UPTON, St Ann — Team Seven, comprising Kevin Percy, Jacques Gilbert, Bob Wakeford and Daniel Murray, won the 21st staging of the Baxter Canadian Travel Golf Tournament at the Sandals Golf and Country Club yesterday.

Team Seven, who were joint first from day one with 63, shot a magnificent 58 strokes for a total of 119 and won ahead of the defending champions Team 15 with Joe Demarinis, Enzo Demarinis, and Leo Sgovio of Red Tag on 121 strokes overall. They too had shot 58 on the final day.

For the new champions, Percy and Wakeford are from Marlin Travel, with Gilbert representing Manulife and Murray from Galigers Travel.

Team 16, consisting of JC Girard, Dan Lagevin, John Kirk, and Doug Paterson, all from Softvoyage — clawed their way to third with 122 strokes. Fourth went to early leaders Team 14, comprising the WestJet Vacations quartet of Lyell Farquharson, Sherry Scott, Frank Demarinis and Don McWilliams, ended on 124.

The diminutive Enzo Demarinis of Red Tag was the individual star of the show, capturing the Putting Contest with 35 points and the Chipping Contest with a hole in one.

Team Seven’s Daniel Murray of Galigers Travel won the Gent’s Longest Drive, while Sherry Scott of Team 14 and WestJet, Vacations took the Ladies Longest Drive.

Joe Demarinis of Red Tag and Team 14 captured the Gent’s Closest to the Pin contest, while Joanne Fillion of Team Six and UVI Canada won the Ladies’ equivalent.

Meanwhile, the Sandals Foundation raised US$960 to assist with their various programmes.

Maureen Barnes-Smith, director of sales and marketing, Unique Vacations Canada, who has been around since the inception some 21 years ago, was more than pleased with another successful staging of the event.

“When it was conceived 21 years ago, golfing was kind of seen as the sport that connects a lot of people, especially from Canada….winter sports don’t work in Jamaica,” said Barnes-Smith.

She continued: “So we [are] not going to bring them here skiing, and professional people tend to gravitate towards golfing. It’s a fantastic networking sport on the golf course, and we have truly seen that over the years where our partnerships have grown; good business has come out of it. We have people who have come for the first time and they continue to come every year and send their clients and it just keeps building momentum.

“I think golfing allows people that opportunity of connecting, spending half a day together sitting together going over the game, and in between that a lot of businesses take place,” noted Barnes-Smith, who was born in Jamaica, grew up in Clarendon and went to Clarendon College, then University of The West Indies before migrating to Canada in the early 90s.