OLDS — Some major talent – including a couple of local guys -- will be teeing off during the 2020 Alberta Senior Men’s Golf Championship which starts today at the Olds Golf Club.
Club pro-manager Wade Bearchell says the field of 124 players for the Aug. 5-7 event includes local members Keith Newton and Mark Schultz.
They’ll be competing with guys like former champ Brian Laubman and Frank Van Dornick, who’s won the tournament several times.
Bearchell can’t wait.
“It’s going to be really competitive,” he said during an interview. “You know, for amateur golfers, these guys are as good as it gets. I mean, they’ve competed on the national level.”
Bearchell said the last time the Olds Golf Club hosted a tournament of this magnitude was in 2016 when it hosted the Alberta Senior Ladies Championship.
That tournament attracted about 60 golfers.
Bearchell says the course is in great shape.
He’s especially proud of the greens.
“Our greens are phenomenal this year,” he said.
The bunkers were beefed up in 2019.
Things will be a little different this year though, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Basically, players come in to town about half an hour before their tee time, play, attest to the score and leave. They won’t even have caddies.
Bearchell said events at this level don’t normally have much in the way of galleries (spectators) but they will have none this year, as a result of to COVID-19 restrictions.
