(File photo/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

NextGen Prairie Championship

Nipawin’s Evergreen Golf Course to welcome Canada’s best junior golfers

Jun 7, 2023 | 5:21 PM

The Evergreen Golf Course in Nipawin will be hosting a prestigious event next weekend, June 16-18.

The NextGen Prairie Championships will touch down in the northeast Saskatchewan town, as Canada’s best and brightest of the future will compete for three days straight.

“We’re really looking forward to it,” said Kevin Duchscherer, president of the Evergreen Golf Course. “We’re really hoping to showcase Nipawin Evergreen as an elite golf course that will challenge the players as they come to compete here. We’re really excited about seeing a great three days of golf, and we’re just hopeful that mother nature cooperates.”

The 54-hole tournament is expected to welcome roughly 70-80 golfers, who hail anywhere from British Columbia through Quebec.

About 40 per cent of the competition will be from Saskatchewan, as they all compete for exemptions into nationals.

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“We’re hoping that we’re going to end up with not only a lot of volunteers to help out with the tournament, but also get a number of spectators who are interested in coming out and watching some great quality golf,” added Duchscherer.

“A lot of these juniors that are going to be competing are literally the cream of the crop type of players and they’re playing at their highest level in the country. So, to be able to see that level of golf at our courses, we’re really excited and we feel it’ll be a treat for sure.”

This championship is held bi-annually in Saskatchewan, as it alternates years with Manitoba.

It was last held in the province in 2019 in Yorkton, as it was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID, before travelling to Steinbach in 2022.

The championship will also mark the first-ever Golf Canada-sanctioned event in the Club’s history.

“We’re excited about that opportunity,” explained Duchscherer. “We’ve held several provincial events over the years, the latest one that we’ve had was in 2019 when we hosted the provincial juniors with Golf Saskatchewan, and so this is a very exciting opportunity for us to be able to showcase our course on a national level.”

Players will get the chance to arrange a practice round on Thursday (June 15) for themselves, before the tournament begins, while Golf Canada will also be hosting an evaluation camp for 14-15-year-olds that morning.

The U19 event will begin at 7:30 each morning, with players typically going out as threesomes. There will also be a player meeting on Thursday evening before play begins.

Duchscherer is hopeful that everyone will come out and enjoy, and the club can impress enough to set up more high-calibre events for the future.

“I’m hoping that not only will we be able to give Golf Canada an opportunity to see our course and fall in love with it as we love it here already, but bring this event back in the future as well as perhaps have them consider the possibility of bringing a full national event like National Championships to our course,” he told northeastNOW.

“There’s a lot on the line for the players themselves as well, and it may even be an opportunity to showcase their talent for potential University golf or more opportunities to compete at a very high level, such as getting invited to become part of the national team for training purposes or competing on the national or even international level.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8