Broncos Alumni Golf Classic features 180 golfers

Afull field of 180 golfers, great weather, a strong contingent of alumni spanning many decades, and outstanding sponsorship support. Call it a successful event for the Click Before You Dig Swift Current Broncos Alumni Golf Classic.

“I think it went as good, if not better, than other years,” said event co-chair Kirstin Rondeau. “As far as alumni, the alumni that came back, it was really nice to see... As far as, we haven’t calculated exactly the overall amount we have made for the organization, but we are thinking it is around the $10,000 mark, so almost double other years. A lot of that had to do with new sponsors coming on board and some really good live auction and silent auction items.”

“I thought the event was great,” added her husband and co-chair, Jeremy Rondeau. “This was the third year that we have been involved in running the event and it seems to get smoother and smoother every year.”

Jeremy Rondeau, a former player with the Broncos, said they have been hovering around 30-35 alumni and closing in on 40 alumni for the last couple of years.

He noted the return of nineties alumni Jeremy Reich and Tony Mohagen as welcome additions. “Some of the guys that have been regulars were back again, which is fantastic and you hope to keep them coming back. Daniel Dale was back for the first time.

“Roy Schultz and his crew from when the team was here as an SJHL team, they had 15 guys in their group and a lot of those guys hadn’t been back for a long time.

“From an alumni stand- point I thought it was fantastic. I think we are generating some momentum,” he added.

A sold out field of 180 golfers was also a welcome aspect of the tournament.

“We had a ton of interest this year to the point where we had to turn away people at the end of the day. There was probably four teams on a waiting list and one ended up getting in. It just tells us that there is some demand for the event that we are putting on,” explained Jeremy.

The annual event aims to meet a few objectives noted the organizers.

“Our main objective is to bring back a lot of the alumni and create these alumni relations,” said Kirstin.

“So we would like to see more of them but then of course you would miss some of the locals getting involved in the tournament.

“It is a double edged sword essentially, because you want more alumni but you also want people in the city and we like to recognize sponsors that support the Broncos all throughout the year, we try and treat them really good and give them a practice round with the alumni the day before.”

“It is providing some proof that it is a tournament that people want to be at, that they have fun at it,” added Jeremy.

“It is a bit of party atmosphere and that is kind of what we wanted to create. We wanted to create a merge between the organization, some of the sponsors that are there at the tournament and throughout the year, create some momentum and just kind of connect the organization, the sponsors, and the alumni.”

“From a sponsorship standpoint I thought it was unbelievable,” he continued. “We made some changes to what were doing with sponsorship, so we now do this Friday practice round. We have bumped up the price but added that as an exclusive sponsor and alumni game of golf, so it’s a little bit more low key.

“Our alumni have been fantastic about getting involved there and mixing and mingling with our sponsors and the people in the community.”

Kirstin Rondeau pointed out that the event sold out all 18 holes of sponsorship this year.

“TransCanada Pipeline and Click Before You Dig, they were unbelievable. They came on board pretty early after last year’s tournament was over and said they wanted to be involved. Since that point it has been a great relationship and they have been a great partner,” said Jeremy Rondeau, noting that the title sponsors were very active at the event itself.

The duo expects the tournament to maintain the same format going forward.

“One of my concerns is if we have 50 alumni start coming back what does that mean? Does it start taking spots away from people that want to golf in the tournament?

“I think it is a good problem to have and we’ll tackle that as time goes on,” said Jeremy.

They also said they will be back to run the alumni tournament again next year.

“We love being involved in it. I have been involved in this tournament since I was playing and was 17 or 18-years-old. Now I am an old guy.

“I don’t want to lose the tournament because of the fact that it was bringing alumni back so they could see one another again, reconnect, and reconnect with the community. I would hate to lose it,” said Jeremy Rondeau.

“I have been around with Jeremy a long time so I saw him over the years and all his buddies coming back and reconnecting and I thought it was really cool and I still do think it is cool for the organization to have some of their players return and obviously some of them have set down roots here in Swift,” added Kirstin Rondeau.