After a three year absence the PGA of Saskatchewan Buying Show is back this October.

The event will be held on Oct. 25 and 26 at the new Dakota Dunes Resort Hotel. Executive Director Scott Allan spoke with Golf Saskatchewan’s Clark Stork about his first summer at the helm of the provincial PGA association, the show itself, potential changes for the future and the overall state of the game in Saskatchewan.

According to Saskatchewan’s Kim Walker, Kathy Hopfner, and Maureen Bowerman the 2022 Canadian Senior Women’s Championship was an experience they won’t soon forget.

In total, nine players from the province competed in the 54-hole event at Breezy Bend in Headingly, Manitoba from Aug. 30 – Sept. 1.

Walker led the way with a fantastic finish in a tie for seventh place. As a team Saskatchewan was sixth.

Golf Saskatchewan’s Clark Stork spoke with Walker, Hopfner, and Bowerman after the ladies returned from Winnipeg.

The 14 players that competed in the 2022 Canadian Mid-Amateur Championship from Saskatchewan are back in the province and recollecting the week in Thornhill, Ontario.

Prince Albert’s Danny Klughart was the top local finishing the championship in a tie for 26th at 13-over par.

Shaun Dunphy of Saskatoon finished his 11th national event in a tie for 58th, the second highest placing Saskatchewan product and Regina’s Drew Kocur made the cut in his national debut and finished 71st.

All three players spoke to Golf Saskatchewan’s Clark Stork following the event.

KLUGHART

DUNPHY

KOCUR

Saskatchewan’s four competitors from the golf event are back in Saskatchewan and basking in the week that was at Niagara Falls for the 2022 Canada Summer Games.

Yorkton’s Ella Kozak was the top local tying for fifth in the 72-hole championship that ran from Aug. 17 to 20. She will also be eligible for the next Games in 2025.

Next up for the 16-year-old is the Team Canada – NextGen Selection Camp in Toronto from Sept. 8 to 11. Saskatoon’s Chase Pochylko will join her in an effort to make the national team.

Kozak spoke with Golf Saskatchewan following the Games.

Hallie Crozier of Regina placed 17th in the event. She wrapped up the season in Saskatchewan this past weekend at the Maple Leaf Junior Tour (MJT) Order of Merit Series Championship in Warman with a two-day score of 160. The 17-year-old will compete in the MJT National Championship in Florida later this year and continue to work with coach Henry Brunton with a goal of getting a scholarship.

On the boys side Hunter Kutcher and Darien Herlick tied for 14th at the Canada Games.

Kutcher is now heading to Kelowna to begin his collegiate career for the UBC Okanagan Heat.

Like Kozak, Herlick is eligible to compete in the Games again. He will stay in Saskatchewan for the time being and work with his coach before heading to Florida to work with Brunton.

After a pair of second place finishes in the Saskatchewan Mixed Championship Kim Brown and Dennis Vezeau have their first Saskatchewan Mixed Championship.

On Sunday at Elk Ridge Golf Resort the Saskatoon duo needed a playoff to hold off Elanne Krainyk and Colton McAllister for the championship. Brown and Vezeau birdied the first playoff hole to claim the win.

The bronze medal went to seven-time winners Kathy Ziglo and Ian Larocque who finished the tournament at 1-under, 143, four shots back of the co-leaders.

The complete results can be seen here.

In the event’s return to Elk Ridge 51 teams competed over 36 holes and two days. Next year’s Mixed Championship will be held at Moose Jaw’s Hillcrest Golf Club.

More photos of the event can be found here.

Kathy Ziglo is the 2022 Ladies Lobstick champion after a back-and-forth match with Kim Brown Friday at Waskesiu Golf Course.

Ziglo was seeded second in the championship flight following two days of qualifying earlier in the week. She beat Lorie Boyle and Denise Hersikorn on route to the final with Brown. Ziglo lost to Brown in last year’s championship match.

She spoke to Golf Saskatchewan after the win.

The complete Lobstick results can be seen here.

Over 50 teams will tee it up today at Elk Ridge Golf Resort for the 2022 Saskatchewan Mixed Championship.

The alternate shot format event is a highlight on the Golf Saskatchewan calendar as couples, friends, and family members form teams and chase the title, or simply have a memorable weekend with their partner. Golf Saskatchewan Tournament Director Steve Ryde said once Elk Ridge was announced as the host for this event entry interest peaked.

“Elk Ridge is a premier facility in western Canada, for us to be able to come back to the resort after the change in management and host the mixed here where everything is right where you need, yeah we knew the site would be popular and we’re ecstatic to be at over 100 players. We know this will be an event to remember for years to come,” Ryde said.

Elk Ridge last hosted the Mixed Championship in 2018. Kathy Ziglo and Ian Larocque won the event that year, the duo are the reigning champions after winning the championship for the seventh time at Candle Lake this past year. Ziglo is coming off a Ladies Lobstick win on Friday as well.

Elk Ridge Head Professional Ryan Wells said welcoming golfers from across the province is exciting.

“We are very happy to be able to host the 2022 mixed provincials. Blaine (Fagnou) and his crew have the course in tournament shape for the PGA Tour Canada Elk Ridge Open at the end of June and have continued for all competitors of the Mixed Championship. The course will be a good challenge but also fair for all players. The community and staff are looking forward to showcasing our hospitality in all departments of the resort and all the changes the ownership group has done to this beautiful resort in it’s first year of reopening,” Wells said.

The event begins with a shotgun start at 11 a.m. Saturday. Day two will be a shotgun start at 8 a.m. on Sunday.

To find all the details on this year’s Mixed Championship click here.

Kindersley’s Cort Tunall is the latest Saskatchewan golfer to attend university on a scholarhsip.

Tunall, 18, will attend the University of Houston-Victoria and compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for the Jaguars.

Tunall spoke with Golf Saskatchewan’s Clark Stork about his start in golf, development and road to Texas where he becomes the first Canadian to ever enroll in the facility.

For over four decades Ross Ethier has poured his life’s work into the Emma Lake Golf Course, the now 60-year-old is starting to visualize life without the course that’s been in the Ethier family since 1979.

Ray Ethier purchased the then nine-hole course when Ross was just 16 years old. According to Ross, the purchase for his golf-fan father was a place for him and his two brothers to work in the summer and then go to university in the winter. He stuck with the course; his two siblings went off on different career paths.

 The course was built in the 1960’s by Paul and Peter Kachur and opened in 1967. Ethier described the course as “swampy” with “two-by-12’s” running everywhere so you could walk. They started with drainage, updated the irrigation system in 1987, automated the system in 1990 and in 1995 the process of constructing the back nine began.

“I had an ariel photograph and I plotted it out with a compass,” Ethier said. “I walked through the bush followed by a cat, that’s how I cleared because it was solid bush. I knew what I wanted; we started off with a trail down the middle. At this time Weyerhaeuser was still open, they had to buy our wood, so this guy came out, cut it for the cost of the wood, he just kept going until I liked what I had.”

The one wish Ray had in the design was that the ninth and 18^th hole must meet back at the clubhouse eliminating the need for a snack shack on the course. Ethier said he was able to appease his father, but the work essentially doubled at the club.

“Equipment wise needs, golf carts, staffing, now we have 10 guys cutting grass. We have 25 staff, the service part, the restaurant isn’t a huge profitable thing but it’s something you need to provide,” he added.

One section of the labour force at Emma Lake is the grounds crew and marshals. Ethier said a steady group of guys will “marshal” and play golf the next. One of those men was David “Shorty” Hryhor who unfortunately passed away in 2016. To this day players teeing it up on hole one at the course will see the initials S-H written in a dollar sign format in the grass remembering Hryhor.

“He was wonderful character, everyone loved that guy,” Ethier said. “Just such a lovable guy and it was a bad shock.”

Ethier admits he’s spent a long time learning about the golf industry especially the turf care aspect. Aside from the constant changes of technology and the world Ethier has turned his focus over recent years in lengthening the course. Although popular and busy most years a familiar term continued to leave Ethier in the rough, that being that Emma Lake is a “nice little golf course.”

“There are so many courses around that never change anything, they maintain, may improve a tee box or something, but when you’re adding yards, and updating greens, the length change and expansion that way, nobody else is doing that. I guess for good reason those courses feel they don’t need to, but people get bored with the same course,” Ethier said.

The course has seen 100 yards added to holes three, five, seven, and eight. They have added 50 yards to hole six and hole 17 is now close to 560 yards. Bunkers have also been added to a couple 300-yard holes for some added difficulty.

As Ethier ponders what’s next with the course being open to a sale in the right situation he said their two tournaments that they host and support the Victoria Hospital Foundation in Prince Albert.

The four-person best ball event held in July raised $37,000 for the foundation this year. The annual Ray Ethier Tournament (a two-person event) is held every fall. Between the two tournaments Ethier said over $500,000 has been raised for the foundation.

“I want to be comparable; I want to be competitive,” he said. “The greens, the conditions, we do as good as job as anybody, we have a great layout, you never have the same shot twice, I tried to make you use every club in the bag, I hope I succeeded,” he concluded.

It’s set to be an exciting week at the Southwood Golf and Country Club in Winnipeg for the PGA Tour Canada stop.

The qualifier on Monday went extremely well for two Saskatchewan professionals. Yorkton’s Kade Johnson shot the low round of the day with a 66 at Southwood to secure a spot in the Manitoba Open.

This will be Johnson’s first PGA Tour Canada event since the Elk Ridge Open which he also qualified for on the Monday ahead of the tournament at Waskesiu Golf Course. That event was cancelled due to heavy rain, the last full event the 2018 Saskatchewan amateur men’s champion played in was the ATB Classic presented by Volvo Edmonton in June.

Joining Johnson in the field is two-time reigning Saskatchewan amateur champion Roman Timmerman. The Saskatoon product earned an exemption into the Elk Ridge Open however he as entered as an amateur. Timmerman concluded his amateur career at the Canadian Championship in Vancouver earlier this month, he is now competing as a professional and making his debut in Winnipeg after winning a playoff Monday securing the final qualifying spot in the championship that begins Thursday.

For more on the Manitoba Open click here.