Pictured above: The par-3 7th on the Creekside nine is Trestle Creek’s signature hole

A three-events-in-three-days swing in and around the Edmonton area came to a conclusion today at Trestle Creek Golf and RV Resort, about 45 minutes west of the Edmonton city limits near Entwistle. Trestle Creek is rapidly maturing into one of the top tests in the Edmonton area, as evidenced by their hosting of the 2019 Alberta Open Championship presented by SVR Lawyers earlier this summer. We didn’t play the course quite as long as the top Alberta amateur and professionals did in June, but this is just more evidence of the quality of the courses we have on the McLennan Ross Alberta Junior Tour.

Devin Kucy followed up his win yesterday at the Edmonton Petroleum G&CC by firing an excellent round of even-par 72 this morning to go back-to-back. Kucy’s effort today throws his name into the hat for consideration for Player of the Year as this was Devin’s third win of the 2019 schedule (Carstairs, Edmonton Pete Club). Rory Wutzke of Camrose was runner-up, three strokes back with a 75, with Mitch Desjarlais of Broadmoor completing the podium with a 76, good for third place.

The Tour Championship is coming up two weeks from tomorrow at Wolf Creek and competition for spots to qualify is really heating up. At this point in the season, there are often quite a few players in events that have PQ’d (previously qualified), so sometimes we need to go a few spots down the table to find the players who earn the spots available at each tournament. But this doesn’t dampen the enthusiasm of these youngsters who do earn their spots in the process.

Today, we had a three-way tie for qualifying spots in the flight for boys born in 2000-2002. Owen Chamberland of Whitecourt, Brady Davidson of Stony Plain, and Dymon Skalski of Cougar Creek all punched their tickets to Wolf Creek with an 88, as the top six finishers in their flight had all qualified earlier in the year. Brody Theophile of Stony also snagged a spot out of the flight for boys born in 2003-04 with his 86. Zoe Banack of Edson was the only girl on hand today, but she used the opportunity to test her game from the white tees instead of the reds, shot a fine 85, qualified for Wolf Creek, and beat the two boys in her group handily!

But the nicest story of the day for qualifiers came out of the flight for boys born in 2005 and later.

Before we started out this morning while we were waiting for the fog to lift, 12-year-old Peter Hlushak of Stony Plain came up to me and said that he and a friend had been going over their scorecards last night from yesterday’s tournament at the Edmonton Petroleum Club. During their review, Peter realized that he has signed for a 6 on one hole when in fact he had made a 7, and he wanted to know if he was going to be disqualified from yesterday’s event. He said he didn’t win any prizes and in fact had finished last in his age group at the Pete Club, but he still wanted to ‘come clean’. I told him I was going to give him a 5-minute suspension from the Tour, and to go out there today and have a great round and that I really appreciated his honesty. I could see some parents nearby listening to this conversation and you could tell how proud these OTHER parents were of this youngster’s character.

Well, karma can be something at times. Today, Peter went out and cruised around in 78 shots on one of the tougher golf courses on the Tour, won his age group, and qualified for Wolf Creek in the process. Mic drop right here, please!

Next up on Tour is the Stony Plain Junior Open on Monday, with a 2 pm shotgun start. We have confirmed with the club that entries have been coming up thick and fast and we are looking for a big field on Monday afternoon as the 2019 Tour schedule goes into the home stretch.

Barrhead on Wednesday and Black Bull on Thursday complete next week’s schedule. If you are going to compete in any or all of these tournaments, please call the courses as soon as possible to enter.

Boys Born in 2000-02
1. Devin Kucy Camrose 72 PQ
2. Mitch Desjarlais Broadmoor 75 PQ
3. Chase Bodoano Broadmoor 77 PQ
4. Erik Bouck Camrose 78 PQ
5. Mason Kucy Camrose 79 PQ
6. Jarrett Bossert Broadmoor 82 PQ

Boys Born in 2003-04
1. Rory Wutzke Camrose 75 PQ
T2. Reid Casavant Westlock 79 PQ
T2. Blake Reimer Windermere 79 PQ
4. Brody Theophile Stony Plain 86 Q
5. Noah Stefanic RedTail Landing 97

Boys Born in 2005 and Later
1. Peter Hlushak Stony Plain 78 Q
2. Scott Levey Belvedere 80 PQ
3. Ryan Garbutt Windermere 86 PQ
4. Ryan Zhang Windermere 88 WC
5. Matt Mayowski Drayton Valley 89
6. Daniel Boyle Derrick 98
7. Kian Switzer Edson 108

Girls
1. Zoe Banack Edson 85

Devin Kucy of Camrose goes back to back! Devin shot 72 today at Trestle Creek. Zoe Back of Edson was low junior girl with an 85. Congrats to both. pic.twitter.com/4Ysv93LajT

— Alberta Junior Tour (@ABJuniorTour) August 8, 2019