Bigger was indeed better for the second annual Brian Maunula Memorial Junior Golf Tournament.
After raising $18,000 and having 48 golfers take to the Rustic Nine Golf Course a year ago, Sunday’s tournament saw 60 golfers between the ages of four and 14 out on the links and a total of $25,429 raised for the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation.
“Everything has gone perfectly well,” tournament organizer Jaime Maunula said.
“The weather has co-operated and we had amazing amount of funds that came in from the pledges and raffle tickets, so we couldn’t be happier with how the day went.”
With a strong turnout last year, it was decided to bump up the number of participants up to 60 and have shotgun starts running from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
“We found a year ago that we were way ahead of schedule with the two hour course times, so we bumped that up to 90 minutes and added another flight to accommodate more golfers,” Maunula said.
“It’s a family tournament so that’s why we went with the age group that we did. We had some kids that were four years old last year, so we wanted them to take part, and we felt like if they were older than 14 they might have more experience than others in a junior tournament.”
Cruz Harrison was the top individual fundraiser as he brought in $1,980 in donations, while Kix Sankey and Zander Ryan raised $1,716 and $1,504 each.
Sankey had the best scored in the 4-7 division with a round of 42, Nate Poole led the way in the 8-11 category with a round of 34 and Kaleb Woodworth had the best round of the day as his 34 led the 12-14 division.
Given how successful the day went, plans are already in the works for next year’s tournament.
“We had a waiting list for this year, so we might expand the number of golfers further if it works out well with the time that we have on the course,” Maunula said.
For more information on the Brian Maunula Memorial Junior Golf Tournament, contact Jaime Maunula at 306-480-8770 or Amanda Maunula at 306-441-1159.
