour.

“It is a lot of admin stuff and chasing down guys to pay for the tour and stuff like that but it is great. I wouldn’t have it any other way. At the end of it we kind wonder if we are going to do it again next year but every year it is let’s make it bigger and better,” the accountant and finance manager at Beattie’s said. “We originally picked it up because we didn’t want to see it die when Stew and Mike didn’t want to do it any more. Kudos to them for however many years they did it.”

It was a way for both golfers to give back to golf.

“We grew up on tours like this and that’s why we do it. I know it’s not the same doing it for adults opposed to kids but it is giving back.”

The 30-year-old Welland native started playing golf at an early age at Lookout Point with his father, Keith, and older brother, Chris, and graduated to the local bantam and junior tours.

He spent one year at NCAA Division 2 (now Division 1) scholarship golfer at Lindenwood University in Missouri before a knee injury ended his collegiate career after one season.

He returned home, took the golf management course at Niagara College, and worked as a pro at Peninsula Lakes, Cherry Hill and Lookout Point before returning to school to obtain his MBA in accounting.

His most notable golf accomplishment occurred in 2022 when he was leading the Canadian Mid-Am after the first round and was in second place after the second round.

“I ended up not playing well the last two days but it was kind of cool to have my name on the leaderboard there and I got to play with Charles Fitzsimmons on Day 3 in the final group.”

The tour will hold its qualifier May 11 at Rockway Glen. The tournament schedule includes: June 9 at Grand Niagara; July 7 at Willow Valley; July 14 at Twenty Valley; Aug. 18 at Port Colborne and the tour championship Sept. 8 at Peninsula Lakes.

There are 40-42 qualifiers vying for about 12 spots on the tour which will ultimately feature between 57 and 60 golfers.

The first event on the tour might be a team event and there is also the chance the tour will add a nine-hole, par three event in October that wouldn’t count towards the overall points standings.

Unlike last year where the tour championship featured the top 40 golfers, this year’s event will have everyone competing.

Sponsors of the tour are DUN Realty Group, CC’s Dugout, IBEW Union, Koukun Unosawa Realty, Sutherland Insurance and Taylormade Golf.

“We have a couple new sponsors this year which is good because we are always trying to get more because we are obviously non-profit. Anything we get, it goes back to the guys,” Hallborg said.