Alan Finch will be taking his golf clubs to the first-ever national Special Olympics tournament in Mount Hope, Ont. September 28 and 29.
The Olds golfer will be among 10 athletes representing Alberta at the tournament in a field of 86 from across Canada. In addition, Finch's local coach, Rick Astle, will also be among four coaches from Alberta making the trip.
Because this is the first-ever national tournament – and many programs are also in their first year – there wasn't time this year to hold qualifying tournaments, Astle explained. As a result, Special Olympics Alberta asked for recommendations from various affiliates as to who could represent Alberta this time around. With an average nine-hole score in the high 40s, Finch was among those chosen to represent the province.
“Alan is our prime competitive golfer. His nine-hole scores (average) about 47,” he said.
“Normally you would have to go through a qualifying process in your province, (but) because most of the affiliates didn't have programs until this year, they did not have the infrastructure to create these competitive qualifiers,” Astle said.
Finch said he is excited to be representing Alberta. He has been golfing for 22 years. Finch finds the individual nature of golf enjoyable.
“Golf is a sport that you don't have to worry about all the different aspects (of the game) like baseball or something like that, you just worry about your own game and play it to the best of your abilities,” he said.
The program in Olds started in 2011 and has 21 athletes participating this year.
