As announced last week by the Canadian Junior Golf Association (CJGA) and Golf Saskatchewan, the nationwide junior tour is returning to the province.
The CJGA last held an event in Saskatchewan in May of 2017. This year the CJGA Prairie Championship will be held from June 17 to 19 at Yorkton’s Deer Park Municipal Golf Course. CJGA Director of Tour Operations Tyler Torrieri said part of his goal within his role at the association was to bring an event back to the province.
“We’ve been out of it for three or four years now, the pandemic kind of messed with things but even before that we just weren’t seeing the players out there,” he told Golf Saskatchewan. “I really wanted to get back into Saskatchewan and give players another avenue to play.”
The CJGA holds 120 events across Canada for junior golfers up to the age 24. The organization has the customary junior competitive circuit as well as their “Linkster” program for players four to 14. Deer Park last hosted a large-scale junior event in 2019 when Golf Canada hosted the then Future Links [now NextGen] Prairie Championship. Torrieri said he’s looking forward to bringing the event to the east-central city.
“We’re very excited to provide another avenue for these golfers out there because you guys have some fantastic junior golfers that we want to provide that opportunity to and provide notoriety for them too with some of the ranking associations and put their names on the map,” he said.
The 54-hole tournament is also one of five events that will be used to determine Team Saskatchewan that will represent the province at the Canada Summer Games in August. He added that the incentive the event provides is fantastic.
“Absolutely, we’re excited that you guys (Golf Saskatchewan) have offered that opportunity to us as well to be a qualifier for the Canada Games and provide this opportunity for players because you guys deserve it out there,” Torrieri said.
For more details on the CJGA you can visit their website.
You can hear more below in Torrieri’s interview with Golf Saskatchewan’s Clark Stork.