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Juniors come up big for River' s Edge

A cutting edge junior program has an Okotoks golf club dominating a youth circuit. River’s Edge Golf Course won the Foothills Junior Interclub championship last week in Calgary for the second consecutive year and for the third time in four years.
The River’ s Edge junior squad won the Foothills Junior Interclub Tour Championship Aug. 30 at McKenzie Meadows in Calgary. The club also won the overall title. The
The River’ s Edge junior squad won the Foothills Junior Interclub Tour Championship Aug. 30 at McKenzie Meadows in Calgary. The club also won the overall title. The River’ s Edge team at McKenzie is, from left, Lucy Urban, Dillon Beebe, Christian Hansen and Ty Merkel.

A cutting edge junior program has an Okotoks golf club dominating a youth circuit.

River’s Edge Golf Course won the Foothills Junior Interclub championship last week in Calgary for the second consecutive year and for the third time in four years.

“We have a lot of good junior golfers at River’s Edge who are pretty consistent golfers,” said 14-year-old Dillon Beebe. “It makes it a lot easier when you have consistent play and consistent players when we show up.

“We don’t have any weak links when we play.”

The interclub league has four juniors playing from the respective eight clubs in the South division playing each of eight tournaments throughout the season.

The Okotoks club not only won the one-day Tour Championship on Aug. 30 at McKenzie Meadows in Calgary (which encompassed the seven northern teams as well), it also had enough points throughout the season to take the overall title.

Beebe said he was confident going in to the Tour championship that River’s Edge had enough of a lead it would claim the overall title.

It put an exclamation on the title when the foursome of River’s Edge junior champion Ty Merkel, Lucy Urban, Christian Hansen and Beebe won the Tour championship.

It’s not a coincidence.

“River’s Edge treats the juniors so well, it’s hard not to love it as a junior golfer,” said Beebe, who was the top River’s Edge player when the course hosted the recent Alberta Bantam championship. “We have so many good juniors to choose from, we always have a good team when we go to the tournaments.”

The 13 junior players at River’s Edge were rotated on the team throughout the season. Beebe played in just three of the eight tourneys, despite being one of the top juniors at River’s Edge.

Beebe said he has taken lessons from head pro Kim Wilkowich, but as well more than an odd time one of the professionals — including Holy Trinity Academy grad Curtis Doyle — will join him for a hole or two to offer tips.

Urban, River’s Edge’s top girl at the Bantam championship, shot an 88 at the Tour final at McKenzie.

“I had a good feeling that we were going to win,” Urban said. “We are all really good junior players and that helped us a bit.”

Urban was one of the girls who took part of the Big Mammas program at River’s Edge.

The Big Mammas group is from the River’s Edge ladies league, which donates funds to provide lessons for junior girls through golf pros Kim Wilkowich and Shane Crampton.

The golf club puts an emphasis on the junior program.

“We have 81 kids come out every Monday for a junior league and we have a waiting list,” Wilkowich said.

Hansen is part of the junior league and he said it has not only improved his golf, but has fueled his enthusiasm.

“The pro (Wilkowich) asked me if I wanted to do it and it has been a lot of fun,” Hansen said. “I’m learning, meeting new people and I’m still golfing which is great.

“It got me more interested in golf.”

River’s Edge won the South and overall year title with 3,560 points; Priddis Greens was second at 3,280 while High River’s Highwood Golf Course was third at 3,180.

The Lynx Ridge Golf Course won the north division. The low gross golfer at the Tour Championship was Highwood’s Chris Allan at 72.

The other golfers on the River’s Edge team throughout the year were Rhiley Quinn, Zach Beaver, Nolan Edwards, Dan Lindman, Michael Peloso, Ryan Whittrock, Spencer Sauerwein, Kaden Whaley and Lucas Ortega Danson.

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