Gord’s Alberta Golf Notes: Rain, And More Rain, The Script For Provincial Championships; A Golf Hero In Calgary; Alberta Pros Write Same Old Storyline To Start The Year
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2020-07-15
By GORD MONTGOMERY, Inside Golf
As the old saying goes, ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same.’ And that’s exactly the case in the PGA of Alberta’s tournament season, where three familiar names once again placed in the top spots in the first two events. Things started off in the Edmonton area, with The Quarry’s Keith Whitecotton taking the first Golf Supply House one-day event at Coal Creek, with a sterling 5-under 67, followed by Highlands pro Gary Hartford two strokes back and Adam Bruce of the Glendale two back of him for third place. In Calgary, playing in what was to be a 36-hole event that was shortened to one round by rain, Wes Heffernan, who owns the Dynamic Motion Golf Performance Centre showed that a new addition to his family isn’t about to slow him down. He signed off on a minus-7 65 at the Winston GC to take down Riley Fleming from the Lynx Ridge GC and Braden Chown from Medicine Hat’s Desert Blume course by three shots. And then Scott Stiles from the Earl Grey GC in Calgary, hit the winner’s circle for the first time, when he captured the one-day event at the Lakeside GC. He edged, who else by Heffernan and Fleming for the title.
In the Calgary area, a hero showed up on the golfing playground at the River’s Edge GC near Okotoks, when a youngster fell into the nearby Sheep River. Playing in the Calgary Golf As-sociation’s City Match Play, Calgarian Reef Caulder did more than throw caution to the wind when he forgot about the putt he had to win his match and headed for the river. The youngster, aged 7, had been screaming in terror and his rescuer heard him. Caulder first entered the fast-moving water and made his way to a sandbar. From there, he waded into the river to grab hold of the youngster, 7, who had managed to grab onto a rock. After getting the kid back to the sandbar, local EMS showed up to take care of the situation which could have been much worse save for the heroics of the golfer.
Americans love to complain about the cold weather that come down upon them from the north in the winter, but you hear little about the rain they send north in the summer. That was the case during the Alberta Golf Ladies Amateur Championship in Chestermere, when the liquid sunshine pelted the host Lakeside GC so hard, for so long, the event was shortened from 54 holes to 36. By the time everyone dried off and figured out what the end result was, 14-year-old Yeti Kwon from Port Coquitlam’s Westwood Plateau GC, B.C. put together rounds of 70-74 (+2) to edge Noemia Pare from Quebec and a National Amateur Team member by one stroke. Finishing third was Tatkir /stiobe from Calgary’s Pinebrook G&CC finished third. Kylie Barros, from Edmonton, was named the Mid-Amateur champ as she finished fifth in the event.
For some of us, age is no barrier to playing good golf. Just ask Alex Large from Canmore, who overcame a four-shot deficit in the final round to claim the 2020 Alberta Mens Mid-Am title. Large carded a solid 60under 65 on the final day to take the lead away from Ryan Swelin in the event played at the wonderful Sundre golf course. When everything wrapped up, Large took the title by four shots over Calgary’s Zander Ritson and five over Swelin.
And speaking of rain, more of that fell, quite heavily at times, at the 2020 Alberta U19 Champi-onships at The Links at Spruce Grove. In fact, it got so wet that the second round of the 54-hole event on the par-72 layout was shortened to 17 holes, and a par 65 after the second hole, a par-5 was deemed unplayable and the 17th, also a par-5 was shortened to a par-3. All in all though, all three rounds were completed and at the end it was a clean sweep for Glencoe G&CC members as Hunter Thomson, 16, captured the boys’ side with an eight shot wire-to-wire win while Annabelle Ackroyd won the girls’ title for the third straight year. Asked about the rain that fell on day one and two, Thomson said he “embraced it,” and felt that was the key to his success.