Teen tops Camrose course record

The Camrose Golf Course record has fallen. Andrew Harrison, only 19, shot a 10-under-par 60 to eclipse the mark of 62, set by the much decorated Frank Van Dornick.

Harrison, winner of last year’s Edmonton junior title, had 10 birdies and no bogeys.

It does come with an asterisk, though. Van Dornick, a three-time winner of the Alberta senior men’s championship, four-time winner of the Alberta mid-amateur, the Canadian mid-amateur and Alberta amateur, set his standard in a tournament while Harrison got his in a regular “fun” round.

Harrison, who also won the Canadian juvenile championship in 2013 and numerous Maple Leaf Junior Tour and McLennan/Ross events, will be attending the University of British Columbia this fall.

SCENE

They just kept going and going and going. Last week, on the longest day of the year, three Edmonton and area golf courses held golf marathons to raise money for charity.

At Leduc, 28 golfers raised $27,000 in support of the 2016 Alberta Summer Games. Using light stands, glo-sticks and headlights for the golf carts, they started at 8 p.m. on June 21 and finished 24 hours later. In total, a staggering 2,826 holes were played. One group played 126 holes. All of the other participants played a minimum of 100 holes.

At the Derrick Golf and Winter Club and the Windermere Golf and Country Club, the money raised went to KidSport Edmonton, a national children’s charitable organization which gets children into the game by helping overcome the financial barriers that prevent some young people from participating.

Last year alone, KidSport Edmonton helped 1,485 kids get involved in community-based organized sport programs.

Windermere raised $5,640; the Derrick raised $10,350. The event at both of those courses started around 5 a.m. and packed it in about 10:30 p.m.

Windermere’s team, which played 18 rounds, consisted of teaching pro Cam Martens, head pro Jason Hnatiw, former Mackenzie Tour/PGA Tour Canada player Phil Boisvert and Derek Baker.

Despite rushing to play all the holes — one round took just one hour and 32 minutes — Martens and Barrett both shot 68s in one of their rounds.

The Derrick’s tired crew only used four players — Adam Werbicki, Michael Teslak, Josh Copeland and Trevor Goplin — to play 171 holes. Werbicki had a 69 on one of his scorecards while Teslak broke 80 for the first time.

“Very tired and still sore,” said Goplin. ❚ Morinville’s Bryce Melville, 19, won the Maple Leaf Tour’s Ford Series at the Links in Spruce Grove with rounds of 71-73 for a four-shot win over Red Deer’s Matt Codd. Lewis Estate twins Nicholas (152) and Spencer Vandermey (155) were next. Other top local performances saw St. Paul’s Jeremie Pasitney, 16, shoot 79-78 to defeat Stony Plain’s Austin Noskiye by four shots to win the junior boys’ title.

“This win feels awesome; it gives me confidence going into more events and a critique of where my game is,” said Pasitney.

Edmonton’s Ethan de Graaf, 14, won the bantam boys division in a playoff against Swift Current, Sask.’s Griffin Wilson after both finished with 158 totals. Sturgeon’s Brody Eggleton was one shot back. It was De Graaf’s second straight MJT title, having also taken the tour stop in Olds.

Edmonton’s Grace Cho, 14, easily won the U15 division. ❚ I think I just found golf’s biggest bargain — the Athabasca Golf & Country Club. A really solid and fun-to-play course, Athabasca lowered its green fees by 30 per cent across the board. Weekday green fees are now just $37, and that includes a cart and use of the range, while weekend prices are $57 and also includes cart and range.

Designed by the Puddicombe group, Athabasca has very esthetically pleasing green complexes — many at the end of graceful, meandering doglegs — and a great setting between mature pines in the Athabasca River valley.

Opened in 1963 as a ninehole, sand-green course, the Puddicombes expanded the course to 18 holes in 1995 and then did a threeyear $1.8-million renovation, which was completed in 2010.

There are a lot of great holes, but you will never forget the par 3 third hole, which descends off an elevated tee to a green across a creek. Tough, but gorgeous.

A challenging but fair course that is a 75-minute drive from St. Albert, good tee shots are crucial.

“I just love this course,” said director of golf Jeff Sveen, who has returned to Athabasca, where he served as the head pro four years and then the general manager for three more years in the 1990s before taking a job as the head pro at the Edmonton Petroleum golf course. “It’s got a little bit of everything and, of course, the price is right. It’s a tremendous value.”

NOTED

❚ Al Parsons and Alex Newhart are two golfing buddies who have played together for almost 30 years. Until this year, they had never had a hole-in-one. Now both have one. Parsons got his playing in Florida earlier this year; then playing together as usual, Newhart got one at the Leduc Golf Club on the 162-yard eighth hole. ❚ At the Derrick, Wayne McDaniel used a nine-iron from 125 yards to get the best of No. 16. ❚ At the Highlands Golf Club, Kim Bouw meester aced No.3 with his seven-iron from 145 yards for his first hole-in-one after playing the game for some 50 years. To top it off, Bouwmeester then holed out on No. 8 from 150 yards for a birdie. ❚ Congrats to Ken Allen, who aced No. 13 at the Edmonton Country Club from 178 yards with a smooth five-iron for his third hole-in-one. ❚ Len Switzer got a hole-inone at Windermere using a seven-iron from 144 yards on No. 3. ❚ Ron Hansen got Sturgeon Valley’s first hole-in-one of the year when he used a four-hybrid from 175 yards on No. 7. ❚ At the Pete Club, Nick Trovato aced No. 13 from 108 yards with an eight-iron.