Vancouver loses PGA Tour stop

The PGA Tour will not visit Vancouver in 2003 after the Air Canada Championship was unable to find a new title sponsor.

The end of the Vancouver stop had been expected since Air Canada withdrew its sponsorship, but making the announcement Wednesday still was difficult for tournament chairman Dave Durand.

"We will not be on the schedule. That is quite a disappointment to us," he said.

The tournament began as the Greater Vancouver Open in 1996. It became the ACC in 1999, but the airline announced in the fall of 2001 it would not renew its agreement to be title sponsor past this year. Durand said a new corporate sponsor had been sought for the last 15 months, to no avail.

The tournament's high point came in 1999, when Canadian Mike Weir won his first PGA event by making an eagle on the 400-yard 14th. But such moments have been infrequent, and a lack of stars like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson kept the tournament from becoming a marquee event.

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