June 7, 2007

Langley, British Columbia - Former Pacific golfer Thomas Petersson took top honors in the Canadian Tour Qualifying Tournament Thursday, shooting a final round 70 to earn his tour card for the 2007-08 Canadian Tour season. Petersson, who graduated from Pacific less than a month ago shot rounds of 66-63-68 and 70 to win by four strokes.

With a four-round total of 13-under 267, Petersson played in his first tournament since the 2007 Big West Championship during his senior season at Pacific.

"Thomas' hard work over the past year at Pacific has really paid off," said Pacific coach Brandon Goethals. "This has been his goal for quite some time to succeed professionally and with a start like this I'm sure we will see great things from him very soon."

Seven players earned exempt status for the remainder of the Canadian Tour season, including Canadians Benedictson, Parr and Dion Sirianni of Kamloops, BC. Nine others earned non-exempt, or conditional, status, among them British Columbians Greg McAuley, Tyler Pitt, Greg Machtaler and Stephen Thomas.

Aussie Anthony Brown held off McAuley and Paulo Pinto of Argentina for the final exempt card.

Those successful qualifiers will now head over to Victoria for next week's Times Colonist Open which kicks off the Canadian Tour's summer-long run across Canada.