Amateur athletes participating in this year's Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. Conference & Exhibition engaged in some friendly competition on the ice and the golf course over the weekend to benefit the Spencer Educational Foundation Inc.

Sunday morning more than 60 golfers continued a 20-year-old tradition, taking to the links at the Furry Creek Golf & Country Club in Furry Creek, British Columbia, for this year's Spencer/Gallagher Golf Tournament sponsored by brokerage Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Last year's outing raised $40,000 for the Spencer Educational Foundation, and tournament organizers were hoping this year's event would raise a similar sum. To date, golfers at the annual event have raised approximately $1.1 million for the Spencer Foundation.

Designed by Robert Muir Graves and built in 1993, the Furry Creek course provided Spencer/Gallagher golfers panoramic ocean views. The Furry Creek course has been awarded four stars in Golf Digest magazine's “Best Places to Play,” and was chosen Number One for Best British Columbia Scenery in Pacific Golf Magazine's Readers' Choice Awards.

Besting the field at this year's Spencer/Gallagher outing were the first-place team of Don Gibson, Kyle Pickett and Greg Church; and the second place group of Wayne Myer, Brett Conrad, Butler Bourgeois and John O'Keefe.

Bill Krumm won the men's longest-drive award, with Deanna Walters taking women's honors. John Flores won the most accurate drive prize, while Timothy Boston, Don Gibson, Roger Duffield, Fred Uehlein and Roland Burrows won closest-to-the-pin prizes.

Saturday evening—known as Hockey Night in Canada—saw four teams of RIMS-going skaters hit the ice for the NAPCO L.L.C. Spencer Cup hockey tournament. Two Canadian and two U.S. teams vied for national pride in the competition, raising $11,500 for the Spencer Educational Foundation.

Ultimately a Team USA squad topped a Team Canada side 3-1 in the night's gold medal matchup, with the other Team Canada group taking the tournament's bronze medal. Along the way, two insurance professionals by day put together particularly solid performances on the ice.

Don McCusker, Vancouver-based account executive for Axis Insurance Managers Inc., scored six goals during the six-game tournament while filling in on an undermanned U.S. team, while Fred Lajeunesse, Vancouver-based vp with Underwriters & Insurance Brokers, topped all scorers with a 10-point effort.