OLDS — The inaugural Olds Golf Club Iron Man/Iron Maiden golf tournament, held Sept. 28 went pretty well, despite cool and windy conditions, pro/manager Mat MacDonald says, so he predicts there will be another one next year.
An Iron Man/Iron Maiden tournament is designed to be a very tough – but fun – tournament. The pins are placed in strange spots.
The Ironman has an extreme division which was played from the back tees and a moderate division which was played from a set further forward.
“Really it's meant to be a difficult test of golf,” MacDonald said during an interview with the Albertan. “Basically it turns it from a more casual round of golf into just making it as hard as it can possibly be without it being impossible.”
There was an Extreme division – as well as a moderate one – for the men, but no Extreme division for the women.
“There's a few that enjoy the challenge, but for the most part, the ladies don't tend to like the extreme difficulty level that comes with a tournament like that, so we don't get quite as many that sign up,” MacDonald said. “I think we had about 20 ladies (enrolled) so that's not too bad.”
Mike and Mark Wiebe won the men’s side Extreme division, with a total championship flight gross score of 65, one shot ahead of Tim Hollman and Dan Leatherdale.
Chris Herkel and Jeff Johnstone finished in third place with a total gross score of 71.
MacDonald and Paul Mitchell placed fifth with a total gross score of 75.
Robert Weseen and Mike Dezall won the Extreme men’s net side with a total net score of 65. Dallas Jorgensen and James McDonald placed second with a total net score of 69.
Tyler and Jay Rosehill placed third with a total net score of 70.
In the men’s moderate gross division, Cliff Williamson and Keith Newton finished first with a total gross score of 69.
Colin McBride and Jim O’Rourke finished second with a total gross moderate score of 72. Randy Greenlaw and Darin Perpar placed third with a total gross moderate score of 73.
In the Iron Maiden Extreme category, Sydney McInnes and Jocelyn McInnes finished first with a total gross score of 76.
April Greenlaw and Bonnie Kaiser finished in second place with a total gross score of 81. Cathy Wood and Tina Machan placed third with a total gross score of 83.
The two McInnes ladies also won the net side of the ladies Extreme division with a total net score of 74. Jenny Lee and Sun rim Oh finished second with a score of 78.
Gail Dezall and Kristine Schultz finished in third place with a net Extreme division score of 80.
In the ladies moderate Iron Maiden division, Debbie Carritt and Angie Rudd finished first with a total gross score of 77. Steph Saunders and Lindsay Miller finished in second place with a gross moderate iron maiden score of 84.
Colleen Campbell and Donna Flasch took first place in the Iron Maiden Ladies net moderate division with a total net score of 78.
Christiana Weseen and Kathy-Jo Quilley finished in second place with a total net moderate division score of 79.
MacDonald said the idea to hold the tournament came as club officials were talking about possibly having one more competition before the season ends, likely Oct. 20, depending on weather conditions.
They chose an Iron Man/Iron Maiden tourney, noting that other golf courses have held them as “just a fun way to end the season.”
Overall, MacDonald said, he’s encouraged by how the tournament went and by the number of people who signed up to participate in it.
“The tournament went well considering the cool temperatures and the wind,” MacDonald said. “For the first time having it, it was a good time.
“I mean, I would have loved to have seen more players, but just due to potentially sketchy weather conditions and everything like that, I can understand why we only had 90 players, but we're hoping to grow it in the future.
“The feedback we've received from it so far has been overwhelmingly positive, so it's something that I think we're going to continue to try to do going forward.
“We might do a few different and new things with each iteration as we go along, but this year, we just kind of eased everybody in with the more difficult pins and kind of went from there.”
MacDonald was asked if he is a little humbled by his and Mitchell’s fifth place showing.
“I wouldn't say humbled per se,” MacDonald said.
“Unfortunately, we just didn't have our game that on Saturday.
“(It’s just) one of those things where we were supposed to be ham and egg and we were both thrown out -- ham or egg -- on every hole.
“We never seem to be able to combine to make a make a good score, so it is what it is. It's just one of those things. That's the game of golf.”
