The Innisfail Golf Club is entering into fall with a flurry of activity prior to its final round of the 2014 season on Oct. 13.
Over the last two weeks, the club has held its Pro-Am event with 120 golfers from around the province, and from September 22 to 23, professional golfers walked the course.
“It has been a good season,” said Innisfail Golf Club manager Darren Black. “Despite a few days of snow and rain, we were able to keep the greens in great shape, ‘immaculate' according to the golf pros we have out here today, and we are looking to end up the season on October 13.”
The club manager noted that the Pro-Am event held the weekend of September 20 and 21 drew 30 teams of four golfers, which consisted of one professional and three amateurs, with a team from Calgary taking home the hardware.
“We have had 96 golfers from around the province hitting balls on September 22 and 23,” said Black. “For us, that means 48 courses sent their head professional and one assistant to Innisfail. Boomer (Jim) and Wayne Dick competed for Innisfail and are somewhere out on the course now.”
Sponsors and golfers were more than happy with the greens and holes.
“The course has been good,” said Craig Scott of Calgary. “This is my second year in Innisfail and it is better than last year's conditions. It's always a treat to come out here to shoot a round.”
One of his round mates, Simon Jones, the head professional at the Banff Springs Golf Course, said the local course had a “good variety” of holes.
“The Innisfail course is challenging,” said Jones. “While the weather is nice and starting to warm up, I just can't buy a putt today.”
Black noted that after the first day of the event there was a closer to home duo from Carstairs that was setting its own mark on the local course.
“Looking ahead we will be hosting two more events,” added Black. “We are going to run a postponed tournament and the Iron Man will go on October 11 to round out the season. We shut down October 13 and Dwayne Simpson, our course superintendent, will work for six weeks to ready the course for winter.”
Black looked back to the first year with Tim Pols as food and beverage manager with pride.
“Pols did a great job with our food and beverage service and we had nothing but praise for his work,” added Black. “Overall, 2014 has been good for the club and we look forward to next year.”
More information on the Innisfail Golf Club can be found at www.innisfailgolf.ca.
