Pay less for Green Fees with Tee-Off Golf Guide!

The Tee-Off Frequent Player Program is the most respected golf discount program in Canada. For $39.95, order the 2007 edition of Tee Off for B.C. OR Manitoba and Saskatchewan. If you're like the average golfer you'll pay for Tee-Off with just one or two uses and continue saving hundreds of dollars throughout the season. MORE>>

Around Saskatchewan Links

Mike Bokitch, former longtime manager of White Bear, is the new general manager at Golf Kenosee...Mike Hayes is the new general manager at Elk Ridge at Waskesiu and Debby Klarenbach, the vice-president of development and asset management...At Aspen Links Country Club at White City, Ken Kukurudz is the new general manager and Dale Coulther, director of golf operations...

2008 Tourney schedule

The Saskatchewan Golf Association has announced its 2008 tournament schedule:

• Saskatchewan Women’s and Men’s Mid Amateur, Melfort Golf and Country Club, July 8-11
• SGI Canada Saskatchewan Junior Women’s and Men’s, Lloydminster Golf and Country Club, July 15-18
• Saskatchewan Amateur Men’s Championship, Royal Regina, July 22-25
• Saskatchewan Senior Women’s and Men’s, Hillcrest in Moose Jaw, July 29-31
• Saskatchewan Women’s Rosebowl, Katepwa Golf Club, Aug. 6-7
• Saskatchewan Mixed Team, Jackfish Golf Resort at Cochin, Aug. 23-24

	What's the greatest sin in golf? Cheating? Not raking a sandtrap? Sandbagging? Cursing? Talking on your cell phone? Putting out of turn? Talking too much? Not replacing your divot? View results

Thomson Lake brothers make their mark

If you're wondering about the future of golf in Saskatchewa, look no further than than 14-year-old Patrick Sanchez Mitchell and his 16-year-old brother Bobby of Lafleche and Mazatlan, Mexico.

While both boys were born in Mexico, they both have dual citizenship and live in Canada during the summer months were the plan out of the Thomson Lake Golf Course. Both are top students and are bilingual.

"One of the principal reasons we encoursge golf, is the formaion they receive for life," says their mother Judy Mitchell, who runs a software company with her husband Roberto Sanchez. The couple live on a golf course and regulalrly play and school the boys in golf. "The learn to demand from themselves, make their own decisions, to discipline themselves and live with their mistakes, while trying to learn from and overcome them."

Both boys have been playing for about eight years and competitively for aout five. They've played in tournaments in Canada, U.S. and Mexico. They each have two hole-in-ones and they play from the back tees.

In 2007, Patrick attended the Callaway World Juniors in San Diego, the Optimist International in Florida and a Junior World Challenge in Chicago. Bobby attended various Saskatchewan Golf Association tournaments, placing second in the Optimist tournament and going on to place third in the national Optimist tourney in Ingersoll, Ont. This has gained him entry in the Optimist World this summer in Florida.

They play in a junior tour in Mexico during the winter, but both are already looking over their summer schedule in Saskatchewan and planning their summer tour. Both idolise Tiger Woods - and with their all-time most wins on the PGA Tour at 32, who doesn't.

"I'd like to qualify for some of the big summer torunaments and later on try to get a university scholarship for golf," says Patrick. "I love the personal challenge and the chnce to get beter and the competition." Last year, he ranked best 13-yar-old in Mexico. In 2006, he won the Saskatchewan Golf Associaition's 12-and-under title shooting rounds of 77, 77 and 81 at the Willows Club in Saskatoon.

The Perfect Drive Debuts

"The Perfect Drive, a new TV series on Saskatchewan golf courses, will premiere in March. The series will feaure 2 courses in Saskatchewan and Alberta and within each episode the host Brad Grass will play three or four holes with the club pro.

"All of us who love to play golf have got in our vehicles with our family or friends and travelled to new or favourite courses for a day or a week," says Dennis Hrapchak, executive producer of Juxtapose Productions, a Saskatoon-based film production company." "That's what this series is all about - discovering those hidden gems."

Host Grass will be asking each club pro what makes the course unique, about recent or planned upgrades, and what golfers are in for at the course when they come to play.

Viewers will also be given an opportunity to improve their game and learn about new products on the market through segments featuring tips and information aout equipment, etiquette and so on.

From Nipawin to North Battleford, from Saskatchewan Landing to Last Oak, and various Alberta locations, golfers will get a good feel for what the course and the area has to offer.

"The Perfect Drive" premieres on SCN March 31 at 7 p.m. with several rebroadcasts. For further info, email dennis@juxtaposeproductions.com A public premiere will be held at Riverside Golf and Country Club in Saskatoon on Thursday, Mar. 27.

Spring has sprung on Vancouver Island!

Only on Vancouver Island can you play golf year round in Canada, and now through March 31st take advantage of the very best prices of the year! The temperatures are mild, they are already mowing their lawns and the golf balls are flying!

Westjet offers service to both ends of the Vancouver Island Golf Trail, with service from Saskatoon or Regina to Victoria or Comox! It is just over 3 Westjet hours to the green so you can even fly and golf on the same day!

Victoria Golf Getaways, including 2 nights and 3 rounds of golf - Bear Mountain, Olympic View and Arbutus Ridge, including a cart start at just $245 per person! Comox Golf Getaways including 2 nights & 2 rounds of golf - Crown Isle and Storey Creek, including a cart start at just $210 per person! Stay for a week and golf the Vancouver Island Golf Trail including 6 nights & 6 rounds from $575 per person. Or Golf & Ski from $239 pp until March 31st, including 2 nights in a luxurious villa at Crown Isle, a day of golf, and a day of skiing. Check out GOLF VANCOUVER ISLAND SPRING SPECIALS

If a golf getaway sounding great however you are feeling a little rusty after the winter, you are invited to tune up your golf swing for the season on Vancouver Island. The Vancouver Island Golf Trail offers both indoor & outdoor golf facilities to rev up for a new season! Olympic View Golf Club near Victoria hosts the award winning GBC Golf Academy, home to two award-winning PGA teaching professionals: John Randle, Director of Instruction and his wife Lori Randle. There is also a Golf BC Academy at Arbutus Ridge in Cobble Hill and The Golf Academy at Morningstar in Parksville offers instruction in your choice of their outdoor practice area or heated, indoor facility. VANCOUVER ISLAND GOLF ACADEMIES

Are you ready to getaway to the green? Golf Vancouver Island is your "one-stop shop" for Vancouver Island golf getaways and vacations. From flights, rental car and ferry reservations to tee times, accommodations and even après golf activities, they take care of it all! Golf Vancouver Island is "golf-course owned & operated" thereby providing you, the golfer, with both convenience and competitive pricing. Please visit their website for further information on golf courses, packages, instant quotes, transportation, golf tips, photo galleries, and much more! GOLFVANCOUVERISLAND.CA

Q-Ray fined up to $87 Million

While many golfers in Canada and the United States swear by the Q-Ray bracelet, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission says their claims about pain relief and its scientific tests are misleading and false. The federal district court in Chicago ruled in September 2006 for the Federal Trade Commission in its case against the marketers of the Q-Ray ionized bracelet. An appeal of the FTC vs. Q-Ray verdict was heard in U.S. court on Oct. 31, 2007 and is awaiting decision. MORE

Golf is still Number 1!

A new Statistics Canada report says that golf continues to be the most popular sport in Canada.

According to the study, about 1.5 million Canadians played golf in 2005, outpacing the 1.3 million people who played hockey that year. Golf replaced hockey as the country's number one sport starting in 1998.

The Statistics Canada study reports that less than 3 out of 10 Canadians, aged 15 or older, particpated in at least one sport in 2005. This is down dramatically since the 1990s.

In 2005, 7.3 million played at least one sport, compared to 9.6 million in 1992. After golf and hockey, the most popular sports are swimming, soccer, basketball, mbaseball and volleyball. With sports TV watching jumping, it seems more Canadians are enjoying sports from the comfort of their living rooms and couches.

Shakeup in Saskatoon

Greenbryre Golf and Country Club has been sold to developer Mini-Mansion Homes but will continue to run as an 18-hole course in 2008 or longer. The course is making major upgrades in 2008: the clubhouse is being renovated, the maintenance budget is increased, 60 new power carts have been purchased, beverage carts will be available on course, and a tournament station will be added.

In addition, the Saskatoon Golf and Country Club has sold 54.1 acres of land on the north side of the CNR Mainline to Remai Ventures Ltd. The existing Saskatoon Golf and Country Club (West Course) will be redeveloped and converted from an 18 to a private new nine holes. It will include a practice facility, short range, driving range and a three-hole practice. MORE

Two high profile tourneys planned

You may want to considerwatching or playing in a couple of high profile tournaments scheduled for Saskatchewan this summer.

For the first time, the Canadian Tour makes a stop in Saskatoon June 30 to July 6.

Some of the most recognized names in professional golf have competed on the Canadian Tour, including 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir, a seven-time PGA Tour champion who has won more money on the circuit than any other Canadian in history. Weir, a native of Bright's Grove, Ont., won Canadian Rookie of the Year honours in 1993 before winning the Canadian Tour money crown four years later thanks to victories at the Canadian Masters and BC Tel Pacific Open.

But Weir is certainly not the only Canadian Tour member that has moved on to a brilliant career on the PGA Tour. Chris DiMarco, Stuart Appleby, Steve Stricker, Todd Hamilton, Michael Campbell, Dave Barr, Ian Leggatt and Dan Halldorson are just a few of the PGA Tour champions that have used the Canadian Tour as a launching pad.

Through October 2005, the top 25 Canadian Tour graduates had amassed more than $180 million US with more than 50 wins on the PGA Tour. www.cantour.com and www.ontgolf.ca/g4g/2008/02/14/state-of-the-canadian-tour/

Meanwhile, a unique venue in Regina at Tor Hill Golf and Country Club is holding its second annual Mens Publinx Championship June 21-22.

The tournament is modelled after Publinx tournaments that have been held in the United States since 1922 wich allow a competitive venue for amateurs that did not have membership privileges at cubs or courses. Once a showcase for plumbers and bus drivers, the event is now the domain of long-hitting college players who compete for a silver cup, a list of exemptions from qualifying for other USGA championships, and a traditional invitation to play in the Masters.

The Saskatchewan event has been added to the SGA Order of Merit competition and a financial donation is made to the Saskatchewan Golf Associaition for player development. The tournament, modeled after other SGA events, was promoted and supported by Tor Hill head pro Scott Knapp.

"Public golf has always been good to me and I want to give something back to the game and offer greater support for the public player," says Knapp.

455 discounts available!

The Lung Association of Saskatchewan has produced an annual golf discount book since 1996. The number of participating Saskatchewan courses has grown from the original 36 to a whopping 131! Offers vary by course and include free and reduced green fees (2/1 and 4/3 etc.), free or discounted golf carts and 2/1 range balls. www.saveongolf.ca

The Perfect Storm

Every so often the planets line up and something incredible happens. You win a lottery prize.You bump into someone famous.You remember to clip your toenails. Do you recall in the movie, when conditions made it possible for the perfect storm to occur? Obviously, in golf, too, amazing things can happen if conditions are right, if all the elements converge in the "perfect" way.

For most golfers, the career round is the most common manifestation of this. Ask any golfer about their career low round and they'll vividly remember the details: the weather was pristine, course conditions were impeccable, the hole seemed a foot wide, they never got caught cheating, the beverage cart magically appeared at just the right time, etc. All the desired elements were present and produced a magical day.

But then, just as there is a career round in a "good" way, there can also be a career round in a "bad" way. For me, just last week, that's exactly what happened. I have never, and I mean never, played so poorly, so utterly unimpressively, in the history of my career. After adding up my score, I retched all over the scorecard.

Coming home from the course - after my brother-in-law failed to foil a number of reckless and totally juvenile attempts to inflict pain on myself (wooden pepper mills, when smashed against the skull, leave splinters) - I realized that a number of things, ok, quite a few things, had been working against me that day. Here, then, are the elements that "magically" came together to produce a score so obscene, so disgustingly high, I could have hit it 20 fewer times and still been disappointed with the number. (And that's as close as I'll get to divulging the number).

1. I had slept less than 8 hours in the previous three nights combined. Getting enough zzz's, they tell me, is important for performance.

2. I had been doing some major tinkering with my swing. No, I didn't switch to left-handed, but, in hindsight, it may have worked better.

3. The halfway hut was closed and there was no cart girl on duty. Nae food, nae drink, nae golf.

4. I really had no desire to be on the golf course. I don't know about you, but some days I feel like I'd rather be on the lake fishing or on the beach working on my sunburn. This was one of those days.

5. From the opening tee shot, which was a weak pop-up into the right rough, I just didn't give a rat's behind what happened. "Lethargy" is never your friend on the golf course.

6. Just for !&#@'s and giggles I tried to play numerous shots that I never in a trillion years could have pulled off. If there was one thing I learned from this round, it's that I don't have the high-flying 340-yard cut 3-wood shot that kicks hard left and stops in a landing area the size of a doughnut. But I do have the head-high wedge that zings over the green and lodges into a pine tree.

7. My spine felt like a fault line that had cracked and shifted. Rarely do I suffer from neck and back pain, but this day I felt like $1.24.

8. My loser brother-in-law insisted we play from the tips - and the course was set up nasty. Why, exactly, do they make golf courses that are 9 million yards long?

So, to some untrained eyes, these may appear to be lame excuses as to why the round was a complete train wreck. And, in fairness to the simpletons who feel that way, there's probably an inkling of truth to that. However, in my eyes, I was churning about, being tossed to and fro, in "The Perfect Storm."

Andrew Penner writers for a number of golf publications across North America. Reach him at andpenner@shaw.ca

The best of the best

The Best New Canadian golf courses are the Muskoka Bay Club in Gravenhurst, Ont., Coppinwood in Goodwood, Ont. and Humber Valley Resort in Humber Valley, Nfld., according to Golf Digest. Check them out at www.muskakobay.com www.coppinwood.com and www.humbervalley.com. Last year, Dakota Dunes near Saskatoon was chosen as the Best New Canadian Course.

We prefer golf

The PGA raises more money in one year for charity that the NFL does in two. You can watch the best golfers in the world at any tournament, all day, for $25-$30. Even in the nosebleed section, a ticket to the Superbowl will cost up to $1,000 from a scalper. In golf you cannot fail 70 per cent of the time and make $9 million a season, like the best baseball players do with a batting average of .300.

Relief for arthritis

If you are old or young and suffer from arthritis, there is relief. Use graphite shafts to dampen the shock of impact. Use arthritic grips that are larger in diameter or special modified grips. Use cast instead of forged for your irons.

Spare cash?

If you've struck it rich in the oil patch or stock market take marking your ball to another level. Instead of a penny, consider a diamond encrusted ball marker from TriMark Executive for the princely sum of $10,500. www.trimarkgolf.com

Better still, commission your own Jack Nicklaus golf course like billionaire Craig McCaw. The telecommunications whiz is selling his 780-acre refuge in Central Saanich on Vancouver Island, complete with an 18-hole Nicklaus course, for a cool $50 million. No problem getting a tee time for two. If Nicklaus is too pricey for your pocketbook, contact www.myprivategolf.com

Amen Corner

“In golf, if we hit a foul ball, we got to go out and play it.”

- Sam Snead to baseball hall-of-famer Ted Williams

WIN a round with free golf cart at Rocanville Town & Country Golf Club!

Tell us what Rocanville is famous for - beside its golf course - and we'll send you a free golf certificate. The pass is good for nine holes, with one free golf cart rental and 2 free 9-hole rounds. Send your answer to Stan@SaskGolfer.com by end March. Good Luck!