MILL RIVER - Solid play has made Derek Gillespie $100,000 richer.
?Gillespie, the 30-year-old from Oshawa, Ont., beat out fashion model Blair O'Neal to claim the Big Break Prince Edward Island top prize last night on the Golf Channel.?
Played on Mill River's back 9, O'Neal jumped out to an early one-stroke lead after the first hole played.?The lead was short-lived as Gillespie was able to two-putt for par on the 11th hole and O'Neal earned a bogey.?
Gillespie took the lead on the 12th hole with a birdie when O'Neal fell just of the marker for birdie, earning par.?
Gillespie increased his lead to two strokes after the 13th hole with a birdie after Blair managed to make par after driving into the trees.
?O'Neal caught some bad luck on the 15th hole after she teed off into the trees and found herself in the bunker on her second shot. Gillespie's lead increased to three strokes as he putted to par and O'Neal bogeyed.?
The 27-year-old fashion model from Tempe, Arizona, would never recover.?Gillespie was able to maintain his lead through to the end of the 18th hole.?For his efforts he earns $100,000 and various other golf-related prizes.
The show has proven a winner for Island tourism as well.
Big Break PEI reached as many as 110 million homes, including 80 million in the U.S. and Canada. The provincial government invested $800,000 in a two-year deal with the Golf Channel.
The investment appears to be paying off in increased bookings to Island golf courses.
Web traffic for Golf PEI, a marketing consortium of 21 member courses on P.E.I. that operates a reservation service, is up 30 per cent from last year, says chief operating officer Barry MacLeod. The percentage of American visitors is up from nine percent last year to 22 per cent this year.
Reservations to date overall are up 50 per cent, but Golf PEI has yet to break down where those visitors are from.
MacLeod says the Big Break has made Prince Edward Island one of those "notch in the belt'' destinations for golfers who like to play popular venues.
"The awareness is certainly there,'' he said.
"We have got a lot of media exposure from it.''
He believes Mill River's sharp hike in bookings so far this year is directly related to the fact that players competed in Big Break PEI solely on this course.
