Hay River and Fort Smith do battle for scholastic golf supremacy

Fresh off the NWT Track and Field Championships, you’d think the school sports season in the NWT would be over for 2023-24.

Well, not exactly because there was one more event to be done and it was one which had been at least four years in the making.

Diamond Jenness Secondary School and PWK High School from Fort Smith did battle on the links at the Hay River Golf Club on June 14 in what was termed the ‘unofficial’ NWT School Golf Championship. In the end, PWK would emerge victorious.

PWK coach Allie McDonald said winning is always exciting, but just being out on the course was the big achievement.

“I think we were more happy with the turnout we had,” she said. “We had 15 kids here in Fort Smith out practicing and 12 of them were able to make the trip up to Hay River, so it was a great day out.”

The format saw 18 holes played – twice around the course – with one point awarded for each match win. It was split into two types of play with two-ball best ball the first one for the players to tackle. The two best scores among the team members are recorded and count as the scores for the whole team for that hole. After the round is completed, the scores are added up and the total will represent the score posted by that team. That solved nothing as both teams ended up tied

The second part of it was four-ball, where groups of four played and all scores kept. That was where PWK came through as they ended up winning it outright and did so in some style.

“One of our teams ended up shooting 36 over the nine holes, even par,’ said McDonald.

Even in defeat Diamond Jenness coach JJ Hirst said it was just good to see the kids come out and play golf.

“It was just good to see the kids out there and having a good time playing golf,” he said. “It was great that we were finally able to host this. I really enjoyed playing these types of tournaments when I was in high school and I’m hoping more kids will get out and play and we can have bigger teams.”

Having the format the way it was took a lot of pressure off of the players, especially the new ones, he added.

“It allowed to focus on making good shots,” he said.

The original idea was to hold this tournament back in 2020 in a home-and-home format with the Pelican Rapids Golf and Country Club hosting the first leg, but the pandemic put the kybosh on that as it did in 2021 as well. 2022 saw the floods in Hay River and the hope was to get going in September 2023. Then came the wildfires and evacuations. Luckily, conditions were good enough to host the Hay River leg this year and the plan is to have Fort Smith back on track for this coming September.

“I’m hopeful we can get to host it,” said McDonald. “I know the kids are looking forward to it.”