Latest news with #AlbertaGolf
Global News
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Global News
2025 Alberta Men's Amateur Golf Championship tees off in Lethbridge
For the 113th time, golfers are gathering in Alberta for a chance at winning a prestigious amateur trophy. It's also the first time since the 2000 Lethbridge Country Club edition that a golf course in the southern Alberta city has hosted the tournament. 'We're very excited once again to host the 2025 Alberta Men's Amateur Championship here at Paradise Canyon,' said Jae Maegaard, head golf professional with the PGA of Canada. Paradise Canyon last hosted the event in 1993, so this is a triumphant return that has employees eager to hit the links. 'Honestly, this one is huge,' said Matt Barkway, executive golf professional at Paradise Canyon. 'The fact that we're going to have the best amateur golfers in Alberta (from June 25-27) and it looks like we're going to get three great weather days. We're going to see what kind of scoring ability they have and see how much things have progressed over the years. Story continues below advertisement 'We're really looking forward to it.' Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy For course owner Ron Sakamoto, this is a dream come true. 'You have your dreams and you want to make it happen, but you don't know if it's going to happen until it does happen. It's just a treat to have this kind of course and build this with Lethbridge and have the reputation that it has now,' said Sakamoto. He says it will bring a lot more than just 120 golfers to his course, however. 'We're going to have a lot of people come down, stay at the hotels and restaurants, bring a boom to Lethbridge and showcase Lethbridge on the map.' While Sakamoto is a world-famous promoter, it took more than networking to bring the historic tournament back to Lethbridge. 'This golf course offers the right yardage, a great test for our golfers. It really shows who can play with the weather conditions as well as who has every asset in their game, whether they can chip, they can putt, can they play out of the rough? I think this golf course offers a great test for our players,' said Taylor Tracey of Alberta Golf. The event is open to the public and free to attend. It runs from June 25-27, 2025.
CTV News
12 hours ago
- Sport
- CTV News
2025 Alberta Men's Amateur Golf Championship helping ‘build the resume' for Lethbridge's sport tourism
Golfers from across the province are in Lethbridge for the 2025 Alberta Men's Amateur Golf Championship. Karsen Marczuk reports. Some of the best golfers in Alberta are teeing off at paradise canyon for the 2025 Alberta Men's Amateur Golf Championship June 25-27. 'Some players down in colleges throughout the winters come back home for the summer, they're still amateurs, so they're still going to play in this even,' said Jae Maegaard, head golf professional at Paradise Canyon. 'They're very high-level skilled players that we're going to see and we'll see a lot of local players that also play very well at their home clubs.' The amateur field includes 120 golfers competing in the three-day tournament. The top golfers of the championship will go on to compete in the Canadian Men's Amateur Golf Championship—an event that has seen PGA Tour players Nick Taylor, Corey Conners and Adam Hadwin compete. 'This golf course offers the right yardage, a great test for our golfers and it really shows who can play with the weather conditions as well as who has every asset in their game,' said Taylor Tracey, content and competition manager with Alberta Golf. Boosting local economy About a dozen or so golfers are from Lethbridge, with the rest from around the province. 'Out of the 120 guys, about 100-and-change travelling at least, so that's 100 hotel rooms and/or meals a day on top of their caddies, if their families are coming in to watch,' said Matt Barkway, executive golf professional at Paradise Canyon. It's those travelers that helped generate nearly $18 million to the local economy last year, according to the Lethbridge Sport Council. In a recent report, the sport council found that there were 28 sports in 35 different venues that contributed to the economic boost. The report focused on 2024, collecting data from 214 single and multi-day sporting events in the city. 'It's also nice to have more of these provincial events,' said Susan Eymann, executive director of the Lethbridge Sport Council, 'because we are working with our sports venues and sports organizations to look at what larger events --what national and what international event do we want to look at -- and golf is one of the sports that we're having conversations with,' Along with the financial impact, Eymann says hosting the men's amateur championship is a chance to show what resources and supports the city has to put on larger events in the coming years. 'We know that it's the same events that are happening and then there are the ones like this that are one-off that are building the resume to host larger events,' said Eymann. The last time Paradise Canyon hosted the championship was in 1993. The tournament is open to the public to watch for free.
