It will be a busy couple of days next week for the Hillcrest Golf Club, as their course will be used for tryouts for the first-ever University of Regina varsity golf team.
Around 13 golfers will be fighting for 10 spots (5 men and 5 women) on Monday and Tuesday to try and crack the Cougars roster. Those who registered will be split up into teams and will tee off around 10:05 am each day.
Jasmine Cameron is the General Manager of the Hillcrest and says the course is the best facility to hold these tryouts.
“It’s one of our best years with our course in regards to how it plays, our greens are quick, they are running at a 10,” says Cameron. Everything is well maintained and we’ve just been lucky enough that the weather has cooperated where our facilities are beautiful this year.”
Chris Knoop is the President of the club and advocated on behalf of the Hillcrest to have the U of R choose their facility for the tryouts. She hopes that this opportunity could grow into more partnerships with the university.
This will be the first crack at a varsity golf team for the U of R, and Alison Fisher the Coordinator for the Student and Youth Program says that this all started from a student.
“If students want to create a competitive club with a national or regional championship, they come to me and say hey let’s start a golf team,” says Fisher. “Luke who’s sitting with me today (Friday) came to me and asked if we could start a golf team. We started working on it in January and it’s nice to see it come to fruition with tryouts starting on Monday.”
Fisher adds that the coaching staff will evaluate the players based on their scores throughout the two-day tryout.
“The best scores will make the team.”
Following day one of the tryouts, those with the best scores will be grouped together, with the lower scores assigned to a group for day two. If there is a tie between players on the bubble, a further evaluation will take place at tournaments in September.
Once the squad is finalized, they will be taking part in three tune-up tournaments hosted by Canada West Universities. The first being on Sept. 10-11 at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, the University of Lethbridge on Sept. 18-19, and then the University of Calgary on Sept. 25-26.
These three tournaments will prepare them for their first Canada West Championship appearance in Victoria, BC, on Oct. 3-4.