It was a tale of two days at the Yellowknife Golf Club over the weekend. One day orange, one day cloudy.
But at the end of the day, the Yellowknife Golf Club Championships went off without too much of a hitch and there are five new champions crowned, each with their own personal parking spot for the 2024 season.
The tournament is usually held in late August, but the evacuation played games with the schedule. Even then, there was the worry that the sky that greeted the capital on Saturday may push things back even further. The original tee-off time was set for 10 a.m., but that was delayed by an hour to see if things would clear up.
“I thought the delay would be good,” said Kylie Frderick, the club’s head pro and director of golf operations. “I took out one of the glowballs we had and I could see that, so everyone was able to play.”
It was the complete opposite on Sunday as the smoky sky gave way to cloudy conditions and a spot of rain in the late morning.
“Just a credit to our members who came out and braved it all,” said Frederick. “I guess it’s a nice way to finish the 75th anniversary season in style.”
The players were placed into foursomes for round one and played 18 holes to get their score. Round two on Sunday saw the players grouped together based on their round one scores with the best golfers playing together. Round two is normally played under tee-off times, but the conditions forced the format to be changed to a shotgun format. That meant every foursome teed off from a pre-determined hole to play their round.
The men started on the first, while the women teed off from the 10th.
When all was said and done, Jake Roche ended up winning the men’s title, while Meredith Wilson copped the women’s crown. Andy Couvrette once again won the senior men’s division, Pim Wangyao took top honours in the senior women’s group and Dylan Cummings captured the junior title.
This was the last scheduled club tournament of the season; there are a couple more events being hosted by the Mediocre Golf Association down the home stretch along with the final events for men’s and women’s nights at the club.
