A long-standing golf club said farewell to the fairways Friday afternoon.
The Riverside Golf Course at the Saskatchewan Hospital held a “Last of the Nine’s” tournament Friday to signify the closing of the course due to the imminent building of a new hospital.
The course has been a staple in the Battleford’s since the 1930’s, and hospital director Linda Shynkaruk says it was truly a sad day for everyone.
“I have had so many people tell me as kids they learned how to golf here,” she said. “They continue to golf here as adults and it’s maintained a connection to the community. Often times when I drive to work in the morning there are people already out golfing.”
She says the importance of the course runs through generations.
“There’s so many people that are connected whether through working here, had family members who worked here or had a family member or loved one as a resident here,” Shynkaruk said. “I think they want to support Saskatchewan Hospital. It’s a short golf course and, let’s face it, the rates were good.”
There was a barbeque at lunch for those who attended as well as draws for door prizes handed out. Many people were called up to the mic to give short speeches about what the course has meant for them and the community.
“It’s great to see so many people out to celebrate what is a bitter-sweet day,” said North Battleford mayor Ian Hamilton. “This truly is the end of an era. This course has been a feeder to the North Battleford golf clubs and many people who started here have moved on and gotten memberships elsewhere to continue to golf in North Battleford.”
Battleford deputy mayor Ames Leslie spoke about his personal memories from the course.
“I grew up on this golf course,” he said. “It was always easy for me to jump on my bike, throw my clubs on my back and come across. As an adult I really appreciated this course because it gave me lots of opportunities to come out with my kids and my wife. It’s been great for both communities.”
The nine-hole course has been a place where residents of the hospital could work and interact with golfers for years, something Leslie says made for good relationships.
“I think I bought my own golf ball, that I had lost that day, back from them countless times,” he said as everyone in attendance erupted in laughter.
Benjamin Christensen, board member with the Prairie North Health Region, was also called upon to recount some memories of his own.
“I think I’ve golfed on this course at some point over each of the past five decades,” he said. “And I think I was better five decades ago than I am now. I’m pleased that I was able to come today because this course holds so many memories for so many people, all good ones.”
Saskatchewan hospital CEO David Fan was in attendance, and echoed comments made by others.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better day to host this event,” he began. “As I walked the course today I fully came to realize how good the course is and how well taken care of it is by our staff and patients. It has, without question, served our patients and served our community very well. It is a loss to see it go. We tried hard to locate the facility somewhere else, but when you look at where the future location of the facility is, we need to keep our patients in mind. Looking back 100 years, whoever made the decision to build the hospital in this location must have known something. I’d like to think carrying on that legacy is the right thing to do. I would like to encourage you not to think of this as an end of an era, but to celebrate our achievements and contributions to mental health in this province over the last 100 years and also look forward to the next 100 years and all the good things that will come out of it. I think it takes good people with good hearts to do the kinds of things Linda does everyday, so I want to thank you for putting together this event.”
Before sending everyone off to gather their teams and hit the course, Shynkaruk once again thanked everyone for attending, saying a tearful farewell to the golf course that has had such an impact on the Battlefords for over 80 years.
