Over 90 years, the York Lake Golf and Country Club has been through good times and bad, and has gone through many changes over the decades. The course recently celebrated its anniversary, looking at its history while planning for the future.
Judy Hughes, President of the York Lake Golf and Country Club, believes that the anniversary is a credit to the generations of people who worked to keep the course going.
“It’s member driven and volunteer driven, and I think it’s a great symbol of what the city of Yorkton is like and the RM out here too, that we all work together and have excellent places to come and enjoy themselves.”
For Hughes, the highlights have been the work done on the course, including was the constant improvement over the preceding 90 years, going from sand to grass on tees and greens.
While the recent flooding on the course’s back nine has been a challenge for the course, Hughes also sees some good in that part of the course’s history, as people banded together to make it a nine-hole course and keep York Lake going.
“It signifies the dedication, passion and commitment that people have to not only the sport of golf, but the culture out here, being able to keep something alive that has been in the community for a long time.”
The anniversary celebration involved inexpensive golf with $9 green fees, something Hughes says they wanted to do because it’s a way to promote the game and get newcomers on the course. There was also a pictorial history of the course on display, documenting the people who made the course and the history of the game itself.
While celebrating the anniversary of the course, they have plans to keep people coming to York Lake. One is a renovation of three holes in order to make it an executive 12-hole golf course. The other is to try other forms of golf, with a foot-golf course getting worked on, using part of the back-nine. Hughes is excited about this development, because she hopes it will bring out a wide range of ages, as well as getting people on the back nine again and having the course more active and attractive to people passing by on the highway.
“That’s a good thing, so we can offer more activities to the community and area.”
