Joanne McQuarrie, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
A team representing Jasper won top spot, and a golfer from Fort McMurray hit a hole-in-one, at the RBC PGA Scramble Northern Alberta Regional Final at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge (JPL) Golf Resort Aug. 24.
In total, 29 teams were in the event, two of them sponsored.
Tahlon Sweenie, director of golf operations, said: "It is an honour to host an event for PGA (Professional Golfers' Association) Canada and to see the smiles on the competitors' faces.”
Any courses with a PGA of Canada professional who want to host a regional final make an application to the organizers of the event - the RBC PGA Scramble presented by The Lincoln Motor Company. Along with Sweenie, there are two other PGA of Canada professionals at the JPL golf course: Robbie Johnson and Troy Mills.
Sweenie said he was notified last fall that they were successful in their bid.
JPL’s greens are ranked as the number one golf resort and the number three golf course in Canada, Sweenie said, by SCOREGolf, a ranking selected by a panel of experts that includes pros, media members and public players.
Local qualifiers were played, with teams of four amateurs, under a scramble format, and each team that won a local qualifier earned a spot in the regional finals and golfed with a PGA of Canada pro from that local qualifying site.
The regional finals were the second stage to earning a place in the RBC PGA Scramble. The national level of competition was cancelled this year, however, due in part to COVID-19 restrictions.
To get to the level played in Jasper is a feat sought by many.
"It was an amazing experience for a lot of these amateur players", Sweenie said.
Jared Thompson, Jason Branton, Cory Mercer, Daniel Requa and PGA professional in Jasper Robbie Johnson were the winning team. The foursome is from the Whitecourt area and it's the second time they have played the local qualifier in Jasper and won.
"We've been scrambling together for 15 years," Johnson said. "That makes a big difference. There's a lot of team strategy to playing this. It's nice to know everyone's strengths and weaknesses. With playing together for so long, we know the shots we have and the shots we don't have."
The team started early in the day, so they had to wait a long time to find out if they won the title.
"We were finished about seven hours before the last team finished," Johnson said. With COVID-19 protocol in place, people didn't gather at the golf course to wait for the finish and instead kept track of progress via technology. "We were able to watch the other scores as they were posted throughout the day," he noted. "We were confident we were in the top three."
The team kept track of progress as they drove home, but they stopped at a restaurant in Edson to watch what was going on. When the scores came in, the Whitecourt fellows found out they won by a slim margin of 0.2.
"There was some appropriate social distance hugging," Johnson said. "We've seen exactly that same margin last year in the regional finals, hosted in Red Deer. Literally, the margin of victory was less than one stroke."
It was good to be on the winning side of that margin this time around.
About the Jasper course, Johnson said, "As far as enjoyability and challenge, it's second to none. Cory (a former golf pro) said it's his favourite golf course."
It was a bonus, he said, to have Pyramid Mountain in the background as the team golfed.
Johnson said the team's mascot, a wooden deer named Scout was with them, and has been with the team for years.
"Anybody who plays this game knows how important the mental aspect is, and Scout is a positive [motivation]," he said. “[Scout] allows us to have fun. At the end of the day - it's just a game."
The guys have played for years, and, Johnson said, "Hopefully we'll play until we're elderly men."
At each of the 11 RBC PGA Scramble Regional Finals across Canada there is one RBC and PGA Canada-sponsored hole competition, where if a player hits a hole-in-one they go home with $10,000.
Not only did he get to play on a top-ranked course, but Ryan Coish, born and raised in Fort McMurray, got the thrill of doing just that.
Coish made an uphill shot on a 172-yard hole using a 7-iron.
"It bounced and went in," he said. "I heard the click when it went in - and then I heard everyone celebrating. I was in shock. It was awesome. I was just trying to get on the green."
The Jasper location, he said, features "a beautiful course.
“It's in good shape - tricky greens," he said.
Amazingly, Coish, who has been golfing for 23 years, hit a hole-in-one about eight years ago at his home club in Fort McMurray - the Miskinawa course.
It's the second time he's played in the regionals. He competed last year in Red Deer.
