The top three finishers in the Men's Mid-Amateur included Humboldt local Paul Raycroft - right (submitted/Golf Saskatchewan)

By Ben Tompkins

On the Map

‘We’ve always known what we’ve had here’: Humboldt Golf Club reflects on hosting successful Sask. Amateur

Jul 22, 2025 | 11:29 AM

For the first time in its 114-year history, the Saskatchewan Men’s Amateur Championships were held at the Humboldt Golf Club (HGC) this past week.

Also at the course were the Women’s Amateur Championships, marking the second time the event was in Humboldt, as it was previously hosted there in 2014.

Almost 150 golfers from across the province were looking to qualify for nationals, as the course, which was in arguably its best shape, hosted the event.

“Everything went smoothly and there were nothing but positive comments. The weather couldn’t have cooperated any better, probably the best four days of weather we’ve had all year, and there was lots of appreciation by the players for the volunteers and vice versa. From Golf Sask’s end as well, they were pleased with how the event went and how our club help put it on. I don’t think there was a single negative comment the whole week from anyone,” explained HGC General Manager Corey Schweitzer.

“I think historically, our golf course has always been maintained to a high level. The conditions for the provincial amateur, a lot of extra work has to go into making green speeds and other things up to that level. But certainly, you have to be near the top to even attract that event in the first place. I think it says a lot for the conditions and the quality of this golf course year over year that they hosted it here.”

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The tournament ran over four days (Tuesday-Friday), with three of the four championships, women’s side and men’s mid-am (25 and over), needing just three rounds.

A lot of players, for the majority of the week, having descended on the local community and its golf course.

“I think we’ve made a good case to the city that this is an important piece of recreational infrastructure for the entire community. I know businesses, restaurants, hotels and clothing stores downtown all saw an uptick last week in traffic, so it just sort of validates what we’ve been trying to do here, and the message that we’ve been trying to deliver that the Humboldt Golf Club is in that class of premier golf destinations. I think this helps put us on the map, where players that maybe used to drive through town on their way to somewhere else might stop here and play 18 holes, and that can do nothing but good for us,” Schweitzer added.

“There’s no doubt that this event attracted attention to the club. I think the way I’d put it is, we’ve always known what we had here, so now more people will be more aware that this is a place you can come and kind of expect quality golf, good conditions and consistency, no matter when you come.”

The last couple of years, the course has dealt with some financial difficulties, even receiving a $100K grant from the city.

Now hosting an event of this calibre, it proves the club’s worth and hopefully opens up future opportunities to continue to play host.

“We were very proud to host this event, and I think that the indication or feeling was the event went so well that there’s certainly going to be an opportunity for us to host future events of this calibre. From my perspective, since there were so many positives, both for the club and for the community, we would probably be welcoming of another event of this type,” Schweitzer told northeastNOW.

“In the past, we’ve hosted the senior amateur here, so this would be a good host club for an event like that, and I think the junior amateur would be another one. Obviously, we’ve also proven we can host the Big Daddy in the provincial amateur and mid-amateur as well, so if somebody comes knocking on our door, we’ll certainly be accommodating, however we can, to host whatever events we can.”

Not only did the event bring in a lot of people because of its size, but also because of the local golfers competing in it.

Humboldt local Paul Raycroft was either at the top or just shy of it all week, eventually finishing second in the men’s mid-amateur.

“I think it was really nice to have Paul in the hunt, a lot more texts coming my way, asking where they could find the leaderboard and how Paul was doing. Honestly, all of our local golfers who competed last week did themselves proud and played well. There’s a good golf history here and lots of competitive athletes, so having these locals play, our junior program is growing by leaps and bounds, and when you have a big event like this and locals do well, I think it just inspires those younger golfers to up their game as well,” concluded Schweitzer.

“I thought our fan support grew throughout the week, but I think we’d like to expand on that and work to make people realize that golf is a spectator sport everywhere else, and it can be a spectator sport here, too… I’m just hoping that the attention and all the compliments we got this week will convince people to come and see us and try us out.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8