'Thank God I've got an excellent staff this year, because they were on the ball,' said Chris Graham, general manager of the Mountain View Golf Course.

Graham was one of the many at Mountain View that were kept on the course for about 19 hours on Saturday, as more than 150 people took part in the Air North Midnight Sun Golf Tournament. The day began with the individual stroke play at 10 a.m., and didn't wrap up until well past the end of the evening scramble at midnight.

Sixty-six people competed in the stroke play, which was up from last year's total of about 55. In the scramble, Mountain View was at full capacity, with 152 people teeing off, many of which were also in the morning event.

'We could have probably had well over 200 too,' said Graham, adding the tournament filled up a week in advance. 'We just couldn't fit them. We're very pleased with the response, and we seem to be getting a lot more visitors, too.

'I think we had almost every province in Canada covered for this one. The only two we didn't have were Quebec and Newfoundland. That's where Air North had really expanded the marketing of this tournament.'

There were also several Americans taking part in the event, including a few Alaskans that make the trip on an annual basis.

Participants of the stroke play were paired up in threesomes, and the 18-hole event only took four hours and 15 minutes.

The scramble was done in groups of four, with play lasting about five and a half to six hours tee off time was at 6 p.m.

'Everybody was quite happy and had a good time out there,' said Graham. 'Obviously, having the (B.C.) Lions represented up here was a nice little bonus.'

The CFL club's ticket sales coordinator, Keith Hawkins, joined two of the Felions the football team's dancers at the golf tournament, posing with participants for their team pictures, handing out team pens and high-test Gatorade, a Lions specialty.

They also brought numerous autographed items which they donated as prizes, including an official league football signed by quarterback Dave Dickenson.

'We want to help bring everybody to our games and make sure everybody has a good time,' said Hawkins. 'We're also doing a ball toss where people get the chance to win a t-shirt autographed by all the players.'

This is the second time the Lions have travelled to the Yukon in the past few years, the previous time being Air North's birthday party at the transportation museum a couple of years ago.

While in the territory, the Felions also put on dance classes at the Polarettes Gymnastics Club in Riverdale they performed at a festival in Rotary Park the last time they were here as well.

The Lions are part of a partnership with Air North and the Rosedale on Robson, a hotel in downtown Vancouver right across from B.C. Place Stadium, where the football club plays their home games. They're going to be offering flight, accommodation and ticket packages for the upcoming CFL season.

It's a season which Hawkins predicts will be very successful, as Vancouver gets set to host the Grey Cup this year and, Hawkins hopes, hoist the Cup as well.

'I've gotta go with B.C., all the way,' he smiled. 'I've got my fingers and toes crossed. The team looks really good this year.'

While the Lions aim for a championship this year, Graham said there's not much more he can aim for, in terms of the success of the Air North golf event, which he called 'the big one for the year.

'It could get bigger in terms of filling up the morning (stroke play),' he said. 'But the evening scramble could not get any bigger. As soon as you jam more people in, it slows it down too much, and we don't want to do that.

'We'd like to get more people playing in both (formats) and just expand on what we offer for the whole tournament. That's where we're really working with Air North, to make it more fun, more efficient, expand the marketing and just get it even more well-known.'

One thing that was obvious on Saturday is how much the course at Mountain View is really coming along this year, with 'just a couple of weak greens,' according to Graham.

'Our new superintendent, Mick (Nychka), is working his butt off. Him and his crew are really trying hard to get things going and make it even better.'

Here are the full results of Saturday's Air North Midnight Sun Golf Tournament:

Individual Stoke Play

Men's

1st Low Gross Jeff Hunter (78)

2nd Low Gross Vic Istchenko (79)

3rd Low Gross Dean Mastrangelo

1st Low Net Wayne McLennan

2nd Low Net Jim Harris

3rd Low Net Greg McElgunn

4th Low Net Matt Lafferty

Women's

1st Low Gross Birgitte Hunter

1st Low Net Joyce Mailer

2nd Low Net Joyce Mickey

3rd Low Net Elaine Sumner

Scramble

Open Division

1st Low Gross Paul, Jeff and

Birgitte Hunter

1st Low Net Harry and Landon Kulych, Colin and Kaleb Dawe

2nd Low Net Blaine and Shannon Tessier, Sheldon King and Emile Aubichon

All three teams were tied for 1st Low Gross at 61, with the Hunter team taking the tie-breaker.

Mixed Division

1st Low Gross Drew and Mary Wintemute, Chris and Pat Bennett

1st Low Net Derek and Rajan

Johnstone, Ken and Thelma Sawyer

Four airline tickets executive class, return airfares to Vancouver, Edmonton or Calgary were handed out by Air North as draw prizes.

The winners were: Tim Turner-Davis, Thelma Sawyer, Terry Deforrest and Jim Stephens.