Crowchild digs in, makes history
Irene Crowchild marked a year and a half of sobriety.
Just over a week later, she made her mark at the Canadian Long Drive Championships, winning the women’s title in her first trip to the national blastoff.
One accomplishment wouldn’t have been possible without the other.
“I totally believe, without sobriety, there’s no way that I could even go after my dreams,” said Crowchild, a proud resident of Tsuu T’ina Nation. “To even just push myself physically, mentally, emotionally, to new limits that I didn’t even know I’ve had …
“I had to ask them, when they told me in the championship finals, ‘You don’t have to shoot the other three,’ I was like, ‘Wait, I won?!?’ They said ‘Yeah,’ and they kind of laughed. And that’s when I cried.
“With all that training at the gym and going to the range, I was questioning ‘Is this worth it? Is this what I’m meant to do?’ And when I found out I won, it just all released. This is worth it.”
Crowchild became the first Aboriginal woman to ever tee it up at the Canadian Long Drive Championships, and the 27-year-old wasn’t done making history.
She lost her first set at nationals before winning five consecutive showdowns in the double-elimination format.
She saved her best crank for the final, belting one 310 yards.
What’s especially impressive is that Crowchild — employed as a national construction safety officer and often spotted on the range on weekends at Redwood Meadows — achieved the feat with a regular driver. She travelled with two customized long-drive clubs, but both were a bit wild that day.
Crowchild also earned a trip to Mexico to represent Canada at an international event in late November.
Now healthy and happy, she is determined to grip and rip her way to success on the World Long Drive circuit, a goal that once seemed so far-fetched.
“In 2017, in February, that’s when I decided, ‘It’s time to reach out for help, because every time that I try to do this on my own, I keep falling back into my cycle,’” said Crowchild, who counts her grandparents, Charles and Josephine, among her biggest fans and supporters.
“In May/June, I went to treatment, and I came home a totally new person. I really grew. I healed from my own traumas. I don’t know the right word to explain it, because you kind of had to see it to believe it. To see me the way I was before and to see who I am now, my grandpa said it — I’ve come a long way, and it’s really beautiful.
“I’ve always hit a long ball, but it was just drunk-talk at the time, saying ‘I’m going to go to World Long Drive. I’m going to do it,’” she continued. “I’d said that maybe four or five years in a row and it never happened. I never did anything to even try, until after treatment when I came home … That’s when I was like, ‘I’m going to do this. I really going to do it this time.’”
She’s done it.
And won it.
“I want to be able to share my story to help others,” Crowchild said. “I’m making my impossible possible right now. And I want others to believe they can make their impossibles possible, too.”
CHIP SHOTS: With two titles on the line, Jesse Galvon (Cottonwood) edged Jamie Welder (Country Hills) in a playoff at the Calgary Golf Association’s City Medalist. Galvon drove the green on a Par-4 on the first extra hole, two-putting for birdie to win the season-ending shootout at Collicutt Siding and also to repeat as the Player of the Year. Galvon was crowned the City Amateur champion earlier this summer … It’s twice-as-nice at Inglewood after their members celebrated a sweep at the Alberta Interclub Championships at Kananaskis. It was a dominant double too, with the men and women both finishing six strokes clear of the competition at the one-day shootout, where the best three scores are counted on each hole. Dallas Bassen, Gary Fleming, Kelly Lundgren and Zander Ritson combined for a team tally of 15-under 201 to capture the men’s title, while Stephanie Chelack, Joanne Goulet, Diane Jones and Karen Saunders paced the women with a score of 16-over 232 … Scott Allred (Elbow Springs) rolled to a four-peat at the PGA of Alberta Senior Championship. Allred completed two laps of Cottonwood in 5-under 137, six better than any of his buddies. Gord Courage (Hamptons) finished third overall and tops in the supersenior division … Marsha Rogers (The Derrick) fired back-to-back rounds of 75 to triumph at the PGA of Alberta Ladies’ Championship, also at Cottonwood … Red Deer’s Ken Griffith was the top Canuck at the 2018 Canadian Men’s Senior Championship in Bathurst, N.B.