The Kelowna Invitational Golf Tournament is the latest phase of a golf tournament that has gone on for over 50 years. The original tournament was a very restricted event sponsored by the St. Regis Paper Company who supplied fertilizer bags to Cominco, back in the days that much of the fertilizer produced was marketed in 50 lb. bags. This tournament was held at the Banff Springs hotel Golf Course. Attendees from Cominco were primarily senior fertilizer personnel.

Apparently, the competitors from Cominco felt that a golf tournament open to Cominco personnel and Cominco retirees from all the operations would be a wonderful opportunity for celebrating and renewing long standing friendships from years of association on the job at various Cominco properties. And so the tournament was initiated 45 years ago at the Penticton Golf Course. Golfers travelled to Penticton for 25 years coming from as far as Yellowknife, Saskatoon, Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Spokane and sundry other locales. The Penticton Golf Course was not as good as what was available but was nicely located beside a motel ideally designed to accommodate the social activities of the tournament.

In 1996 with interest finally waning in Penticton, it was decided to move the tournament to Kimberley where it was held for 17 years. Two higher quality golf courses were available to play and both permitted shotgun starts (which were not permitted at Penticton). Accommodations and banquet facilities were excellent as well. In 2013 it was decided to try move the tournament to Kelowna where there are also high quality golf courses, good accommodations, excellent banquet facilities and generally less severe weather conditions when the clouds overtake the sun.

There have been changes to program format and types of games played over the years in order to satisfy the interests of the ever-changing mix of players. Substantial corporate restructuring has focused interest in the tournament into the Teck operations with some key suppliers invited to participate in order to maintain a high enough level of participation to keep the tournament successful. The key purpose of the tournament continues to be the development of new friendships and perpetuating long standing ones.