Tandem three-peats at best-ball tournament
Jamie Welder checked the archives Sunday morning.
No team, he confirmed, had ever been crowned three-time champions of the Rileys Best Ball main event.
Several hours later, Welder and his partner Kevin Temple changed that, completing their historic hattrick with a 5 and 3 triumph over Jeff MacGregor and Brett Ladick in the winner-take-all showdown at Canyon Meadows.
Temple drained a 40-footer for eagle on No. 15 to put an exclamation mark on the latest victory for the dominant duo from Country Hills.
“That was … remarkable,” Welder said. “I told him, ‘Just lag it up there, we just need birdie.’ But when he knocked it in the back of the cup, that’s something I’ll never forget.”
Temple and Welder won backto-back instalments of the Rileys Best Ball main event in 2014-15, and Sunday’s opponents — Inglewood’s talented tandem of MacGregor and Ladick — couldn’t prevent them from getting their mitts on the trophy once again.
In Sunday’s other marquee matchup at Canyon Meadows, Brad Hudspeth and Brett Nichols (Cottonwood) won the senior final, carding an eagle on the first playoff hole to outlast Rick Heenan and Brad Wagner (Inglewood).
The female champions were determined a couple of weeks back — a repeat feat for Rhonda Carter and Cheryl Newman (Canyon Meadows).
Now the best of the best in the 44-year history of the Rileys main event, Temple and Welder reported mixed results in their one-onone battles.
“I played against Jamie in the City Match Play last year,” Temple recalled with a chuckle. “And I got beat up pretty good.”
His partner piped up. “Yeah, but he usually kicks my butt on men’s night at Country Hills,” Welder said. “Maybe that’s why we’re so good with each other. We beat each other, and then we just play well when we’re together.
“We usually ham-and-egg it pretty well.”
Apparently so.
FANTASTIC FIELD
The 2018 Sun Life Financial Alberta Ladies Amateur Championship is on the tee this week at Willow Park Golf & Country Club.
Trying to pick a favourite at the three-day shootout? How about 16-year-old rising star Annabelle Ackroyd, who doubled up last week as the winner of Alberta’s junior and juvenile titles?
Ackroyd signed for a three-day total of 3-under 210 at Coyote Creek in Sundre to score bragging rights in both age categories. A graduate of the junior program at Silver Springs and now representing Glencoe, she circled three birdies on her closing nine to seal the deal.
How about long-bombing Kehler Koss (Glencoe), fresh off her victory at the Calgary Ladies Golf Association’s Closed Amateur? The 18-year-old Koss worked overtime to win the city crown in a playoff, completing three laps of Inglewood in 14-over 230, then defeating Cheryl Newman (Canyon Meadows) with a par on the first extra hole.
Or how about Sabrine Garrison? She is, after all, the reigning champion of the Sun Life Financial Alberta Ladies Amateur. Garrison (Country Hills) just completed her collegiate career with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and will try to defend her provincial throne before turning her focus to medical school.
CHIP SHOTS
Chandler McDowell (Innisfail) was the class of the competition at the Alberta Junior Boys Championship at Sundre Golf Club, sizzling to an 11-shot victory at 10-under 278. The 18-year-old from Springbrook, Alta., capped his cruise with a superb spin of 6-under 66 in the final round. Medicine Hat’s Ryan Hodgins claimed the juvenile trophy.