Canada’s victorious 1994 Dunhill Cup Team featured three British Columbia natives, marking the first time a Canadian golf team had advanced past the round-robin qualifying to taste victory at the prestigious Alfred Dunhill Cup in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Richmond resident Dave Barr was the top-ranked Canadian at 53rd on the US tour. Ray Stewart, from Abbotsford, had lost his all-exempt status on the PGA Tour yet was ranked sixth on the Canadian Summer Tour Order of Merit. Victoria’s Rick Gibson boasted a handful of international championships, winning more than $2 million on the Japanese PGA Tour.

Over four days in October 1994, the Canadians were confronted with players who ranked among the top-fifty in the world rankings for that year. Persevering through difficult weather conditions and howling winds, the Canadians were faced with the formidable American threesome for the championship: Fred Couples (ranked sixth), Tom Kite (ranked 22nd), and Curtis Strange (ranked 47th) who between them counted forty-seven US Tour victories. In the final, after Barr defeated Kite and Gibson lost to Strange, Stewart took the clinching match against Couples 71 to 72. He had birdied three of the first six holes while Couples made some early bogeys.

The threesome’s victory was a monumental feat against all odds and against formidable opponents. Their win was a stunning upset of major proportions by the unheralded Canadians, and a victory long remembered.

Team Members:
Dave Barr, Rick Gibson, Ray Stewart.