After fears that it wouldn’t happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Men’s Northern tournament went ahead as planned over this past weekend at the Cooke Municipal Golf Course.
As a result, the 100th straight edition of the event will go ahead as originally planned for 2021.
“It’s beyond words for us that everything was able to come together to make sure that we could keep that string going,” said Tom Wormworth, who is a co-chair for the event along with Martin Ring and Jeff McKeand.
“There are players that come here to Cooke every year and for us to reach 100 straight years of the tournament here next year means a lot.”
The 2021 edition of the Men’s Northern is currently slated to be held from July 31 to Aug. 1, with plans currently in the works to hold a celebration to honour what the tournament means to the facility.
“Next year will mark the 112th year that Cooke has been in operation and the Northern has played a huge part in that,” Ring said.
“The golf is always fantastic and the social side of the game is also a big part of the weekend. We’re looking at doing something to honour our past champions next year, which may include having them out to play some golf before the tournament itself. It will give them a chance to have some fun and to reminisce on what has taken place here over the years.”
A total of 104 golfers competed this past weekend, with Prince Albert’s Danny Klughart capturing his first title over Saskatoon’s Greg Swenson.
“We were hoping for 80 competitors and expecting 60 when we announced that the tournament was going to take place last month,” Wormworth said. “We were all ecstatic when we ended up with 104 golfers.
“I thought the entire weekend was fantastic,” Ring added. “We never ran into any issues weather-wise, all of the players showed up and the course conditions were excellent. It couldn’t have gone any better.”
