Yes, there was still golf being played by Yellowknifers in November. No, it didn’t happen in Yellowknife, but wouldn’t that be funny if it did?
And it was exactly the group you’re thinking of that was in Las Vegas earlier this month.
A cadre of 17 from the Yellowknife chapter of the Mediocre Golf Association hit the road for Sin City to play at the MGA World Championship. The attendance from the capital was the largest contingent to ever grace the greens in Nevada; last year’s compliment of 16 was the largest, according to Shaun Morris, the chapter’s president.
“We were supposed to have 17 last year, but we had one drop out before we left,” he said.
The event is split into two separate tournaments: the main event itself for the big yellow championship belt and the Born Hairy, which is the MGA’s play on the Korn Ferry Tour, the PGA Tour’s top development circuit. The event a player qualified for depended on how they did this past season.
To qualify for the main event, players from any chapter had to have either won a tournament at home or finished in the top 10 on the chapter’s money list. There’s always a maximum of 288 players who can enter the main event. For those who didn’t make it, that’s where the Born Hairy comes in. That’s for everyone else who’s a chapter member, but doesn’t meet the criteria for the main event.
When it comes to the Yellowknife chapter, five of the 17 entered into the main event with the other dozen battling it out in the Born Hairy. Of the quintet duking it out for the belt, James McKay had the best result as he finished in a tie for 34th overall. The top Yellowknife finisher on the Born Hairy was Jim Karhut who tied for 13th place and that’s significant as Morris explained.
“Anyone who finishes in the top 16 on the Born Hairy automatically qualifies to play in the next year’s main event,” he said.
In addition to the fun and frolic of the 36 holes of golf, there were side events, including what’s called the Kinda Close to the Pin Competition. That’s open to any player at the world championship who won a Kinda Close sticker during the season. Hughie Graham was the hope for Yellowknife and sure enough, Graham would emerge victorious as his shot ended up a mere 5 ft., 1 in. from the cup.
Of course, there was a bit of humour behind it, said Morris.
“It happens after the first round and every player gets one shot,” said Morris. “It was a par-3 104-yard hole — Hughie and Diego Esquibel, one of our good friends from the Albequerque chapter in New Mexico, decided to hit their shots at the same time.”
And so ends another year of the MGA in Yellowknife, one which finished later than usual due to the evacuations earlier this year.
Morris said there isn’t much to be done during the off-season except hurry up and wait for 2024.
“It’s the usual long, cold winter blues now, but that’s where we live,” he said. “We got to play three tournaments in October and that’s something you don’t do in Yellowknife. We had a great season and we’ll be back next year.”