The Women Fore Women Golf Tournament might be in only its fourth year of existence, but in that short amount of time, they’ve grown exponentially.
All one has to do is look at how many scholarships they’re planning to hand out later this summer for an idea.
After giving out two or three awards to young female athletes each year as funds were available, the plan is to hand out as many as five $3,000 scholarships this time around -- a product of the more than $13,000 the tournament raised in 2022.
Registration recently opened for the event, which takes place on Saturday, Aug. 19 at the Hillcrest Golf Club, and it hasn’t taken long for interest to grow once again.
“We were a little bit later getting things going and people are already calling to sign up’, so there’s certainly that interest there,” said tournament organizer Bev Barber. “This is our fourth year, so word has gotten out that this is a fun tournament and for a good cause, so it’s nice to see that kind of support.”
The initial stages of bringing things together are well underway, with members of the Hillcrest Ladies League gathering donations for the scholarship fund, prizes and whatever else is needed to make the day as fun and popular as years past.
“It’s a great group of ladies who work really hard to make this tournament a success every year,” Barber said.
A major part of the popularity is the fun format. Players take to the course in teams of two, playing six holes of scramble, six holes of alternate shot and six holes of best score. A hole-in-one could win a lucky golfer an XT4 Cadillac sponsored by Murray GM, and folks can also take a shot at the closest-to-the-pin, longest drive, longest putt and closest-to-the-line contests.
All proceeds go to the scholarship program, which gives awards to local female athletes moving on to post-secondary education. Three awards of $2,000 each were presented to Mya Viczko, Malea Kletzel and Summer Okerstrom last summer, but things are in such good shape both those numbers are expected to increase this time around.
Applications have appeared in droves, making the work of Deb Negraiff and her scholarship selection crew a little more difficult -- part of which is a product of the addition of the full Prairie South School Division and Holy Trinity School Division as scholarship-eligible.
“We have a lot of people who support our tournament or donate prizes and are from outlying communities, and Moose Jaw is a farming community, so we felt it made sense to include all those students, too,” Barber said.
The cost to register is $75 for members and $95 for non-members, which includes golf, a post-tournament meal and tons of prizes.
“It always amazes me every year how well it goes and how well it’s received,” Barber said. “I can’t say enough about the Hillcrest Ladies golf league and how they jump in and get to work and just do a fabulous job of making this tournament a success.”
To register and for more information, call the Hillcrest Golf Course at (306) 693-1921.
