Horns golf team hosting tournament
By Lethbridge Herald on September 19, 2020.
Dale Woodard
Lethbridge Herald
The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns golf team is teeing it up this weekend.
The Horns are hitting the links for the University of Lethbridge Invitational Sunday and Monday at Paradise Canyon Golf Resort, the first time the event will be hosted there since 2014.
With golf the lone Canada West fall sport due to COVID-19, the Pronghorns are looking forward to getting some swings at the two-day, 36-hole stroke play event.
“We are so happy,” said Pronghorns golf coach Dallas Ducheminsky, whose teams was supposed to host the U of L Invitational last year at the Lethbridge Country Club before it was cancelled due to inclement weather. “My returning players were texted and calling me all summer wondering if we were going to be going or not.”
The tournament will also feature the Calgary Dinos. The Alberta Golden Bears have pulled out of the tournament.
Following the U of L Invitational the Pronghorns will head to Calgary Sept. 27-28. The Canada West Championship is slated for Oct. 2-4 in Kelowna.
The Pronghorn men’s side has seven of the 12 players returning from last season, including Noah Huston, Mark Mercier and Michael McDougall, who finished top-three in the men’s tryouts only two weeks ago at Henderson Lake Golf Course.
Huston finished first at the tryouts with rounds of 72 and 73. Mercier was two shots back, while McDougall-Price was third with rounds of 79 and 72.
“He was one of our top guys last year, too,” said Ducheminsky of Huston. “So he’s made a big improvement this year and we think he’s going to do well.”
Mercier is the Horns most-tenured player, said Ducheminsky.
“We’re expecting some really good things out him. He’s a really strong player.”
On the women’s side, the Pronghorns will field a team of three. Takara Mikado and Vanessa Wilson return from last season, while Sophia Makela will make her Pronghorn debut.
“We’re looking pretty good,” said Ducheminsky. “Our players performed really well at tryouts. We had some pretty strong scores this year compared to what we’ve seen over the last two or three (years). We’ve got three guys that the way they scored in tryouts should be going in strong for the next two weeks going into Kelowna. We have another three or four that are fighting for those last two spots in the top-five. It’s fairly close.”
Teams send five players to the Canada West and National Championships.
“In each round you score the top-four. There’s an individual competition and a team competition as well,” said Ducheminsky.
Tee times are 2 p.m. on Sunday and 11:30 a.m. on Monday
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