New team golf champions emerge

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The third annual First Nations Cup brought some of the best golfers from two provinces to play at the Ironhead Golf & Country Club in Wabamun this month.

The three-day, high-profile championship game took off Aug. 3. with 13 teams putting up a $2,000 entry fee and corporate sponsorship fee of $500 to play.

First place finishers Alexis First Nation took home $7,000 in prize money and the coveted trophy they took from last year's defending champions, the Blood First Nation.

The first year of the cup, 1999, Enoch First Nation won with seven teams participating. Last year eight teams played in the tournament.

Merv Kootenay, one of the organizers of this year's event and the originator of the idea for a tournament in the first place, is a member of the triumphant Alexis First Nation.

After seeing a lot of tournaments, Kootenay related, he figured there were enough Aboriginal golfers in the Western provinces to initiate a competition that pitted community against community "in the spirit of sportsmanship. I figured that would create a lot of excitement as far as competition goes." Each team was to have eight golfers and one alternate.

He added, "similar to the Dunhill Cup of the PGA tour. . . . The tournament was patterned after that, the Dunhill Cup."

"You play as a team, representing your community, and there's a bit of bragging rights I guess involved in it, trying to win the First Nations Cup.

That was the reason Kootenay wanted to initiate the cup challenge. He ran his idea past avid Enoch golfer Bruce Ward, who comes from a community of many golfers. Then he contacted the communities.

Co-organizers this year were Andy Fox and Willis Kootenay, with a lot of volunteer help, mostly from the families of the players.

Although a lot more reserves participated this year than in the first two years, Kootenay acknowledges they made one mistake this time when they set the date.

"We didn't realize that Ermineskin was having a tournament, that we were sort of competing with some golfers, and it wasn't surprising that they had to support their own golfers. Ermineskin couldn't come; Samson couldn't come-but they've been there in previous years. Next year, we'll be avoiding that date. That way they can participate in the tournament, because I know they have a lot of good golfers in the community and we want to try to raise the skill level of the tournament."

Kootenay said some communities are learning for themselves that they don't have a chance to win if they just bring their brothers or their cousins who like to golf.

"I advise the teams when I call them to bring their best eight."

It's not only winning a trophy and money that brings them out, Kootenay added.

"One of the reasons, too, was to promote the game itself in our communities."

He said at Alexis some of the young men who used to get "in mischief on the weekends" have now found a better way to spend their time in the game of golf.

At this year's tournament the youngest player, Percy Potts Jr., 17, "shot a 69 in the master play and beat his opponent by nine points. He was our number one ranked player. Basically he was our best player on the team. There's a lot of potential for him to go far, with the proper coaching."

Kootenay says they have a real need for high-calibre coaches. He notes that teams with an experienced coach in the form of their alternate player often have an edge.

With their sights set on 18 teams for next year's competition, it won't be long before some major players emerge. Kootenay sees a lot of potential in the likes of teenagers Mich Fox and Judd Blackwater from the Blood tribe.