The Canadian North Midnight Classic is the showpiece tournament at the Yellowknife Golf Club each year, but there’s another tournament which brings out a huge crowd to help wind things down each season.
And it’s all done by the pale moonlight.
The Midwest Property Management Glo-Ball Tournament featured a grand total of 236 golfers teeing it up over two nights of play on Sept. 15 and 16 at the club. As the title of the tournament indicates, the balls are glow-in-the-dark so people can actually see where their shots end up. The top of each flagpole at each hole is also lit up in order for players to have something to aim at.
Kylie Frederick, the club’s head pro and director of golf operations, said while the evacuation played havoc with the normal schedule, this tournament actually happened on the dates it was supposed to happen.
“It was nice to be able to have it on the original date and both nights were pretty full,” she said.
If you’ve played in the tournament before, you’ll probably wonder why a second night was added.
Frederick said it’s all part of the club’s 75th anniversary, which has been ongoing all this season.
“We wanted to try something new this year,” she said. “The Midnight Classic is the big one at the start of the season and the Glo-Ball is kind of the finale, so we wanted to keep the momentum of this season going. We were just lucky to be able to accommodate everyone on both nights.”
Each team of four was placed on either the front nine or back nine on each night and played just the nine holes in their section. Both nights featured a shotgun start at around 9 p.m. to ensure the sun was good and gone for the day. The shotgun start meant each team teed off at a pre-determined hole and played their round from that point.
“We did it that way to keep things fair — it is the longest nine holes of the season,” said Frederick with a laugh. “It was smoky on the first night, but the (Northern) lights came out on the second night and made for a beautiful evening.”
Each night had two sets of winners — the front nine winners on night one were Lonnie Zoe, Jasper Mantla, Casper Mantla and Rusty Mantla, while the back nine champs were Devin Hinchey, Chad Hinchey, Aaron Plotner and Garrett Hinchey. Night two’s winners were Shaun Morris, Hughie Graham, Kevin Hewitt and Ryan Sheppard on the front nine and Dwayne Simmons, Roger Mann, Dan Rintoul and Steve Thompson on the back nine.
Next up is the Club Championships which begin on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. That tournament determines the best players at the club with the bonus prize of a prime parking spot in front of the pro shop for the 2024 season for each of the winners.
