INNISFAIL - As Isaiah Ibit lined up his final shot on the 18th hole at the Innisfail Golf Club there was no panic whatsoever.
Ibit, whose home is Orleans, Ontario was way ahead of his nearest challenger, Charlie Gillespie of Calgary.
And Ibit easily drained it.
The 18-year-old is a national champion.
He won the 2024 Canadian Junior Boys Championship, presented by BDO, that was held in the Central Alberta town from Aug. 12 to 16.
Ibit claimed the title with a final round of 66; 16-under for the tournament and five shots ahead of second place Gillespie, who claimed top Albertan honours.
Ibit’s final scorecard for the tournament showed rounds of 67-72-67-66-272.
His victory at the Innisfail Golf Club was even more impressive as he was two strokes behind Ontario’s Spencer Shropshire entering the fourth and final round.
But Ibit would not be denied.
”Definitely my driver kept me in play off the tee and gave me the edge to win this. It was definitely the best club in my bag. I mean, the worst drive I hit in the entire tournament was on 18 today, and it was not even that bad,” said Ibit who had nothing but high praise for the course at the Innisfail Golf Club, which had just successfully hosted its first ever national tournament.
“The golf course is fantastic. It's definitely tricky,” Ibit told the Albertan. “One bad shot can lead to a lot of worse shots. You just got to be patient and just stay disciplined.”
Ibit is now setting his sights on Ohio’s Kent State University where he has a scholarship to play golf and pursue sports administration studies.
As for Innisfail and area golfers competing at the national junior boys championship, Innisfail’s Sean Kelly and Michael Song of Red Deer carded +20 and missed the cut after two rounds.
In the meantime, Golf Canada officials and local organizers were elated with the success of the tournament, which attracted 156 golfers from across Canada and was the marquee event for the 100th year anniversary celebrations for the Innisfail Golf Club, widely regarded as having one of the best courses in Alberta and even beyond.
“The level of play here is unbelievable. The event itself went exceptionally well,” said Dale Tomlinson, the club’s interim general manager.
Brett Kelly, the host committee chair for the national tournament, was especially proud of the commitment from dozens of volunteers.
“We had more volunteers than they (Golf Canada) did in any other Golf Canada event this year,” said Kelly. "I have to give them a big shout out and big thank you because we could not have pulled this off without them and the community spirit that Innisfail has.”
Sam Brown, tournament director for Golf Canada who is from Ontario, said he regularly visits Alberta as he has family in Calgary but his tournament attendance was his first visit to town.
And he’s heading home with a solid impression of the Innisfail Golf Club and its future prospects of holding another national championship.
“It’s (course) not a premium on distance, but a real premium on accuracy. A lot of times these junior boys’ tournaments turn into a little bit of a who-can-hit-it-further contest,” said Brown. “It was refreshing to have a course where we were looking for guys to hit really quality approach shots into the green, and our winner showed it well.
“I think the greens and the green complexes were awesome, very slopey, very undulating, so it gave us a lot of creativity with the pin placements.,” he said, adding the Innisfail club and its course could very well be chosen for future national championships.
“Absolutely. I mean, the volunteers speak for themselves. We had 60 plus volunteers here ready to go at six in the morning. That’s tough to find,” said Brown. “Seeing enthusiasm like that from the community definitely makes you want to come back.
“And the golf course itself certainly stands up to any we've had this year, last year, five years back, so I'm certainly positive we will be back here.”
