For David Dragoo, it's just another day at the office.

For the amateurs he'll be playing alongside, it's an opportunity to play with some of the best golfers in Canada.

Dragoo, from Carefree, Ariz., is one of 36 Canadian Tour members who will be taking part in the Sun Rivers Resort Pro-Am, which runs today and Friday. There are 33 amateurs signed up, and each will be paired with a Canadian Tour professional (the remaining three pros will play on their own).

Three different competitions will comprise the tournament: a stroke play event for the professionals; the amateurs' individual event; and the team better-ball event.

It's not unusual for Canadian Tour players to take part in pro-ams ahead of their weekend tournaments - usually they are 18-hole events held on the Monday or Tuesday before the tournament starts on Thursday. Those are little more than opportunities for sponsors to hobnob with the golfers, to whom the tour pays a flat fee for participating.

But a 36-hole pro-am, like this week's, which is an unofficial Tour event, is rare.

For men whose livings are based on how well they get around golf courses, it's just another tournament, and there's actual money - a $20,000 purse for the professionals - to be won.

"I don't think you change your approach, but you are a little more relaxed," said Dragoo, a 26-year-old Georgia Tech alum. "It's not the full tournament experience, but you still want to play well."

For years, the Canadian Tour has been interested in putting a full-time tournament in Kamloops, and it appeared to have been a done deal with the Western Championship, which was held at Rivershore Golf Links in June 2011.

But there wasn't enough sponsorship money to make the tournament work this year, leaving a gap in the schedule.

"For us, it was an opportunity to keep the Canadian Tour in Kamloops in hopes that we can eventually get it back to being a four-day event and possibly held at a number of Golf Kamloops courses," said Sun Rivers general manager Rob Larocque. "We've got some product here that can sustain a quality field."

The man who won the Western Championship - Roger Sloan of Merritt - is in the field this week, as is Stuart Anderson of Sooke, B.C., who finished second at the Kamloops tournament and fourth on the Order of Merit in 2011. Chile's Hugo Leon, who was second on the Order of Merit, and Calgary's Dustin Risdon, who was sixth, also are in the Pro Am field, as is Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, who won the Vancouver Golf Tour's West Coast Golf Group Pro-Am on Wednesday.

The teams were created in a random draw - out of a golf bag, of course - and will head off the first and 10th tees between noon and 1:20 p.m., both days.

Rivershore was toughened up for the Western Championship last year, but Larocque said Sun Rivers will be playing like any other day.

"Our golf course superintendent, Rex Skarbo, loves to keep the course fast and firm at all times, and I know that's how the tour likes it," Larocque said. "Our greens are at tour speed on a regular basis and the officials have asked Rex to not make them any faster."

Dragoo, who finished 27th at the Western Championship, was practising his putting on those slick greens on Wednesday afternoon, and seemed genuinely pleased to be back in Kamloops.

He got on well with his caddy at the Western Championship, Rivershore member Bob Esdale, and was looking forward to playing 36 holes with his amateur partner. The amateurs can be a little nervous playing with professionals who can drive the ball 300 yards and do things with a ball that most of us can only dream about.

"Sometimes they are (nervous), but that's usually because they don't play as many tournaments as we do," Dragoo said. "We're used to that, but once they get past the first tee and start getting into the round, it's just like any other day."

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca