Family ties
Currie holds amateur lead at course grandfather help start
Kris Currie started cutting the fairways at the Glen Afton Golf Club when he was 10 years old.
All those years on the course appeared to serve him well on Friday, when he fired a 2-under 68. It has the Fairview resident in the lead after Day 1 of the threeround P.E.I. Amateur Golf Championship, presented by Island Coastal.
“It’s nice to have a good showing, being on your grandfather’s track,” Currie said Friday night. “But it is three days. One day is not enough. You have to be strong for three days.”
Delmar Currie and two partners built the nine-hole course in 1972 and it later expanded to 18 holes. Delmar bought out his partners and ran the course. He died in 1996 and left the course to his sons Harley and Carl, Kris’ father.
Carl sold his share to Harley in 2000, a year after starting Countryview Golf Club.
Kris, who is the superintendent at Countryview, commended Glen Afton superintendent, Jonathan Currie, who is Kris’ cousin, for the shape of the course.
“The greens were rolling fantastic,” he said. “They cut and rolled them an hour before we went out and that made a huge difference.”
Kris had seven birdies on Friday and said his putter was key.
“You have to putt and you have to be in play to score well,” he said. “Fifty per cent of your strokes are on the putting green.”
Tim Yorke leads the mid master division with a 1-over 71.
The senior men play their first round today beginning at 8 a.m. while the senior women begin at 9:20 a.m.
The amateur and mid master women’s divisions start at 9:40 a.m.
The field includes Julia Henderson, who won her third Nova Scotia amateur last weekend at Northumberland Links in Pugwash by 15 shots. The 21-yearold New Glasgow, N.S., who played golf while attending Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina, native played a practice round Friday at Glen Afton.