Just A Gal From Glidden: A right turn instead of a left
By Kate Winquist
Every day, I have the pleasure of driving by the Kindersley Regional Park Golf Course on my way to work.
I golfed it once, probably in the late 1980s, before I actually knew how to golf. Not that you'd know it now, but once upon a time, I was actually a respectable golfer. I was even president of the Rock Creek Ladies Golf Club in Shaunavon back in the late 1990s. Or was it the early 2000s? It's been so long that I can't even remember.
I started golfing for the pure social aspect of it. I figured if I could hit a fastball, surely I would be able to smack a golf ball. The only problem was that I swung my Canadian Tire clubs the same way I swung a baseball bat. Friends tried to teach me a proper stance, but I'm not sure I ever really got the hang of it. Old habits die hard.
Cart talk. Liz Spetz, left, and Lisa Schmit share a laugh from the cart during the 2010 Boomtown Ladies Best Ball Tournament at Rock Creek Golf Club in Shaunavon. The pair rounded out a foursome that measured the day in laughs more than strokes, with a few side debates over mini-golf and cribbage left unsettled.
Close, but no. A long putt from yours truly, slides past the cup at Rock Creek Golf Club in Shaunavon during the 2010 tournament.
Boomtown on the horizon. Shaunavon rises in the distance, grain elevators and all, seen from the old hole 9 tee box at Rock Creek Golf Club in 2010. Course upgrades have since reshuffled the layout, but the southwest Saskatchewan view is hard to beat.
Being a farm gal and a fastball player, I built up some pretty good upper-body strength in my younger days, so I could drive a golf ball surprisingly well. My short game was another story. My putting could be either really, really good, thanks to years of mini-golf practice, or really, really bad. There didn't seem to be much middle ground.
Rock Creek in Shaunavon was a nine-hole grass-green course and, if memory serves me correctly, a par 36. A good day for me was somewhere in the 48-to-52 range. Most days were probably a little higher than that. But on one glorious occasion, and yes, only once, I shot a 40.
I was on fire.
The drives were long and straight. The pitching wedge actually listened to me. The putter behaved itself. Everything clicked, and for one afternoon I briefly entertained the notion that perhaps I was destined for golfing greatness.
That notion didn't last long.
One of my favourite golf memories came years later when Winquist Ventures sponsored the Boomtown Ladies Best Ball tournament. I believe it was around 2009 or 2010. I even convinced a couple of Kindersley golfers to make the trip down to Shaunavon and join in the fun. It was less about the scorecards and more about the laughter, the friendships and the stories that seemed to grow with every hole and every beverage consumed.
Looking back, that's probably what golf was really about for me all along.
These days, those golfing years feel like a distant memory. My old Canadian Tire clubs were eventually upgraded thanks to a Christmas gift from Robert, but the newer clubs spend most of their time in the shed collecting dust. I haven't golfed in years, probably not since I moved away from Shaunavon in 2012.
Every so often, I'll see golfers out on the course and think to myself that I should get out more. Lord knows I could use the exercise. Then I think about the fresh air, the sunshine, the socializing and the simple pleasure of spending a couple of hours outdoors instead of staring at a computer screen.
Maybe it's time.
Maybe those clubs deserve a good cleaning.
Maybe the golf shoes still fit.
And maybe, just maybe, the next time I'm driving home along Ditson Drive on a Tuesday evening, I'll make a right turn into the Kindersley Regional Park Golf Course instead of a left turn toward home.
If nothing else, it might be fun to find out whether that one-round wonder who shot a 40 all those years ago still has a little bit of magic left in her.